Outdoor: Shoes, ropes, belay devices, and innovations

The 2017 edition of the Outdoor in Friedrichshafen was the most impressive out of all 8a have visited. There is a strong feeling that the climbing industry is doing well and that everyone wants to have a bite of the cake and it is especially about shoes for different segments. Both Black Diamond and Wild Country launched their shoe line and most of the the established shoe producers presented new models with a greater focus on comfortable gym shoes, female shoes as well as more extreme softer shoes. Just on Outdoor there were about a dozen shoe brands presented. A logical next step for the manufacturers would probably be to continue this trend of comfort to produce a hybrid shoe in between a normal running and a climbing shoe that you never take off during the whole gym session including coffee break. For the kids, La Sportiva has already done it with their climbing sandals for kids where you also get stickers and Ondra cartoons in a package. Many producers also presented their new or updated semi-locking belay device. In practice, this means safer and possibly also cheaper semi-locking device that will push traditional belay gear out of the market. When it comes to innovations, the scary Escaper from Beal where you can first rapell and then pull down the full 60 meter length of your rope was most extreme. Other than that Edelrid did, as always, present some cool new things. Tendon has a new technology TeFIX which permanently bonds the sheath to the core. We will present more details later of everything that was interesting at Outdoor.