After leaving yet another gear store disgruntled, I finally
decided to start this blog. I can’t complain too much as I know the generation
of women before me had it a lot worse. There have been some great improvements
in women’s gear over the years.
I wanted to provide a place to incite discussion among
adventurous women about topics ranging from travelling as a female, doing crazy
outdoor things, and getting the best gear to go along with these adventures.
Also, I just wanted a place talk about my own experiences, vent my own
frustrations, and rave about the good things out there for women.
I’m a woman who loves the outdoors. While I am by no means
an expert at anything, I am willing to try many things and have improved some
of my technical skills over the years. Also, I travel alone to foreign
countries quite frequently. Both of these things make useful gear something I
desire and look for. So, on many trips to outdoor stores this summer, I have become
disappointed when the women’s options were just not matching up to the men’s
practical clothing. Since when did organic cotton with flowers on it compare to
a nice form fitting synthetic button up with zipper pockets? GAH! I am all for
fashionable clothing, but have these companies considered that you can make
clothing items fashionable AND functional? Every now and then I find a hybrid
of sorts, but it never quite matches all of the characteristics of the men’s
clothing.
Here are a few things that I look for in travel/outdoor
clothes:
Quick drying material
This is practical on both the travelling and outdoor fronts.
When travelling I often wash my clothes in a sink, so it is great when they can
get dry overnight. Sorry, organic cotton doesn’t do this. The fact that the
cotton is organic does not make it dry quicker than regular cotton. Secondly,
these quick dry materials are great for backpacking and hiking and climbing. I
love material that dries quickly after sweating or stomping through a stream.
Seriously, it’s great.
Pockets
I just wanna store my crap some place. Guess what, I am not
going to carry a purse while going on a hike. Wait, I don’t want to carry a
purse in general. What a retarded concept. Plus, when I am travelling around a foreign
town, or running from plane to plane, carrying a purse just seems like it would
be easy to lose. I want to keep my passport in a zipper pocket close to me.
Money belts just don’t cut it. They look kind of silly and are a big burden.
Plus, money belts can be easily snapped right off of you. In later posts I will
talk about some of my personal ways to ward of pickpocketing along with ways
around carrying a purse (which can easily be lifted from a table or snatched
from your shoulders as I saw happen to another women right across a street from
me). Ultimately, though, I still struggle to find fashionable women’s travel
clothing with pockets.
Pockets while running are nice too. During longer runs it’s
nice to stick GU’s somewhere. Also I like to bring along a few bucks and my bus
pass when I go out on really long runs. It would be crazy awesome to have a
little pocket in running shorts for this.
Durability
I wear the hell out of my clothes, so it is nice to buy
something I know I can depend on. I seem to have problems with seams busting
out in pants and zippers going bad. While I realize some stores have a lifetime
guarantee, it doesn’t help me when I am on the road and only have two pairs of
pants. Really, I just want something reliable.
Fit
Comfort and fit are pretty important to me when doing
athletic activities. I like to be able to move around and not feel constrained,
but at the same time I don’t need to look like a frumpy sack of potatoes.
Unfortunately since I have a petite build, I usually end up looking like a sack
of potatoes. I use belts with my ski pants, and I am constantly pulling up my
travel pants. I think it would be okay to add a little bit of shape to women’s
clothing. We do have hips, and our legs have shape as well. It might be
beneficial to fit clothing a bit more to women’s builds. I am not asking for
skin-tight skinny jeans, but I don’t need to be wearing something that
resembles a potato sack.
Fashion
Personally, I am not way into fashion. However, I enjoy
looking nice. By nice, I mean not wearing a blue synthetic shirt with pink
flower patterns all over it with potato sack pants. Seriously. I searched for ages for a nice base
layer synthetic tank with a built in bra that I could throw on for travel or
for hiking, and all I could find was crap with flowers on it. Do the companies
who make these shirts really think I want to travel around the world wearing a
shirt a seven year old might choose? What’s even worse is the quality of many
of the tanks was quite poor given the cost. Why is it so hard to find a women’s
travel tank top that looks even slightly mature or classy? I do not need to
assert my femininity with a giant flower on my boob thank you very much.
Why is it that my boyfriend gets to choose from the classy
chocolate brown slacks with zipper pockets and a sleek form fitting blue button
up with a hidden passport pocket and I get to choose between potato sack
slacks, a travel dress with a single zipper pocket that is long enough for an
ultra religious group, a cotton dress with some pockets, or a synthetic skirt
with no pockets. Can the designers do any better than that? There have got to
be some better options here.
I am on the lookout, and I plan to give praise to the
companies that are doing it right.
