YETI might still be synonymous with indestructible coolers and enormous insulated mugs, but quietly, its bag range has become almost as extensive.

The company makes backpacks for the daily commute, waterproof packs designed to be soaked, proper hiking bags, wheeled luggage, duffels, and little crossbody bags for the handful of things you don't want rattling around in your pockets.

Shop all YETI bags

I've been using and testing YETI gear for years, and if there's one trait that carries across almost everything the brand makes, it's that YETI rarely does delicate.

Its bags tend to be substantial, heavily built and considerably more expensive than the generic equivalent, but they're also designed for people who expect their gear to take a beating.

Below, I have collected nine bags from YETI's current collection that I would recommend for everyday activities, travelling, hiking and other outdoor activities.

Everyday

Outdoor

Travel

Snow Peak knows a thing or two about making a campsite feel less like somewhere you are temporarily surviving and more like an outdoor living room, while South Korea’s Helinox has spent years figuring out how to make furniture disappear into a surprisingly small bag.

Putting the two together makes a lot of sense, and that is exactly what happened with the Snow Peak x Helinox Noga Chair, the first collaboration between the two outdoor brands.

Snow Peak says that the Noga is based on the Helinox Chair One, the model which originally launched in 2012 and helped popularise the now-familiar combination of a shock-corded aluminium frame and fabric sling seat.

However, the Japanese company has altered the formula considerably, prioritising the sort of long, leisurely sitting that makes more sense around a campsite than when shaving every gram from a hiking pack.

A bigger Chair One built for staying put

The most obvious change is the frame, which uses DAC aluminium alloy tubing with a thicker diameter than the standard Helinox design, giving the Noga a more planted feel while retaining the familiar collapsible construction.

The seat has been widened, too, and Snow Peak has also adjusted the height to fit the brand's preferred low-style camping setup.

The finished camping chair measures 590mm wide, 520mm deep, and 700mm tall, so it offers noticeably more room to settle into, while padded sections around the arm contact points are designed to take some pressure off during longer periods of sitting.

At 1.4kg, this certainly isn't chasing the ultralight crowd, but it still packs into a reasonably compact 380 x 120 x 140mm bundle.

The carry bag is permanently stitched into the seat, so you have one less piece of camping equipment to lose, and once the Noga is assembled, that same bag becomes a storage pocket.

Mesh pockets on either side can accommodate a 500ml water bottle, and are equally handy for a phone, torch, or whatever else you want within grabbing distance.

By the way, the name Noga comes from the Japanese word nogake, meaning heading out into nature and spending time there, which neatly sums up a chair designed to encourage you to stop moving for a while.

The Snow Peak x Helinox Noga Chair costs £150 (~$202 / €175 / ) in the UK and is available now directly from Snow Peak.

There is something particularly convincing about outdoor clothing that looks as though it existed long before you discovered it.

Gramicci’s latest jacket nails that aesthetic without resorting to oversized logos, artificial patches or any of the other usual shortcuts.

The Gramicci x thisisneverthat Washed Wind Jacket is part of the third collaboration between the Californian climbing-inspired brand and cult South Korean streetwear label thisisneverthat.

To my delight, it looks like something you might have spotted halfway down the page of a climbing catalogue in the early 1990s.

That is largely thanks to the navy check fabric, which combines muted blues with thin reddish-brown lines.

The slightly crinkled finish, contrasting light-coloured hood lining and old-school hardware only add to the impression that this thing has somehow survived untouched for the past three decades.

It hasn't, of course. Gramicci and thisisneverthat have deliberately created the effect using a cotton-nylon ripstop fabric that has been pigment dyed and acid washed, producing the slightly faded, worn-in appearance straight from the box.

Old-school looks, proper outdoor DNA

Gramicci can trace its roots back to the Californian climbing scene, while Seoul-based thisisneverthat has built much of its appeal around reworking American outdoor, sportswear and streetwear references through a distinctly Korean lens.

For their third collection together, the brands say they took familiar Gramicci ideas around movement, functionality, and climbing and put them through thisisneverthat's vintage-inspired filter.

The resulting range deliberately occupies the increasingly blurry space between outdoor clothing and city wear, which is exactly where Gramicci thrives.

The Washed Wind Jacket might be one of the clearest examples of that approach because, underneath all the nostalgia, it remains a fairly straightforward piece of functional outerwear.

It has a two-way front zip, elasticated cuffs and hem, a drawcord-adjustable hood and zipped hand pockets, while the cut is described as a regular fit rather than an exaggerated streetwear silhouette.

The wider collection includes Pertex insulated jackets, a reversible fleece vest, patterned knitwear, faded striped T-shirts and denim climbing trousers.

One of my favourite items is a particularly fetching pair of Pertex earflap caps, with all items in the range carrying varying amounts of the same slightly weathered, archive-inspired character.

At a time when technical outdoor clothing increasingly means ultra-clean fabrics and bonded seams, there is something wonderfully refreshing about a jacket designed to look like it has already accompanied someone on a few questionable climbing trips.

The Gramicci x thisisneverthat Washed Wind Jacket is available now from Gramicci UK in Navy, priced at £170 (~£230 / €198 / AU$320), with UK sizes S to XL listed at the time of writing.

The wider collection is also available now, with prices from £50 (~$67 / €58 / AU$94).

After months of reaching for T-shirts, the temperature is finally heading the other way, which means one of my favourite pieces of outdoor clothing is coming back into rotation.

I’ve been testing outdoor gear for nearly a decade, and while the basic idea behind the best fleece jackets hasn’t changed much, the category itself has become surprisingly varied.

You can still buy the thick, fluffy retro-style fleeces many of us picture when we hear the word, but there are also highly breathable grid fleeces for moving fast in the mountains, ultralight active insulation, natural wool alternatives and increasingly sophisticated designs that look just as comfortable in town as they do on the trail.

With that in mind, I’ve picked eight of the jackets and midlayers that stand out to me in 2026, covering everything from technical Polartec to Sasquatch-covered pile.

Patagonia Nano-Air Light Jacket

£230 | Patagonia

Patagonia is one of the biggest names in fleece, so naturally I’ve chosen something that technically isn’t one. The Nano-Air Light swaps conventional fleece for 40g FullRange synthetic insulation, sandwiched between stretchy, air-permeable recycled polyester fabrics.

The idea is to provide enough warmth when you slow down without immediately becoming unbearably hot when you start working hard again. It weighs just 332g, has an articulated cut for freedom of movement and can even stuff into its own chest pocket.

For hiking, scrambling and other stop-start autumn adventures, it’s a fascinating alternative to simply throwing on another fleece.

Peak Performance Freelight AOP Polartec Alpha Half Zip

£160 £80 | Peak Performance

Polartec Alpha was originally developed as active insulation, and the Freelight AOP Half Zip demonstrates why the material has become such an interesting alternative to conventional fleece.

Peak Performance uses an exposed Polartec Alpha Direct knit that provides insulation while staying exceptionally breathable and quick-drying, making it the sort of layer I’d reach for when I know I’m going to generate plenty of heat.

The half-zip lets you dump even more warmth when required, while its unusual all-over pattern gives it considerably more personality than most technical midlayers.

Klättermusen Balderus Jacket

£260 | Klättermusen

Synthetic fleece dominates outdoor clothing, making the new Balderus one of the most interesting jackets on this list. Klättermusen has instead used a dense fleece made from recycled Italian wool, creating a substantial 575g layer designed for cold-weather hiking and mountain use.

Nylon reinforcement is added to exposed areas to improve durability and provide extra wind protection, while the construction retains freedom of movement when climbing or reaching.

This isn't the fleece I’d choose for fast-and-light missions, but when warmth takes priority, the heavyweight wool construction offers something genuinely different from the sea of polyester alternatives.

Mountain Hardwear Polartec Power Grid Full Zip Hoody

$190 (~£140) | Mountain Hardwear

If your idea of a fleece involves mountains rather than coffee shops, Mountain Hardwear’s Polartec Power Grid Full Zip Hoody is probably the most technical option on this list.

The gridded construction is designed to trap warmth while helping moisture move away from the body, which is exactly what I want from a midlayer when I’m hiking hard in cooler weather.

It also has a fitted three-piece hood, thumb holes, stretch panels, and zipped hand and chest pockets, while the relatively slim fit makes it easy to layer under a shell. At 427g, it provides plenty of substance without becoming excessively bulky.

Haglöfs Buteo Mid II Jacket

£70 | Haglöfs

Not every good fleece needs an elaborate fabric technology, unusual construction or premium price tag. The new Haglöfs Buteo Mid II is a refreshingly straightforward full-zip fleece that does exactly what most people need a midlayer to do.

The latest version uses lightweight Polartec Micro Series fleece made from 100% recycled polyester, which is designed to dry quickly, manage moisture and provide warmth without too much weight. At around 300g, it should also disappear easily beneath a waterproof shell.

I particularly like the new Standard Issue Black colourway, which gives the Buteo a clean, uncomplicated appearance that should work pretty much anywhere.

KAVU Teannaway Fleece

£80 | Kavu

Technical outdoor clothing is becoming increasingly serious, which is precisely why I like KAVU’s Teannaway.

This is fleece in its most gloriously old-school form, with 7.5oz fabric, reinforced taffeta elbow panels, a kangaroo-style pass-through pocket and the sort of colourful patterns that make minimalist Scandinavian outdoor clothing look positively miserable.

My pick is the wonderfully named Sasquatch Sighting, which is covered in sunglasses-wearing Bigfoots wandering through the wilderness.

KAVU describes the Teannaway as its bestselling fleece, and it isn't difficult to understand the appeal. It’s warm, uncomplicated and, most importantly, doesn’t take itself remotely seriously.

Montbell CLIMAPLUS Shearling Jacket

£145 | Montbell

Montbell is famous for pursuing its “Light & Fast” philosophy, but the CLIMAPLUS Shearling Jacket demonstrates that the Japanese outdoor specialist isn't afraid of something a little more substantial.

Its thick synthetic CLIMAPLUS fleece has a wool-like texture and is backed by a smooth 40-denier nylon taffeta lining, which helps block wind far more effectively than an ordinary porous fleece.

That construction pushes the weight to 594g, but it also makes the CLIMAPLUS feel more like a proper standalone autumn jacket than a midlayer destined to spend its life underneath a shell.

On Ascent Fleece Jacket

£180 | On

On might still be best known for running shoes, but its increasingly ambitious clothing range has produced one of my favourite-looking fleeces here.

The Ascent Fleece avoids the exaggerated pile and colourful contrast panels normally associated with retro outdoor clothing, instead opting for a restrained design, tonal embroidered logo and subtle reinforced elbow patches.

Underneath the clean appearance is On’s lightweight ThermaTec thermal fabric, while an adjustable hem and elasticated cuffs help keep warmth in. It’s fairly substantial at 530g, so this isn't an ultralight performance piece, but that almost misses the point.

There’s something deeply funny about buying a £115 pair of trainers that already look as though they’ve survived several years of skate sessions, particularly when someone has also gone to the trouble of decorating them with pearls.

Yet that is essentially the proposition behind Vans’ latest Premium Old Skool 36.

It takes the familiar low-top silhouette, gives the upper a deliberately distressed finish, then covers parts of the shoe in pearl and crystal embellishments.

Vans says the idea is to evoke a “well-travelled shoe” that has been reworked and customised over time.

The newest addition to the Premium Old Skool 36 collection is the wonderfully chaotic Yacht Club colourway, which combines green, blue, red and yellow panels with an off-white Sidestripe and matching pearl detailing.

According to Vans, the colour blocking is inspired by sailing flags from around the world and mixes those nautical references with the spirit of 1990s sportswear.

Vans is expanding the range throughout autumn with Lime Pop, Navy, Black/Marshmallow and Red versions, while the relatively restrained Marshmallow model is also returning.

The Pearlized treatment has actually appeared before, including previous Old Skool 36 releases and the sold-out OTW by Vans x Satoshi Nakamoto Pearlized Old Skool.

However, this is now becoming a much broader part of the Vans Premium line.

Style 36 debuted in 1977 as the company's second dedicated skate shoe and, importantly, was the first Vans model to wear the now-iconic Sidestripe.

It was renamed the Old Skool in the early 1990s and has since become one of the brand's defining designs.

The Premium version retains some of the sharper proportions of the original Style 36, including a shorter toe cap, but adds a padded collar, an upgraded footbed, a higher-gloss sidewall, and Sola Foam ADC cushioning.

You still get Vans' vulcanised construction and signature waffle outsole underneath.

The Yacht Club Premium Old Skool 36 Pearlized launches today, 10 September, for £115 in the UK, with Marshmallow also returning today.

In the US, Yacht Club is priced at $130 and also launches on 10 September through Vans and selected Vans stores.

EU and AU prices and availability TBC.

Few puffer jackets are as instantly recognisable as The North Face Nuptse, but the brand has now given its most famous down jacket a considerably more technical makeover.

For AW26, The North Face is taking its iconic puffer back towards those mountaineering roots with the new Summit Nuptse Jacket.

It's a far more technical take on the familiar design, built for climbing and mountaineering rather than commuting.

It still looks unmistakably like a Nuptse, with the oversized down-filled body and contrasting shoulder panel we've come to associate with the jacket.

However, instead of the relatively simple horizontal chambers of the classic Nuptse, the Summit model uses The North Face's Cloud Down technology, featuring an offset baffle construction that gives the down more space to loft while reducing cold spots.

Inside those chambers is 800-fill water-repellent ProDown, which should provide considerably more warmth for its weight at high altitudes.

The unusual-looking baffles aren't completely new territory for The North Face's Summit Series, with the bulkier Himalayan Down Parka using the same CLOUD DOWN construction.

Their appearance on the Nuptse, though, underscores how far this version has moved toward serious alpine use.

A Nuptse built for the mountains again

The yoke, collar and hood use Spectra ripstop, blending recycled nylon with ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethene fibres to improve abrasion resistance in areas likely to take a beating when you're climbing or wearing a pack.

The rest of the outer is made from lightweight 30g/m² recycled nylon, with both fabrics receiving a non-PFC durable water-repellent finish.

It also has an adjustable, climbing-helmet-compatible hood that packs into a zipped collar compartment when you don't need it.

The main Vislon zip works in both directions, letting climbers open the bottom of the jacket while wearing a harness.

The hand pockets sit in positions that make them easier to reach when geared up, and the jacket also has two internal mesh drop-in pockets, an internal hem cinch, FlashDry stretch-knit cuffs and a lightweight stuffsack.

Despite all that insulation, the Summit Nuptse has an average weight of 554g.

The Nuptse was originally developed as serious expedition clothing before gradually becoming one of the defining puffer jackets of streetwear.

With the Summit version, the Nuptse returns to the mountains where it belongs.

The Summit Nuptse Jacket is available now from The North Face UK for £540 in four colours.

It's listed as out of stock in the US, but it appears on the brand's European site for €600. AU price and availability TBC.

Garmin watches are discounted fairly regularly these days, but deals on the flagship Fenix range are still the ones that tend to make me pay attention.

Shop all Garmin deals at H.Samuel

This one especially caught my eye, as H.Samuel has taken a huge chunk off the price of its exclusive version of the Garmin Fenix 8, bringing one of the best Garmin watches down into considerably more approachable territory.

The model in question is the 47mm Garmin Fenix 8 with an AMOLED display, slate grey finish and black silicone band. H.Samuel specifically describes it as an exclusive colourway, and it carries the model number 010-02904-01.

That's worth pointing out because Garmin's regular slate grey and black 47mm AMOLED model uses a slightly different 010-02904-00 model number. Visually, the distinction between the two is certainly subtle, but if you want this particular H.Samuel version, you won't find the exact same SKU everywhere else.

More importantly, you aren't getting a cut-down version of the Fenix 8. This is Garmin's full-fat adventure watch, complete with its bright AMOLED touchscreen, built-in LED flashlight, speaker and microphone, offline maps and multi-band GPS.

It also offers the enormous selection of sports, training and recovery features that has made the Fenix series such a firm favourite among runners, cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts. Training Readiness, Training Status, advanced workout tools and navigation features are all present, while the 10 ATM water rating and dive functionality mean it's built for significantly more than tracking the occasional 5K.

Battery life is another major reason I'd still choose a Fenix over most conventional smartwatches. Garmin quotes up to 16 days in smartwatch mode for the 47mm AMOLED version, or seven days with the always-on display enabled.

There is now a newer Fenix 8 Pro in Garmin's line-up, but the big additions there are LTE and satellite connectivity. If you don't need to send messages or trigger an SOS without your phone, the standard Fenix 8 remains an incredibly capable multisport watch.

I've seen the regular Fenix 8 47mm fall close to this price before, but I haven't found this particular H.Samuel-exclusive model cheaper.

The Garmin Fenix 8 Exclusive Colour 47mm is available from H.Samuel for £549.99, down from £789.99, which works out as a saving of £240 or 30%.

Ripstop fabric is usually chosen because it’s tough, lightweight and practical, but Snow Peak’s new KASURI Ripstop collection proves it can look pretty special, too.

Part of the Japanese brand’s Autumn/Winter 2026 range, the new garments consist of a jacket, shirt and trousers made from technical ripstop fabric with an unusual dye treatment that makes the familiar grid pattern much more prominent.

The result looks particularly good in Dark Purple, with a slightly washed, textured appearance that feels much less clinical than the flat colours typically associated with technical nylon.

Snow Peak says the idea is inspired by traditional Japanese kasuri weaving.

The material is dyed using a process that keeps the reinforcement threads from taking up colour the same way as the surrounding fabric.

Those threads therefore remain subtly lighter, allowing the ripstop structure to show through.

It gives the material an almost woven quality from a distance, while retaining the durability you'd expect from ripstop.

Technical clothing without the technical look

The KASURI Ripstop Jacket is probably the most obviously outdoorsy piece in the collection.

It gets a large main storage pocket with smaller compartments layered over it, while a substantial ventilation panel runs across the rear to help release heat when you're moving.

That rear vent carries over to the KASURI Ripstop Shirt, which has a roomy fit designed to accommodate layers underneath.

Snow Peak has also added a side utility pocket, turning what initially looks like a fairly simple overshirt into something much more suited to camping, hiking and travelling.

The KASURI Ripstop Pants continue the same functional approach, with a large main pocket supported by smaller storage compartments and adjustable drawcords at the hems.

Snow Peak's Japanese product information also specifies ventilation around the waist to help heat escape.

The KASURI Ripstop collection is part of Snow Peak's Autumn-Winter 2026 collection and is now available from Snow Peak UK in Dark Purple, Light Blue and Black, in sizes S to XL.

The shirt costs £150, the trousers £145 and the jacket £180.

If, when you hear the words “Suunto” and “watch” in the same sentence, your brain automatically fills in the letters “GPS,” we should clear something up: the Suunto Core 2 isn’t a GPS watch, or a smartwatch or any kind; it’s an outdoor watch.

Can’t all watches be worn outdoors, you ask? Well, yes, but this watch offers quite a bit more than the old Casio that you used to time your track workouts in days gone by…and a lot less than other Suunto models like the Vertical 2, Race 2 or 9 Peak Pro. So what’s it all about?

The Suunto Core 2 is the upgraded version of the Finnish brand’s original ABC watch (that stands for Altimeter, Barometer, Compass), which came out back in 2007. With those tools, you can use it for basic navigation and telling time, but nothing more.

Now granted, the original release was four years before the first Garmin watch came out, and it was the same year that the very first iPhone was released, so we can forgive them for not thinking of adding GPS capability, a heart rate monitor or an AMOLED screen back then.

Fast forward to 2026, however, and Suunto still hasn’t budged on those details. The Suunto Core 2 is still geared towards bushcraft enthusiasts, and the key upgrades include a higher-contrast LED dot-matrix screen, red and green backlight, storm alerts, Bluetooth, a simple step counter, moon phase tracking and a more durable build. You can sync it with your Suunto app for updates, but the app itself won’t show any data.

It’s a rugged outdoor watch, and it’s clearly aimed at those who want to properly get off grid when they head out into the wild, but also quite like having a few field tools at their disposal without digging around in their backpack.

I’ve tested quite a few Suunto watches, and the Vertical 2 is one of my favourite GPS watches ever, but I have to admit to being a bit stumped when this arrived. I’ve grown to really appreciate the merits of a good GPS watch for hiking in recent years (hello, Garmin Fenix 8 and aforementioned Suunto Vertical 2).

Without colour maps and tracking, was there really enough here to get my teeth into? Over the past month, I’ve had it out in the hills of western Scotland and the trails of Chamonix to see if I can appreciate a simpler approach to adventure watches.

Suunto Core 2 review

Price and availability

The Suunto Core 2 was released in July with an MSRP of £155 / $199 / €199 and is available in one colour: black. At this time, it seems to be sold out on Suunto’s website, but it is available on Amazon.

The price is a substantial discount from the original Suunto Core, which had an MSRP of £199, although that’s now generously discounted thanks to the new release.

It doesn’t really make sense to compare this to the pricing of a GPS watch, I know, but I do think it’s worth pointing out that these days you can find fully loaded smartwatches like the Amazfit Bip 6 much cheaper at under £80, while you can get your hands on Garmin models like the Instinct 2 or Forerunner 55 for under £150, so I can’t make a case for buying this for economic reasons alone.

The fairest comparison is the Casio Pro Trek PRG 270-1, which is a little pricier at £184 and also a no-frills ABC watch.

Design and build quality

Back in 2007, I was living on the Upper East Side on New York and my outdoor adventures tended to revolve around taking the train to Long Island, so I never had the opportunity to test the original Core. Therefore, my comparisons here are based on the information from Suunto, but the upgraded model is very well built with a large 48mm display made using reinforced composite with a rotating stainless steel bezel.

The 1.3” Corning Gorilla Glass display is an upgrade over its predecessor’s mineral crystal, and is apparently 40% brighter, but I must admit I find it really quite dim during daylight hours. This isn’t helped by the fact that I only seem to be able to get it to light up for five seconds at a time.

The silicone strap sits comfortably on my wrist and has lots of adjustability, but the case sits quite proud of my wrist at a chunky 14.84mm thick, making it difficult to wear with long sleeves. It looks the part of a tactical, rugged adventure watch and therefore also looks quite silly on my small wrist. Given that it’s not packed with tech, it seems to me they could make a smaller and slimmer version available, but what do I know about watch-making?

It has five buttons, much like a Garmin: one to turn on the backlight (which annoyingly only works for a few seconds), a back button, one to switch between the outdoor modes (Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, and Tools) and the final two to toggle up and down. It’s reasonably intuitive, but I couldn’t help wondering why a watch that does so little needs so many buttons?

App compatibility

The Core 2 is designed to work independently of the Suunto app, but it has Bluetooth, so you can pair it. As far as I can tell, this allows you to easily change the time when you move into a different time zone, and lets you run software updates; however, after a hike or run, there is no record in the newsfeed, so if you’re looking for a more distraction-free approach to metrics, you might prefer a fitness band like the Garmin Cirqa or Amazfit Helio Strap.

Field tools

The three main tools to explore are the altimeter, barometer and compass. As a hiker, I rely on an altimeter quite a bit, especially if I end up climbing in thick fog and want to gauge how close I am to the top.

It’s useful, but the one on my Core 2 started giving me inaccurate readings, first telling me I was at 329 metres above sea level when I was at home in Glasgow, which is roughly 64 metres (210 feet) above sea level.

I manually updated it, but the next day it said I was 29 metres below sea level. After a software update, it now shows accurately, but it strikes me that in a more rudimentary watch, the exact thing I want to be free of is bugs and software fixes.

Meanwhile, the barometer, which isn’t something I typically use, seems to be roughly in line with my Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Suunto Vertical 2 watches. I really like the idea of the storm alerts, which detect sudden drops in air pressure and sound an alarm, but sadly I haven’t received one yet.

The compass was reasonably easy to calibrate the first time, and seemed to hold calibration well until I did the software update. It has a small orienteering arrow at the top of the display, a digital magnetic needle that appears when the compass is in use, and two glow-in-the-dark lines (that aren’t very visible in the dark) on the rotating bezel that serve as the Direction of Travel Arrow.

It’s all fairly straightforward to figure out if you’re used to using a compass. However, when my slightly long-sighted partner tried it, he found that he couldn’t see the arrows at all, which is an issue.

After several years of using a GPS watch to navigate, I felt a little rusty, so I first took a bearing with my Silva Expedition compass to remind myself of the steps, then replicated it with the watch, and was pleased to see it was pretty accurate.

That said, I don’t think it’s a true replacement for a see-through compass that you can place on a map for really precise navigation, more a handy backup in a pinch. Because the screen only lights up for a few seconds, I also question how useful it would be compared to a regular compass and headtorch when navigating at night.

Speaking of the new display, it lets you choose between red and green backlight. Thanks to recent upgrades in GPS watches like the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Amazfit T-Rex Ultra 2, both of which have a green light option in the torch, I now understand the difference: red light is kinder on your eyes; green light makes it easier to see obstacles.

I’m not sure this is as useful in a backlight versus a torch, and on the Core 2, the difference is nearly indistinguishable to my eyes in daylight, but at night the display is much easier to see (if only it would stay lit). Maybe they should forget about display options and add a torch instead?

The main display shows useful information like the temperature, and I love being able to see sunset and sunrise times, particularly now that the days are starting to shrink.

Honestly, my favourite thing about this watch is having the moon phases on my wrist – I love being outdoors at night during the full moon, and I can see this being helpful information for fishing, too.

Health and fitness tracking

Without a heart rate or blood oxygen monitor, there’s not much tracking the Core 2 can do, but it does have a basic step counter. Because the Suunto app doesn’t log any activity data, it’s a little hard for me to compare the steps with another watch, but the total steps from a recent trail run were on par with what I’d expect for the distance.

Battery life

If I sound a little nonplussed about this watch, it’s because I am, but it has one clear advantage over GPS watches: you never have to charge it. Ever. This Core 2 is powered by a CR3032 coin cell battery for a mammoth 15 months, at which point I expect to receive an alert telling me to change it. That is all. No range panic here, thank you.

Verdict

In a world where we expect the kitchen sink from our watches, it’s a little difficult not to view the Suunto Core 2 as lacking. Taken on its own, it mostly does what it says, even if the screen is quite dim and the compass is only for those with 20/20 vision.

Clearly, I’m not the target audience for this watch, but I still have a hard time imagining who might be. The people in my life who hate the thought of a constantly buzzing watch and much prefer analogue adventures would probably prefer using a regular watch and an actual compass.

But if you’re a bushcraft enthusiast in the market for a tough watch with some tools that let you leave your phone at home and don’t mind paying more than you would for a basic smartwatch, I’d say this is one of only two options out there.

Also consider

If you’re looking for a more basic adventure watch, I’d actually recommend you check out the Coros Nomad, which doesn’t give you annoying notifications or an obnoxiously bright screen, but does have the addition of colour maps.

Black outdoor clothing may look roughly the same, but making it is far less standardised than you might think.

Haglöfs and Polartec are trying to change that with Standard Issue Black, a single shared shade of black designed to reduce unnecessary resource use in producing enormous quantities of almost-identical dark outdoor clothing.

As a proof of concept, Haglöfs has launched the Buteo Mid II Jacket, its first commercially available product made using fabric dyed in Standard Issue Black, alongside a couple of accessories, including scarves and hats.

Outdoor companies produce tens of thousands of black fleece garments every year, but each slightly different shade can require a separate dye batch, chemical mix and minimum order quantity.

Standard Issue Black is pre-dyed at scale and, importantly, Haglöfs and Polartec aren't keeping it to themselves.

It's intended to be openly available to the wider industry, potentially allowing multiple manufacturers to draw from the same standardised material rather than commissioning their own marginally different blacks.

According to an internal production assessment cited by Haglöfs, the approach reduces water use by more than 50% and cuts energy consumption by at least 20% compared with traditional piece-dyed black fabrics.

Those figures are company-supplied rather than independently verified, but they illustrate why something as mundane as agreeing on a shade could have a meaningful impact at scale.

One black to rule them all

Haglöfs introduced the concept earlier this year with its Black Capsule, which combined three shades of leftover black fleece into individual garments to highlight just how similar these supposedly different fabrics can be.

With the Buteo Mid II, Haglöfs says it deliberately chose one of its higher-volume designs for the first Standard Issue Black product.

It has also upgraded the fleece jacket itself, with the new Buteo using lightweight Polartec microfleece made from 100% recycled polyester.

The full-zip jacket is designed to work either as an outer layer or as an insulating midlayer, so aesthetically there isn't anything particularly radical going on here.

By choosing one of its normal, high-volume outdoor garments, the brand made it clear it's not an eco concept piece for a museum display.

Of course, the effort is commendable, but a looming design question hangs over the project: would every outdoor company using exactly the same black make everything look even more alike?

Haglöfs' Head of Design and R&D, Eva Weiss, argues that standardisation doesn't need to restrict creativity, with brands still able to differentiate products through their cuts, other colours and design details while simplifying one particularly resource-heavy part of the process.

Whether other outdoor brands actually adopt Standard Issue Black is the bigger question.

But given how much black fleece the industry produces, this seemingly tiny change could become far more important if enough companies agree to use it.

The Haglöfs Buteo Mid II Jacket in Standard Issue Black is available now at Haglöfs UK and Haglöfs EU for a remarkably low price of £70 / €70 (~$81 / AU$113).

Hypershell took to the Innovation Stage at IFA Berlin to unveil its latest exoskeleton, the Flagship Hypershell Halo, which introduces a four-motor system that covers the movement of your knees in addition to your hips.

Instead of bolting powered knees onto the Hypershell X-series, they went back to the drawing board and built Halo from the ground up. “We didn’t simply add powered knees to an existing hip exoskeleton,” said Hypershell CEO Kelvin Sun. “We redesigned the architecture, power system, and the intelligence around the entire lower body, so four powered joints can move as one with the user.”

The addition of the knee motors allows power to flow through almost the full range of motion as you walk, run, climb and jump. Hypershell is calling this new approach its “Unified Architecture” and it promises to provide active knee support which helps to relieve load on the knee joints through effort reduction, which is promised to reduce muscle fatigue in the knees by up to 40% during squatting motion. One area where I can see this being especially helpful is during long descents and climbing, where load bearing on the knees is a particular challenge.

“Technology shouldn’t replace human potential. It should unleash it,” said Hypershell’s Toby Knisely in his keynote presentation. And to demonstrate, he brought out three models to walk (and jump) through a staged scenario where a photographer conducted a content shoot with all of them wearing the Hypershell Halo while on an outdoor trip.

The point was that in a scenario like this, not only do the models who are hiking get to save energy for their poses, the photographer who’s carrying heavy kit and continuously crouching to get good angles is also able to endure for longer and get that extra shot. That’s the concept at least.

What really piqued my interest, though, was the motion capture reel that they played afterwards. Hypershell has worked with a motion capture studio to put the new Hypershell Halo through over 10,000 hours of testing. In the video, two mocap actors perform some basic stunts, including fight choreography, jumping onto and off large blocks and doing a range of flips.

I was impressed by the range of motion that the Halo was capable of. The actors didn't visibly hold back and appeared very comfortable using its full 198° of lateral movement and up to 167° of front-to-back motion, enabled by its “Fish-Spine Adaptive Joint” at each hip.

More than just a power upgrade

The introduction of the Hypershell Halo represents more than just a power upgrade, it comes with some extra benefits that move Hypershell further ahead of the competition. But in terms of power, its four motors output a combined 1,490W, with each knee unit weighing just 170g.

Knisely revealed that Halo can hit a maximum 17km/h, the equivalent of a 2.5h marathon pace. The improvement in power is thanks to a re-engineered electromagnetic system and magnesium alloy housing. The whole Halo tips the scales at 2.6kg, folds down to fit into a medium-sized 8L briefcase and is rated to IP54 standard for dust and water resistance.

Halo is compatible with large backpacks, so it can be worn on a proper hike. It also sees the introduction of HyperIntuition 2.0, Hypershell’s updated AI motion control brain. This is a specialised system of neural networks trained on 10,000 hours of motion data that work together utilising signals from the Halo’s sensor array.

HyperIntuition 2.0 claims to predict your next move roughly 200 milliseconds in advance and provide adjusted assistance up to 2,500 times a second. But it’s not just predictive, it’s designed to learn from the user and, if it works as intended, will learn how you move and provide bespoke support for your movement.

Power in your pocket

Alongside the Halo, the company also showed off the all-new PocketVolt battery, a compact boost unit that packs 72Wh into a pocketable 370g unit, which should be good for up to a stated 20km of range. It features a display to let you check your assistance level and remaining power, and it can be charged separately from the Halo, making it easy for hikers to carry multiple batteries for extended trips without adding any additional bulk to the exoskeleton itself.

Hypershell also introduced Shelly, its AI-powered app that you can download and use for free, allowing you to talk to the exoskeleton directly. This means users can make adjustments, plan routes through natural conversation without having to occupy hands or remove gloves. It claims it's the world’s first dedicated consumer exoskeleton assistant, and it seems like yet another great point of difference within the rapidly growing exoskeleton segment.

Quick set up

To cap off his presentation, Knisely dared to put on the Hypershell Halo live on stage, after revealing that despite its additional straps and more complex construction, the Halo is still easy to put on and take off. Without breaking a sweat, he locked in the Hypershell Halo’s five straps from a cold start in exactly 16.14 seconds, just under four seconds shy of the time he said he’d achieved during rehearsals. It was one of the better product demos and keynotes I’ve seen this year, well rehearsed, quick and confident.

Lastly, Knisley revealed that existing X-series users will soon get updates including “Low Speed Enhance” for shorter strides and “Descent Assist”, which provides active knee damping for descents. He also shared details of its growing service centre network and 24/7 call support, which is now available in English, Arabic, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, with language support expected to continue expanding to more languages in the near future.

Founded in 2021, Hypershell is currently the leading consumer exoskeleton brand, representing 60% of the market. It’s present in 70+ countries with roughly 200 real-world experience and rental locations. These extra benefits announced alongside the Halo go some way to build on its market dominance as a brand by going beyond sales with a proper plan for after-market support for its customers.

Price and availability

The Hypershell Halo is available for pre-order now for £2,199 in the UK, $2,299 in the US and €2,299 in Europe and comes with a battery and the AeroFlex shoulder strap accessory. Halo also comes in a highly limited Origin Edition, numbered from 1-200, coming with extra power and an additional year of warranty.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about training his chest, you might expect the bench press to be his number-one exercise. Apparently not!

In a recent Instagram clip, the seven-time Mr Olympia winner runs through the frankly ridiculous amount of work that went into his chest sessions during his competitive bodybuilding years, including bench presses, incline presses, dumbbell presses, flyes, dips and cable crossovers.

But there was another exercise waiting at the end: the dumbbell pullover.

Schwarzenegger describes it in the clip as "my favourite exercise", recalling how he would lie across a bench with "a heavy dumbbell, like 100, 120-pound dumbbell" and perform "like, 50 reps".

The pullover is a forgotten bodybuilding exercise these days, though it was a staple of the Golden Era.

An article on Schwarzenegger's official website describes the cross-bench version as an exercise particularly associated with Arnold and his punishing double-split routines.

It's also not just bodybuilding nostalgia: research examining muscle activity during the pullover found that it activated both the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi, with the pecs showing greater activation in the study.

Schwarzenegger also mentions the old-school belief that pullovers could help "expand the rib cage".

While I adore the Austrian Oak, that's one claim I'd take with a considerably larger pinch of salt, as even a training article on his own website notes that the science doesn't really support it.

How to do Arnold Schwarzenegger's favourite chest exercise

Thankfully, you don't need to start by hoisting a 120lb (54kg) dumbbell over your head to do this move.

In fact, the pullover is one exercise where starting relatively light makes a lot of sense, particularly because the weight moves behind your head while your chest and shoulders are under a considerable stretch.

Lie flat on a stable weight bench with your head, neck and back supported and your feet planted firmly on the floor.

Hold a single dumbbell securely in both hands and position it above your chest with your arms extended and a slight bend in your elbows.

Brace your core and, without substantially changing the angle of your elbows, slowly lower the dumbbell backwards in an arc over your head.

Stop when you feel a strong but comfortable stretch through your chest and upper body rather than trying to force the dumbbell as low as possible.

From there, use your chest and back muscles to reverse the movement, bringing the dumbbell through the same arc until it is once again above your chest.

Keep the movement slow and controlled, and avoid turning it into a triceps extension by repeatedly bending and straightening your elbows.

A training guide on Schwarzenegger's official site (linked above) suggests 3–4 sets of 12–20 repetitions, focusing on the stretch, not the weight.

Working on your pecs? This 5-move pecs workout delivers maximum chest growth, and you certainly don't want to skip these 3 chest exercises to supersize your pecs.

Caravanning isn't normally associated with luxury. It's more about getting away from it all, squeezing your belongings into a box and hoping the campsite shower isn't too grim.

The Lume Ranger, built in the Netherlands, is a compact caravan designed to give you the freedom of towing a relatively small trailer without making you feel like you've sacrificed all the comforts of home.

At 5.19m long and 2.04m wide, the Ranger is small enough to be towed by a broad range of cars, while its 1,150kg unladen weight keeps things relatively manageable. It's also the smallest and lightest model in Lume Traveler's range.

The exterior is made from hand-riveted anodised aluminium, giving it a slightly retro, Airstream-like appearance. But the real surprise is inside.

There's a fixed queen-size bed, a dinette and a separate toilet area, while the interior gets proper teak flooring, felt-covered walls, linen curtains and leather detailing.

Then there's the roof. In its travelling configuration, the Ranger is just 2.19m tall, but the pop-up section raises the interior headroom to around 2.6m when you're parked up.

Lume has also taken an unusual approach to the kitchen. Rather than sacrificing precious interior space, the entire cooking area slides out from underneath the bed to create an outdoor kitchen, complete with a PITT gas burner, sink, fridge drawer and storage.

It's a clever use of the Ranger's limited footprint and makes considerably more sense if you're going to be spending most of your time outdoors anyway.

The Ranger is built to order and starts at €59,950, which works out at roughly $70,000 / £51,500. It's certainly not cheap for a caravan this size, but then this isn't really trying to compete with a conventional caravan.

The Lume Ranger looks like what you want if you need to go caravanning, but don't actually want to feel like you're caravanning.

Power stations didn’t used to be conversation starters at home, but since I started testing Bluetti’s Elite 400 unit, it’s hardly ever that people (well, men of a certain age) don’t comment on it when they visit us.

It’s one of the biggest portable power stations I’ve ever used, with a commanding 3,840Wh capacity. It weighs nearly 40 kg and comes with chunky transport wheels and a telescopic handle to make it easier to move around.

Surprisingly, AC output is capped at 2,600W total, which might sound modest for such a large unit. Even more interestingly, the Elite 400 has only one extra port compared to the much smaller Bluetti Elite 30 V2.

I was baffled by this strange mix of features until I realised what purpose the Elite 400 is really for. Despite what Bluetti says in its marketing material, the Elite 400 is best suited as a semi-permanent home power backup unit, with the added benefit of being capable enough as a camping/outdoor station.

Bluetti Elite 400 review

Price and availability

The Elite 400 launched in April 2026 and is available to buy now at Bluetti UK and Bluetti US, with prices from £1,899 / $1,799.

This isn’t new or exclusive to Bluetti, but that US price roughly translates to £1,330 (as of September 2026), which means UK customers pay a lot more for the privilege of using the Elite 400. Of course, prices are often displayed without tax in the US, but even so – it’s an interesting pricing strategy.

(All that said, I don’t know how any of this works, and for all I know, it’s a lot more expensive to send power stations to the UK than it is to the US. It’s just that brands often go with the classic £300 / $300 / €300-style pricing, which never benefits UK buyers. Anyhow, rant over!)

Bluetti sells the Elite 400 in different bundles, many of which include various quantities of solar panels, with the most expensive combination being the Elite 400 + 500W panel for £2,549 in the UK. Things are different in the US, where you can buy your Elite 400 with two 350W panels for $2,448 (plus, presumably, tax).

Design and build quality

The Elite 400 is a big power station, but Bluetti has genuinely tried to keep it from feeling like an immovable 39 kg battery box. Its relatively narrow, upright shape takes up less floor space than many high-capacity rivals. Better still, its wheels and a proper telescopic suitcase-style handle make moving it around considerably easier.

It also has recessed grab handles on either side if you do need to lift it, although if I were you, I wouldn’t (couldn’t?) carry it very far. The telescopic handle + wheels combo is worth emphasising, as it makes the unit a breeze to move around. Still, navigating this much weight requires some core strength, as you would imagine.

Bluetti has added protective feet that let the Elite 400 lie horizontally for storage, which could make a surprisingly big difference if you’re trying to fit it under shelving or into a campervan storage compartment. Normally, I wouldn’t store a power station horizontally, but thanks to those feet, I feel more confident sliding the Elite 400 under cupboards.

You get two UK AC sockets, two USB-A ports rated at 15W each, two USB-C ports capable of up to 100W apiece and a 120W cigarette-lighter socket. Separate buttons control the AC and DC outputs, and the DC charging input is also on the front.

The arrangement is neat and easy to understand, but I’m less convinced by the quantity. Seven outputs sound respectable until you remember this is a 3,840Wh power station.

In particular, having just two mains/AC sockets feels restrictive for something capable of storing this much energy. Adding another pair wouldn’t necessarily require Bluetti to increase the 2,600W inverter output, since all four could simply share the same total power limit.

Bluetti has at least kept the charging hardware out of the way. The 2,300W AC input, circuit breaker, and grounding terminal sit on the side rather than competing for space on the front panel, keeping the main interface uncluttered.

The small colour LCD sits centrally and displays the information you actually need at a glance, including remaining battery capacity and incoming and outgoing power. It isn’t enormous, but the figures are large enough to read without crouching in front of the station, and dedicated AC and DC buttons mean you don’t have to dive into the app every time you want to switch an output on.

Features and Bluetti app

The Elite 400 starts to make more sense once you spend some time in the Bluetti app. On paper, pairing an enormous 3,840Wh battery with a comparatively modest 2,600W inverter and only two AC sockets seems slightly strange. However, once in use, it becomes clear that Bluetti sees this as more than a portable battery for camping trips.

It works particularly well as a semi-portable home backup system, sitting between the mains supply and a handful of important appliances.

The Elite 400 supports UPS operation with a switching time of 15ms, meaning connected devices can keep running from the battery if grid power disappears. That makes the limited number of sockets easier to understand, even if I still think another pair of AC outlets would have made the station considerably more versatile.

The app reinforces this home-energy angle. Its main screen shows power flowing between the grid, solar input, battery and AC/DC outputs instead of just presenting a battery percentage and estimated runtime. It also includes detailed energy statistics for each source, with graphs showing consumption and generation by day, month, year, or over the unit's lifetime.

It also includes a surprisingly comprehensive Savings section, where you can enter electricity prices and use the app to track what the system reckons you've saved, alongside grid costs and even energy sales.

In other words, the Elite 400 can store electricity when it is cheaper and supply connected appliances later, rather than sitting fully charged waiting for a power cut. That potentially makes a lot of sense for households on tariffs with substantially cheaper off-peak electricity.

Charge the Elite 400 overnight, for example, and you could use some of that stored energy during more expensive periods. Add solar panels and the same system can track PV generation alongside grid consumption.

There is a catch, though. Unlike some newer, AI-powered plug-in solar models that do the work for you, you need to spend time setting the app up properly before much of this information becomes genuinely useful.

Electricity pricing needs configuring for your tariff, location isn't necessarily populated, and Bluetti even lets you specify the carbon-emissions factor used to calculate estimated CO₂ savings. Leaving the default numbers untouched will only ever produce precise-looking statistics that don't mean anything.

If you like tinkering with your power station settings, you’re in luck. You can choose between Standard, Silent and Turbo charging modes, set battery charge limits, configure AC and DC Eco modes and determine how long very low loads can remain active before their outputs shut down. The latter is useful for avoiding unnecessary inverter losses when nothing meaningful is drawing power.

The Elite 400 also has a Power Lifting mode for certain high-demand resistive appliances, plus more advanced options for grid behaviour, DC input sources, and battery maintenance. The Elite 400 supports up to 1,000W of solar input, so it can also function as the heart of a relatively substantial off-grid setup rather than simply being charged from a wall socket.

My main criticism of the app isn't a lack of functionality, but that there's so much buried inside it that new owners could easily use the Elite 400 as a conventional power station and miss some of its most interesting capabilities.

Bluetti could do a better job of guiding users through tariff prices, charging schedules, carbon calculations and the various UPS settings during initial setup.

Once configured, though, the software can transform the Elite 400 from a bulky battery on wheels into a large reservoir of energy that can store, manage, and move energy between the grid, solar panels, and a smaller number of connected devices – pretty cool.

Seen that way, the conservative inverter and sparse selection of outputs feel less inexplicable, even if I'd still happily trade some of that clean front-panel design for another two mains sockets.

Charging

The Elite 400’s AC input is rated at up to 2,300W, and combining mains and solar can increase total charging input to 3,300W. Bluetti says that setup can take the battery to 80% in around an hour.

The Bluetti app also lets you control how aggressively the battery charges. It offers Standard, Silent, and Turbo modes, plus a Custom option if you want to fine-tune things yourself. Turbo is the obvious choice when charging speed matters most, while Silent sacrifices some speed to reduce fan noise.

For most of my testing, though, I simply plugged the Elite 400 into a normal wall socket and left it in Standard charging mode. At 5:18 pm, the battery was at 34%, with the display showing a rock-solid 1,200W input and an estimated 2.4 hours until full.

What impressed me more than the speed was the noise, or lack of it. Even while pulling around 1.2kW from the wall, the Elite 400 was barely audible. Large power stations can sound surprisingly industrial when their cooling fans ramp up, but Bluetti keeps things remarkably civilised here.

By 6:46 pm it had reached 70%, with charging still hovering around 1,200W and the fans remaining similarly quiet. It finally hit 100% at 7:57 pm, meaning it took two hours and 39 minutes to go from 34% to full.

That's slightly slower than the initial estimate, but still very respectable given that I wasn't using Turbo mode or supplementing the mains input with solar. It also suggests Bluetti has tuned Standard mode to strike a sensible balance between charging speed, heat and noise.

Performance and everyday use

The Elite 400’s 2,600W continuous AC output might look conservative alongside its enormous battery capacity, but it’s still plenty for the appliances this power station is likely to spend most of its time running. Fridges, freezers, televisions, routers, laptops and lighting barely trouble that ceiling, even when several (well, two via the AC ports) are connected simultaneously.

Bluetti also quotes 5,200W surge power, while its Power Lifting mode is designed to accommodate certain resistive appliances rated at up to 3,900W. That doesn’t magically turn the Elite 400 into a 3,900W power station, but it gives it a little more flexibility with demanding devices.

The limitation becomes more obvious if you want to power several high-draw appliances at once. A kettle, electric heater or induction hob can consume a large proportion of the available output by itself, and the two AC sockets further restrict what you can connect without reaching for an extension lead.

Its LiFePO₄ battery is rated for 3,000 cycles before dropping to 80% of its original capacity, which is reassuring if you plan to use the Elite 400 regularly for off-peak energy storage.

One thing worth knowing is that the battery capacity isn’t expandable. At 3,840Wh, that’s hardly a small starting point, but anyone building a larger modular home-backup system should look elsewhere in Bluetti’s range.

Verdict

The Bluetti Elite 400 is an unusually large power station that makes more sense as a semi-permanent home backup unit than a conventional camping battery. Its 3,840Wh capacity, quiet operation and excellent mobility are major strengths, while the limited ports and modest inverter output feel like odd compromises. Spend some time with the app, though, and its energy-management capabilities reveal a much more thoughtful product than the spec sheet initially suggests.

Salomon has given its XT line a fairly dramatic rethink for 2026 with the launch of the new XT-Evo.

The new sneakers feature an entirely new silhouette, and although they keep plenty of familiar technology underneath, they look considerably more futuristic than the XT-4 and XT-6.

The XT-Evo first appeared in early August as part of a collaboration with New York fashion and sneaker retailer/brand Kith.

At the time, Kith described the two limited-edition colourways, which launched alongside its &Kin Fall 2026 collection, as an “all-new” Salomon silhouette.

Those were followed on 2 September by Salomon's own launch, comprising three considerably easier-to-find versions priced at £175 in the UK and $200 in the US.

Same bones, sharper edges

If you've spent any time looking at Salomon's Sportstyle shoes, you'll probably recognise what's underneath all that new bodywork.

The XT-Evo takes the tooling from the hugely popular XT-6 and places an entirely new racing-inspired upper on top.

It combines breathable mesh and liquid rubber, creating a layered, almost skeletal cage that gives the new shoe its distinctive look.

There's still a surprising amount of proper trail-shoe hardware underneath it.

Salomon has equipped the XT-Evo with its Agile Chassis System, which works with an EnergyCell midsole to provide cushioning and stability, plus a deeply lugged Mud Contagrip outsole designed to find purchase on loose and uneven surfaces.

There's also the brand's familiar Quicklace system, SensiFit construction, an internal EndoFit sleeve and a moulded OrthoLite sockliner.

Although Salomon categorises it as a Sportstyle sneaker rather than a current trail-running shoe, those ingredients give the XT-Evo far more outdoor DNA than your average lifestyle trainer.

It weighs 365g per shoe and has a 10mm heel-to-toe drop, so it's not particularly dainty either.

The launch range includes three unisex colourways: Black / Fiery Red / White, which leans into the shoe's racing aesthetic; a quieter Alloy / Castlerock / FTW Silver version; and a stealthy Black / Black / Asphalt option.

All three are available now directly from Salomon UK, Salomon US and Salomon EU for £175 / $200 / €190 (~AU$278).

Circular has never been short of ambition when it comes to smart rings, and at IFA 2026 in Berlin, the French wearable brand is having another go with what looks like its most convincing hardware yet.

The new Circular Ring 3 Series comes in two versions, the Circular Ring 3 Pro and Circular Ring 3 Slim, and it's not just about different looks, either.

Both are smaller than the outgoing Circular Ring 2, bring back the company’s distinctive haptic vibration system, and both add NFC for contactless payments.

Circular says the new rings are the first to combine comprehensive health monitoring with secure contactless payments in a single wearable.

Supported Visa and Mastercard cards can be used by tapping the ring against a compatible payment terminal without a smartwatch or phone in sight.

Circular experimented with vibrations on its original smart ring, but the feature disappeared from later models.

It now returns with support for silent wake-up alarms, medication reminders, health alerts and guided breathing exercises.

Two rings, two very different priorities

The Circular Ring 3 Pro is the flagship and packs in a broader selection of health features.

These include single-lead ECG with AFib detection, blood pressure trends, glucose trend estimates, advanced sleep analysis and the usual assortment of heart rate, HRV, SpO2, temperature and activity data. Circular claims up to 12 days of battery life.

The Ring 3 Slim lacks ECG and blood pressure tracking, but offers sleep, heart rate, HRV, SpO2, skin temperature, and activity monitoring, plus NFC payments and haptics. Battery life is quoted at up to 10 days.

The Slim measures just 5.9mm wide and 2.35mm thick, with weight starting at approximately 1.9g depending on size.

The Ring 3 Pro is 6.8mm wide and weighs roughly 3–4g, while the previous Ring 2 measured 7.8mm across.

Both new rings are available in sizes 6–14, offer 50-metre water resistance and support wireless charging.

Circular is also updating its Kira app, which uses AI to analyse ring data and provide personalised wellness insights and recommendations.

The big unanswered questions are price and when you'll actually be able to buy one.

Circular is showing both Ring 3 models at IFA Berlin, but says it won't announce pricing, availability, or pre-order details until the coming months.

Head over to Circular for more info.

The Brompton G Line was already the folding bike in its range most likely to tempt riders off the beaten path, but its latest collaboration pushes the adventure angle much further.

The British bike maker has teamed up with cult Japanese outdoor label and wander for a limited-edition collection built around a specially finished G Line, accompanied by matching luggage, technical outerwear and accessories.

Founded by designers Keita Ikeuchi and Mihoko Mori in 2011, and wander has developed a sizeable following for clothing that sits somewhere between hiking equipment and contemporary Japanese fashion.

For the collaboration, the G Line gets a textured metallic grey finish alongside flashes of bright yellow anodised hardware, reflective detailing and exclusive co-branding.

Cream-coloured contact points provide contrast against the darker frame, while and wander’s triangular branding appears across the bike, including on the frame and saddle.

A Brompton built for disappearing for the weekend

Brompton and and wander have developed a matching backpack that attaches directly to the front of the bike.

It's made from water-resistant ECOPAK fabric and features the Japanese brand’s familiar reflective detailing.

The collection also includes a smaller 3-litre roll-top pouch made from abrasion-resistant ECOPAK EPLX400.

You can attach it to the handlebars or saddle loops with Velcro straps and convert it into a cross-body bag with a removable shoulder strap.

The accompanying clothing is arguably what makes the collaboration feel like what you would call a "complete outdoor system."

A lightweight windbreaker uses water-repellent ripstop material and features an extended rear for coverage while riding, and the matching relaxed-fit wind trousers add reflective fabric, adjustable hems and a packable construction.

A collaborative cotton T-shirt, meanwhile, combines reflective ripstop chest pockets with Brompton x and wander graphics.

Speaking about the partnership, and wander founder Keita Ikeuchi said Brompton stood apart from bicycle companies focused primarily on going “faster” or “further”, pointing instead to the flexibility created by its folding design.

The Brompton x and wander G Line bike, backpack, pouch and cap will be available from 10 September through Brompton and selected retailers worldwide.

The wider apparel collection will be sold separately through selected and wander stores and stockists.

Peak Performance has been making its distinctive Helium insulation for 15 years, and it’s celebrating the occasion by taking the idea to its logical conclusion.

The new Helium Nova Down Jacket is, according to Peak Performance, the lightest jacket the Swedish brand has ever made, weighing just 390g in the men’s version.

Despite the ultralight construction, it still packs proper down insulation and enough weather protection for more than just strolling around the city.

The Nova takes the familiar Helium formula and gives it a slightly more contemporary silhouette.

The instantly recognisable quilted construction remains, although the baffles now sweep across the jacket in broad waves rather than following the more conventional horizontal pattern found on most down layers.

And while ultralight insulation can sometimes look overtly technical, the relaxed, hip-length fit, raglan sleeves and subtle embroidery make the Nova look pretty relaxed.

That said, the more fashion-friendly exterior hides a fairly serious technical jacket.

Peak Performance uses 700-fill-power duck down with a 90/10 down-to-feather ratio, wrapped inside lightweight 42gsm 20D ripstop fabric.

The outer is windproof and designed to repel light rain and snow, while tougher fabric sections have been added around the shoulders and pockets where wear is likely to be greatest.

Wave after wave

Peak Performance positions the Helium Nova for everything from everyday wear and trail hiking to ski touring, freeride and resort skiing.

It has an adjustable drawcord hidden inside the hem, elasticated cuffs to keep draughts out, a reversed YKK front zip with a chin guard, and two zipped hand pockets.

The relaxed cut should also leave enough room underneath for layering without turning the Nova into an oversized puffer.

There is, however, an interesting difference between the men’s and women’s versions.

The men’s Helium Nova features a hood you can stash away, leaving a simple insulated collar when you don’t need it.

The women’s Helium Nova Hooded Jacket, meanwhile, gets a permanently attached down-insulated hood.

It’s an unusual distinction between the two models, particularly when the rest of the design language is so similar.

As far as I can tell, the Nova isn’t part of Peak Performance’s more experimental Helium Loop circularity project, which uses heat-dissolvable stitching so a jacket can eventually be taken apart and its individual materials recycled.

It does, however, use RDS-certified down and GRS-certified recycled materials, and is made without intentionally added PFAS.

The Helium Nova Down Jacket is available now at Peak Performance UK, Peak Performance US, and Peak Performance EU for £300 / $350 / €350 (~AU$566).

Klättermusen has built its reputation on technical mountain clothing that looks unlike anything else on the trail, and its new Fall/Winter 2026 collection continues that tradition with an interesting material choice.

Wool plays a starring role this season, with two new technical mid-layers designed for the sort of unpredictable conditions Klättermusen encounters on its home turf in Scandinavia.

One of the key models in the FW26 collection is the Balderus Jacket, a hiking-layer made from recycled Italian wool with added wind protection.

The Balderus pairs a natural grey wool body with contrasting dark panels across the chest and shoulders, giving it a distinctly more technical appearance than your average wool midlayer.

Wool remains one of those materials that makes a lot of sense outdoors, particularly as an insulating layer.

However, traditional wool garments are often not the most eye-catching (apart from The North Face's Casentino Collection, but that's a different story).

Klättermusen's approach to adding distinctive panelling and mountain-ready detailing helps the Balderus feel thoroughly modern.

Joining it is the new Embla Hood Jacket, a technical wool-blend mid-layer offering adaptable warmth for changing Scandinavian mountain conditions.

The darker, more understated design looks closer to a conventional technical hoodie, albeit one that should provide an interesting alternative to the synthetic fleeces that dominate most outdoor layering systems.

The long way round

Balderus and Embla are part of a wider collection that Klättermusen says was designed for multi-day trekking across changing terrain and unpredictable weather, with durability, insulation, and freedom of movement as its main priorities.

There are some familiar names elsewhere in the line-up. The Allgrön 2.0 is the latest version of Klättermusen’s four-season waterproof shell, designed to provide prolonged weather protection without restricting movement.

Meanwhile, the Gondul 2.0 Hood Jacket provides lightweight active insulation, balancing warmth with breathability while you’re moving.

Klättermusen has also updated its Gere 3.0 trekking trousers with a lighter construction designed to increase freedom of movement while retaining durability.

The collection arrives alongside The Call, a four-part campaign following three people who abandon their everyday routines after receiving little more than a set of coordinates leading into the mountains.

Both the campaign and Klättermusen’s new FW26 hiking and trekking collection launch on 3 September 2026, with the clothing available at Klättermusen.

There’s no shortage of Apple Watch lookalikes, but Huawei’s latest square smartwatch has something rather unusual hiding inside its strap.

The new Huawei Watch D3 was unveiled today alongside the Watch GT 7 Series, flagship Watch 6 Series and FreeBuds Neo earbuds, but for me, it’s comfortably the most interesting product of the bunch.

That’s because the D3 can take actual blood pressure measurements using an inflatable airbag built into its strap.

It works much like a conventional cuff, compressing the wrist as an internal pump inflates and deflates the airbag to determine systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

That’s fundamentally different from what Apple currently does, which can identify patterns that may suggest hypertension using its optical heart-rate sensors.

However, they don’t directly measure your blood pressure or give you conventional blood-pressure readings.

Adding Huawei’s system to an Apple Watch would presumably require a substantial rethink of the strap and associated hardware, which is why this could remain one area where the D3 has a considerable advantage.

Huawei has also worked hard to make the technology look less... medical.

While previous iterations looked a bit clunky, the D3 deliberately borrows heavily from Huawei’s much more conventional Watch Fit family, almost fully disguising its special cuff design.

It's 11.3mm thick and weighs 40g, with Huawei shaving 8g and roughly 2mm from its predecessor.

The inflatable strap is narrower too, while the display measures over 1.9 inches and reaches a claimed 3,000 nits.

More than a clever cuff

The Watch D3 supports 24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring, taking automated readings during the day and while you sleep.

Its blood pressure function has CE marking under the EU Medical Device Regulation.

One of the most interesting additions in this generation is pre- and post-exercise blood pressure measurement.

The watch can now take readings immediately before and shortly after exercise so users can see how their blood pressure responds to exertion.

Huawei says the D3 still manages up to six days of battery life despite housing the pump, while Health Glance can gather up to 11 health indicators in around a minute.

The Watch GT 7 Series is probably the brand's biggest mainstream launch this September.

Huawei has given its sports watch a noticeably more outdoorsy look this year, but some of the cleverest changes are happening under the hood.

A new positioning system combines GPS with the watch’s accelerometer and gyroscope to estimate movement when satellite reception disappears.

Huawei says this can improve route recording through tunnels and tree cover, while also reducing GPS polling during ultra-long activities to save battery.

To boost its snow sport prowess, the GT 7 can now download maps for more than 3,000 ski resorts, track individual turns and even estimate the G-forces generated while carving.

It also adds an indoor skiing mode that relies on onboard motion sensors rather than GPS.

Cyclists gain climb planning, gradient information and warnings when approaching sharp turns too, while Huawei has finally added a Physical Readiness score that factors in metrics including sleep and HRV.

The Watch GT 7 starts at £280 (~$378 / €326 / AU$528), with the GT 7 Pro from £380 (~$512 / €443 / AU$717), and both are available to order from today. The Watch D3 costs £400 (~$540 / €466 / AU$755) and goes on sale on 23 September.

Swiss sportswear brand On and South Korea’s POST ARCHIVE FACTION (PAF) are bringing one of running’s more unconventional fashion collaborations to a close with Current Form 5.0.

The collection marks the sixth and final season of the partnership, with the two brands returning to footwear for one last reinterpretation of an On running silhouette.

This time, it’s the Cloudsoma PAF, a trail shoe inspired by mountains, rock formations, and the contrast between the permanence of the landscape and the movement of a runner passing through it.

The result is considerably more experimental than your average trail running shoe.

Its quick-drying, high-abrasion upper uses flowing patterns and swirling lines, while an asymmetrical lacing system gives the Cloudsoma PAF an immediately distinctive look.

Those details sit on top of the technical foundations of On’s existing Cloudsoma, a lightweight trainer designed to provide a more connected, natural feel underfoot.

The Cloudsoma PAF will be available in three colourways – Cobble/Raven, Black/Black and Haze/Linen – with the darker versions in particular giving the shoe a surprisingly wearable appearance despite the asymmetric construction.

A monument you can actually run

To mark six seasons of working together, On and PAF collaborated with South African land artist Strijdom van der Merwe to build a circular stone installation on Tenerife that doubles as a permanent trail loop for runners.

On describes it as a “monument to movement”, designed to represent the circular nature of the collaboration while leaving something behind that can continue to be used after the partnership ends.

The process is also documented in a three-part campaign film moving from past to present to future.

It begins with PAF co-founder and creative director Dongjoon Lim arranging pieces from the brands’ previous collections into a circular display, before following van der Merwe as he constructs the Tenerife installation.

The final section sees athletes running around the completed loop.

It’s an appropriately unusual way to draw a line under a partnership that has regularly blurred the boundaries between performance footwear and experimental fashion.

On x POST ARCHIVE FACTION Current Form 5.0 launches on 3 September 2026 via On, POST ARCHIVE FACTION and selected retailers. Pricing has not yet been confirmed.

YETI is no stranger to giving its rugged outdoor gear a seasonal colour refresh, but its latest collection goes far beyond simply coating another Rambler in a new shade.

The new Riverhead Collection takes inspiration from coastal communities and spreads an appropriately autumnal palette across drinkware, coolers, bags and accessories.

There are 40 products listed as part of the collection on YETI’s US website, with Riverhead Red and Riverhead Green joined by combinations of Aspen, Pampa and Wild Vine.

Select Rambler cups, tumblers and bottles have been given a new textured, herringbone-style finish that makes the normally industrial-looking stainless steel vessels appear almost as though they have been wrapped in tweed.

YETI describes the treatment on its bottles as a digitally printed design, which means you still get the familiar 18/8 stainless-steel construction, double-wall vacuum insulation and dishwasher-friendly build underneath.

The effect is particularly convincing in Riverhead Red, which turns the Rambler 16oz Stackable Cup into something that looks more at home beside a wool coat than a campsite.

The same treatment appears across bottles, tumblers, lowballs and Colster can coolers, with the 16oz Stackable Cup priced at $33 and the 20oz Tumbler at $40 in the US.

Beyond the weave

YETI has carried the same colours over to some of its bigger outdoor gear, where the combination of creamy Aspen, muted Pampa green, and dark Wild Vine burgundy works particularly well.

The Roadie 15 Hard Cooler, for example, gets the three-tone treatment, while the Daytrip 14L Insulated Tote Bag combines a pale body with contrasting trim and base.

YETI is specifically promoting the latter as part of the limited-edition Riverhead release.

There’s also a matching Camino 35 Carryall Tote, which might be the best example of how well the palette translates beyond drinkware.

Its predominantly off-white body is finished with green handles and burgundy along the bottom, making one of YETI’s famously utilitarian bags look surprisingly sophisticated.

Other pieces include Daytrip food storage, SideKick waterproof gear cases and various accessories.

The Riverhead Collection is available now at YETI US, with prices starting at $30 for several pieces of textured drinkware and rising to $200 for the Roadie 15 Hard Cooler.

At the time of writing, Riverhead does not appear to have launched on YETI’s UK website, so UK pricing and availability are still to be confirmed.

Google has announced a special edition of the Fitbit Air, partnering with The Pokémon Company for the – deep breath – Google Fitbit Air Special Edition Pokémon Sleep.

The new tracker comes with a bespoke Pokémon design – including a custom silk label that puts a cute little, sleeping Pikachu on your wrist.

Combining all the goodness of the Fitbit Air with the fun of the Pokémon Sleep app, this new special edition fitness tracker should encourage better sleep habits while providing plenty of fun along the way.

Starting with the core of the Fitbit, this provides a lightweight route to 24/7 tracking, gathering data about your steps, activities, heart data and sleep. Because the Fitbit Air is just a band rather than a watch, it's less intrusive when sleeping – and there's no screen to distract the wearer.

The Sleepy Blue colour makes this version standout a little, but the tracking that it offers will sync to Google Health as normal. That's how we make the jump into the Pokémon Sleep app, which gamifies sleep – a great way to reinforce healthy sleep behaviours.

You'll have to link Google Health (which replaced the Fitbit app) to Health Connect or Apple Health, depending on whether you're using an Android or iPhone. Then, Health Connect or Apple Health can be connected to the Pokémon Sleep app.

That will see your real sleep data feeding into Pokémon Sleep which is where the fun starts.

Pokémon Sleep uses real sleep data to unlock rewards in the app, making sleep an interactive experience. As you sleep, Pokémon will gather in the app, letting you complete your Sleep Style Dex.

The type of sleep you have – and the length – will reflect the Pokémon that appear, so you can continue to collect them all while sleeping. Your Sleep Score will be used to generate Drowsy Power for Snorlax and the higher the Drowsy Power the more Pokémon you'll see.

Of course, you don't have to use the Pokémon Sleep app (it's available for use with other devices), you can just get the special edition Fitbit Air Pokémon edition because you like the design and you're a Pokémon fan.

Preorders for the new version of the Fitbit Air are open in the US, with shipping from 15 September. It's priced at $129.99, so it's $30 more than the regular Fitbit Air.

Garmin has released another sizeable software update for some of its most popular smartwatches.

Public Beta Version 18.27 is rolling out to the Garmin Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, Venu 4, Venu X1 and Vivoactive 6, with Garmin now listing the update as available to members of its Public Beta programme.

The company says the update addresses a potential issue that could cause unexpected display behaviour and inconsistent gesture response.

Garmin has also fixed an issue that could prevent the always-on display setting from taking effect, along with a problem that could stop button tones from sounding.

Version 18.27 addresses a bug that could cause alert tones to fail to play when Garmin's Incident Detection feature is triggered.

The sound of software problems

Audio accounts for a surprisingly large chunk of the latest update.

Garmin says it has fixed problems with music failing to pause properly when the selected music provider is set to control your phone, as well as an issue where volume adjustments in the music app might not work correctly.

The company's Phone Assistant functionality also gets some attention.

One fix addresses voice commands failing to be recognised, while another tackles a problem where the assistant could stop working after being interrupted by an incoming call.

Garmin's Spectator Messaging feature gets two fixes. Audio messages should no longer be cut off before they finish playing, and Garmin has also tried to make them easier to hear when music is playing at the same time.

Golfers haven't been forgotten either, with Beta 18.27 fixing a delay that could occur before the score prompt appeared.

The release also includes a handful of other minor fixes and updated translations, but no new features this time around.

In other words, this is very much a housekeeping update, albeit one that addresses quite a few irritating problems.

As this is Public Beta software, you'll need to be enrolled in Garmin's Beta Software Programme to get it. Once enrolled, you can check manually from Settings > System > Software Update > Check For Updates.

One important caveat for Venu 4 owners: Garmin says the ECG app is disabled in the current beta software and recommends staying on the stable software if you want to keep access to ECG.

The feature is expected to return towards the end of the quarterly beta cycle, before the software becomes a full public release.

[via NotebookCheck, Garmin Forums]

Nike ACG has unveiled the Picklejus, a new long-distance trail running shoe designed for big mountain efforts.

While its unusual name might be the first thing that catches your attention, there is considerably more going on underneath.

Developed around the demands of the long, technical mountain routes found around Mont Blanc, Nike describes the Picklejus as ACG’s “pinnacle expression” of mountain running performance.

Nike has combined two versions of ZoomX in what it says is its first co-moulded, dual-density supercritical foam platform designed specifically for trail running.

(Not sure where this leaves all other 'super' trail running shoes from Nike/Nike ACG, including the ACG Kigerfly and the ACG Zegama).

A softer ZoomX core handles cushioning and impact protection, while a firmer foam ring around the perimeter provides added stability and support.

Interestingly, Nike says the latter creates a plate-like effect without a traditional plate, allowing the two foams to work together as a single platform.

Up top is a trail-specific Flyknit construction with integrated containment cables designed to adapt to the foot as runners move across uneven terrain.

Hydrophobic yarns help repel water and reduce the extra weight the upper picks up in wet conditions, while a gaiter-inspired cuff is intended to keep stones and other debris out.

The goat underneath

The shoe introduces GOATEK, ACG’s new proprietary traction technology, developed for everything from wet rock and loose dirt to steep climbs and technical descents.

Nike claims GOATEK delivers 45% more wet traction and 25% better abrasion resistance than its previous all-terrain outsoles – those are substantial numbers (and a serious challenge to Vibram).

The company says the technology has been through five rounds of long-term wear testing covering more than 18,000 miles of rugged mountain terrain.

Nike says ACG is effectively acting as a proving ground for the technology, with the traction platform potentially informing other performance footwear across the company in the future.

Picklejus is the first ACG footwear innovation developed through the Nike Sport Research Lab and the result of three years of athlete conversations, 10 research studies, and 20 prototypes tested by more than 100 athletes, the company claims.

The name is, of course, a reference to pickle juice, the salty drink that has become something of a cult remedy among endurance athletes for dealing with muscle cramps.

There will be quite a wait before you can try any of this for yourself, though.

Nike is scheduled to launch the ACG Picklejus in late 2027 through Nike ACG and select retailers, with pricing yet to be announced.

Flower Mountain has unveiled its Fall/Winter 2026 collection, and while the brand’s mix of Japanese design, outdoor influences and colourful sneakers is nothing new, a capsule within the range is definitely exciting.

Harmony of Traditions applies three Japanese textile techniques and materials to two of Flower Mountain’s most recognisable models, the Yamano 3 and Iwano 2.

These include Mikawa cotton, a durable woven fabric traditionally produced in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, alongside Kurashiki canvas, which draws on more than a century of textile-making expertise.

The third element is Sashiko, a social media darling with a distinctive geometric stitching technique originally developed as a practical way to reinforce and repair clothing.

Here, all three are used as functional design details, giving Flower Mountain’s already busy sneakers another layer of texture and character.

Old techniques, new shoes

Flower Mountain has always blurred the line between hiking footwear and everyday sneakers, with suede overlays, chunky soles, unusual lacing systems and bright colour combinations.

Harmony of Traditions simply makes the Japanese side of that equation more... explicit.

The wider FW26 collection continues in a similar direction, albeit with more emphasis on lighter, easier-to-wear footwear.

The Back Country 2 reworks the traditional outdoor shoe with a lighter and more breathable construction.

Meanwhile, two new models, the Sanchia and Ranya, introduce softer and more streamlined shapes designed primarily for everyday urban wear.

Flower Mountain has also revisited several existing trainers, including the Kazana Fall, which turns the woven construction of the summer Kazana into an all-season sneaker.

The Asuka 3 updates the brand’s vintage-inspired design with greater flexibility and a revised internal structure.

Materials across the collection include wool, faux fur and tartan alongside Flower Mountain’s familiar mix of suede, technical fabrics and outdoor-derived detailing.

The Fall/Winter 2026 collection is available now from Flower Mountain UK, Flower Mountain US and Flower Mountain EU. AU availability TBC.

There are certain pieces of outdoor equipment that, in 2026, have long since escaped their original purpose.

Hiking shoes are everyday footwear, climbing trousers are worn nowhere near a crag, and waterproof shells have become a familiar sight in fashion.

That makes Norwegian travel-gear specialist Db’s latest collaboration with British outdoor label Purple Mountain Observatory rather well timed.

Gone Fishing was created after the two brands approached fly fishing as relative outsiders, questioning some of the sport’s established equipment along the way.

The result brings together apparel and luggage, with Db describing the collection as a modular system designed to move between different environments.

And while there’s plenty here for people who actually own fishing equipment, the Db x PMO Modular Vest is easily my favourite piece.

Fishing optional

The Modular Vest is essentially a highly technical reinterpretation of traditional fly-fishing gear.

It's made of ALUULA composite fabric, a material Db previously used across its ultra-light Weigh Lighter collection, which focused on combining low weight with high strength and durability.

In fact, ALUULA Graflyte, an ultra-light, high-strength composite originally developed for technical packs, is one of the collection’s key technologies.

It combines a UHMWPE core with fused protective films for improved abrasion, water and puncture resistance.

It has seven flapped pockets with quick-pull tabs, integrated tool loops, and Velcro fly patches, plus a removable high-capacity compartment around the back.

A second zipped rear pocket keeps valuables secure, while a D-ring lets anglers attach a landing net.

All very practical, admittedly, but I think it works just as well as an oversized technical layer.

The translucent white ALUULA pockets against the black body give it an almost experimental look, and paired with loose trousers, a simple long-sleeve top and the right trainers, I could easily see it working nowhere near water.

The rest of Gone Fishing follows a similar theme, with a £300 oversized Sling Bag (my other favourite), a £250 25-litre Backpack and a £70 Tech Cap, alongside a special £549 Ramverk Pro Carry-on.

The latter largely retains Db’s familiar aluminium-framed polycarbonate construction but adds exclusive purple compression straps and collaborative branding – a subtle detail that looks particularly good against the silver shell. Db

Gone Fishing officially launched on 27 August through Db and PMO’s online stores and selected retailers globally.

The GripNGo Vault is a multitool that keep things simple to make sure you get compact as well as functional. It's only around two inches long and weighs 45g, but its compact body has room for a useful selection of tools.

The main feature is a rotating holder that stores six standard 4mm screwdriver bits. They sit inside the titanium body like the chambers of a revolver, with magnets and a push-slide lock keeping everything in place.

You can also swap two of those bits for a miniature utility blade and an inkless 'eternal' pen. That makes the Vault useful for more than tightening the occasional screw, the blade can handle jobs such as opening packages, while the pen can mark paper without needing ink.

The whole thing is CNC-machined from grade-5 titanium and has a textured exterior for grip. There are also eight slots for tritium vials, designed to make the tool easier to find in low light, although those aren't included as standard.

There's an obvious trade-off with making a screwdriver this small. You won't get the same reach or leverage as a conventional screwdriver, so the Vault is better suited to small repairs and everyday jobs than anything particularly demanding.

TiMate launched the GripNGo Vault on Kickstarter with a $45 (around £34) early price, and the campaign has already exceeded its funding target by more than 1,600%. Worldwide shipping is currently planned for December 2026.

For a tool that can disappear onto your keyring or into a pocket, that's a decent amount of functionality. The real question is whether you actually need six screwdriver bits with you at all times.

The SylvanSport VIRE isn't particularly glamorous from the outside but this fairly boxy 19.5-foot trailer has managed to squeeze in so much living space inside.

There's a U-shaped lounge at the front which converts into a 72 x 80-inch bed, that's the same dimensions as a king-size mattress. During the day, it gives you somewhere to eat or sit, while at night it becomes a useful sleeping area rather than the usual tiny RV bed.

The kitchen is compact but doesn't feel like an afterthought. There's a two-burner propane stove, sink with a fold-down tap and cutting-board cover, plenty of storage and a 12V fridge/freezer.

There's even a microwave/convection oven with air-fryer functions, although that's reserved for the more expensive VIRE Ultimate.

Next to it is something you don't always get in a trailer this size: a full-height wet bathroom. It has a shower, fold-down sink and cassette toilet, so you don't have to rely on campsite facilities every time nature calls.

The VIRE weighs 3,670lb (1,665kg) dry, which is another reason its relatively compact dimensions matter. It has a 40-gallon fresh-water tank, 44-gallon grey-water tank and enough payload capacity for 1,330lb of gear.

There are two versions. The standard VIRE starts at $59,995 (around £45,000), while the VIRE Ultimate costs $69,995 (around £52,500). The latter gets a much larger 833Ah battery system, 600W of solar, plus the microwave and TV.

Production slots are currently being offered for autumn 2026 and spring 2027, with a $1,000 deposit required to reserve one.

For something that looks fairly ordinary parked on a driveway, there's an impressive amount going on inside. The VIRE show that when it comes to camper design, sometimes the best way to create more space is to stop making things so streamlined.

The Otherlab Lightfoot bike looks like a tiny delivery vehicle from a futuristic city, and its bodywork is designed to actually help power it.

Designed by California-based Otherlab, the two-seat electric cargo scooter has two 120W solar panels built into its sides. Leave it parked in decent sunlight and those panels can add up to 18 miles of range per day, according to the company, potentially reducing how often you need to plug it in.

That's a useful trick for an electric vehicle designed around short urban journeys. Lightfoot has a claimed 37-mile range from its 1.1kWh battery, while each hour of good sunlight can apparently add around three miles.

So if you're mainly using it for shopping, commuting or school runs, leaving it outside could put some of that range back into the battery while you're doing something else.

The chunky design isn't just about squeezing in solar panels. Open the two clamshell-style panels and you'll find a 45.2-litre, weather-resistant storage compartment underneath, with enough capacity for up to 20kg of cargo according to the latest specs.

That means there's room for groceries, work gear or a helmet without having to strap everything to your back. There's also a long bench seat for two, making Lightfoot more practical for everyday transport than the average scooter.

Two 750W hub motors provide the shove, with a top speed of 19.9mph, while hydraulic disc brakes, regenerative braking and motorcycle-style suspension are designed to make it more capable on urban roads. A full charge can reach 80% in around 90 minutes using its onboard charger.

The catch? At $4,995, this isn't exactly a cheap alternative to an e-bike.

But Lightfoot is an interesting take on electric transport because the solar panels aren't an afterthought bolted onto the roof. They're part of the vehicle itself and the result is a scooter that can carry two people, swallow your shopping and top itself up whenever the sun comes out.

While most of us tend to choose a hotel with a decent gym when going away, Chris Hemsworth proves that if you want to squeeze in a workout on holiday, a lack of a gym or equipment doesn't need to stop you.

Then again, when you're weeks away from filming Extraction 3, there's probably no such thing as completely switching off.

While holidaying in Costa Rica, the muscle-bound Marvel star braved the Costa Rican heat, grabbed a kettlebell and a resistance band and put together a 17-move full-body circuit designed to hit every muscle, with barely any equipment.

"I'm in Costa Rica at the moment, having a little break before I start Extraction 3 in a couple of weeks, and wanted to get a little workout in,” he said, “so I created a minimal equipment program or session, which was pretty damn effective, especially when it feels like it's 150 degrees out. Check it out.”

The workout combines resistance-band, kettlebell, and bodyweight exercises to target the upper and lower body while hitting your core, too.

So, if you're heading away and don't fancy losing precious suitcase space to your gym kit (and wouldn't mind looking a little more like the Hollywood star), this could be one to save.

Chris Hemsworth's 17-move circuit workout

Hemsworth performs 17 consecutive exercises to complete one round, then rests for two minutes and goes again. He completes two rounds in total. The moves are as follows:

1. Banded kettlebell curl

Reps: 10

Loop your resistance band around the kettlebell to add resistance as you curl, targeting the biceps and forearms.

2. Banded reverse fly

Reps: 12

A great move for targeting the rear delts and upper back while helping strengthen the muscles that support good posture.

3. Banded kettlebell side bend

Reps: 10

With your kettlebell looped, lower the bell toward the floor by hinging at the hips, then return upright. This move works your obliques and entire core.

4. Banded kettlebell suitcase carry

Reps: 30-40m each side

Hold your looped kettlebell on one side and walk, resisting the urge to lean or twist from the pull of the bell. This move challenges your grip, obliques and overall core stability.

5. Banded glute kickback

Reps: 12 each side

This lower-body exercise isolates the glutes while requiring your core to keep your pelvis stable.

6. Banded hip abduction

Reps: 12 each side

Moving your leg out to the side against the resistance of the band targets the outer glutes while challenging hip stability.

7. Banded single-arm fly

Reps: 10 each side

This upper-body move targets the chest while requiring plenty of control and stability through the shoulder.

8. Banded Pallof halo press

Reps: 6 each side

Combining resistance with controlled movement around the body, this move puts your core stability to the test.

9. Banded single-arm row

Reps: 10 each side

This pulling exercise targets your lats and upper back while challenging your core to keep your torso stable.

10. Banded rotational punch

Reps: 10 each side

Punch against the resistance of the band while rotating through your torso to challenge the shoulders and rotational core.

11. Half-kneeling kettlebell press

Reps: 8-10 each side

Pressing from a half-kneeling position works the shoulders while forcing your core and hips to stabilise your body.

12. Half-kneeling kettlebell woodchop

Reps: 8-10 each side

This rotational exercise challenges the obliques and teaches your core to transfer force across the body.

13. Push-up into mountain climber

Reps: 20

Combining push-ups with mountain climbers works the chest, shoulders, triceps and core while sending your heart rate soaring.

14. Kettlebell jackknife

Reps: 10

Holding the kettlebell overhead as you bring your legs up towards your upper body turns this into a pretty challenging core exercise.

15. Back extension

Reps: 10

This move targets the posterior chain, particularly the lower back, glutes and hamstrings.

16. Back extension with rotation

Reps: 8 each side

Adding rotation to the back extension brings the torso into play while continuing to challenge the posterior chain.

17. Cross-body dead bug punch

Reps: 10 each side

Holding the kettlebell in one hand while moving the opposite leg challenges your abs as your upper and lower body work in sync.

Once you've completed all 17 exercises, take a well-earned two-minute breather before repeating the whole thing for a second round.

Why this workout works so well

Hemsworth's workout is built around the idea that you don't need a fully equipped gym to train your entire body.

By combining resistance-band exercises with kettlebell movements and bodyweight exercises, you're able to hit multiple movement patterns within one session.

The program includes pulls, presses, and rotational exercises for the upper body; carries and glute work for the lower body; and plenty of ab exercises to keep your core busy and help build a body that performs well and looks even better.

The resistance band is particularly useful when equipment is limited. Unlike a dumbbell or kettlebell, where the load remains relatively constant, a resistance band generally provides more resistance the further you stretch it.

That means your muscles keep working as tension increases, even without access to a full rack of weights.

Then there's the core work. Functional exercises such as the suitcase carry, Pallof halo press and dead bug punch require you to resist unwanted movement and keep your torso stable, while the side bends and woodchops introduce lateral (side-to-side) and rotational movement.

In other words, your core isn't just working forwards and backwards. It's resisting, rotating and stabilising in several different directions, which is much closer to what it has to do during sport and everyday movement.

And while this is primarily a resistance-based circuit, Hemsworth hasn't forgotten about bodyweight work and conditioning. The push-up into mountain climber recruits multiple muscle groups at once, while moving through the 17 exercises with little rest between moves should keep the heart rate high and the session moving at a decent pace.

That's also what makes it such a handy holiday workout. You get strength, core, coordination, and cardio in one session without hunting down a fully equipped hotel gym, proving that minimal equipment doesn't have to mean minimal effort.

We need it for everything from carrying groceries and opening stubborn jars to lifting heavier weights in the gym. But when I recently had my grip strength measured using a hand dynamometer – a little device you squeeze as hard as you can – I was surprised by just how much that little number could reveal about my health.

Let's be honest, until it gives up on your final set of pull-ups, how often do you actually think about your grip strength when training? Until recently, I certainly didn't think much about mine. I just accepted that when my hands and forearms started screaming at me, it was time to give up.

Yet research has linked lower grip strength with a higher risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. At the same time, experts increasingly use it as a simple marker of overall strength, physical function and healthy ageing.

Of course, grip strength isn't set in stone. Just like any other aspect of fitness, it can be trained. So I asked experts what they'd do to improve theirs over the next 30 days.

Interestingly, the same exercises kept coming up, and you’re probably pretty familiar with them already. Here's what they recommended.

Why is grip strength so important?

“Grip strength isn't just about the hand,” says Ashley Katzenback, Doctor of Physical Therapy and owner of Cape Concierge Physical Therapy.

“It reflects the integrity of the entire musculoskeletal system and correlates strongly with lean muscle mass, neuromuscular efficiency, bone density, and the body's ability to recover from illness or surgery.”

“It also tells us a lot about our ability to generate and control force – and often mirrors overall muscle quality and total body strength capacity.”

“Research shows that people with low grip strength fall more, fracture more easily, recover more slowly, and are more likely to develop sarcopenia – the age-related loss of muscle that quietly accelerates functional decline,” she says.

In fact, a landmark study of nearly 140,000 adults across 17 countries found that lower grip strength was associated with a significantly higher risk of death from all causes, including cardiovascular disease, with each 5kg reduction in grip strength associated with a 16% higher risk of all-cause mortality.

The good news? Grip strength is highly trainable, which means there's plenty you can do to improve yours. Here's where the experts recommend starting.

The three exercises experts recommend for improving grip strength

1. Farmer's carry

Farmer's carry is incredibly simple – walking while carrying a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand – yet extremely effective for challenging your grip under fatigue, as you continuously squeeze the weights to make sure you don’t drop them.

To do it, hold a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand, stand tall and walk, keeping your core braced and shoulders back.

How many? 3–4 rounds of 20–40 seconds. As your strength improves, experts recommend aiming to carry a combined load equivalent to around 50% of your bodyweight for one minute. Men can work towards around 70%.

Rest: 60–90 seconds between rounds.

2. Dead hang

As the name implies, all you have to do for a dead hang is hang from a pull-up bar for as long as you can. It’s simple and brilliant for building grip endurance while challenging your shoulders and upper body at the same time.

Take an overhand grip on a pull-up bar, lift your feet from the floor and hang with your arms extended.

How long? "Start with 10 seconds and gradually increase the duration as your grip improves," suggests Katzenback. Complete three sets.

Rest: 60 seconds between sets.

3. Bent-over row

Heavy lifting is one of the best ways to challenge your grip strength. What’s great about the bent-over row is that, while your back and biceps are doing plenty of work, your hands and forearms also have to work hard to resist gravity and avoid dropping the weight as you complete the rowing motion.

Katzenback suggests choosing a weight “you can row for five reps with good form.” Hinge forwards at the hips, keeping your back flat, then row the barbell towards your belly button.

How many? 5 sets of 5 reps using a challenging weight.

Rest: 60–90 seconds between sets.

One more grip exercise worth trying

Another type of grip can easily get overlooked: the pinch grip. This involves holding an object between your thumb and fingers without using your palm – think gripping a weight plate by its edge. Research suggests pinch strength may also decline with age.

To train it, hold a weight plate between your thumb and fingers and stop it from slipping. No handles or edges to hook your fingers under – that's the whole point. Start lighter than you think, because pinch grip is usually weaker than people expect.

No weight plates? A hardcover book works too. Pinch it shut by its covers and hold.

Do: 3 sets of 20–30 seconds per hand.

Rest: 60 seconds between sets.

Let's not forget about mobility

With extra grip work, include simple wrist flexor and extensor stretches, gently stretching your fingers down and up to maintain mobility in your wrists and forearms.

You can also work on your grip away from the gym. Samantha Cubbins, strength and conditioning coach and Lifting Club Ambassador at Gymshark, recommends practising “wringing a towel twice a day,” which you can easily do at home.

“For this exercise, roll a hand towel tightly and, with each hand at different ends of the towel, twist your hands back and forth for about five seconds each way and aim for 15 reps each time, and see how your grip strength improves,” adds Cubbins.

“This exercise is perfect as it can be done at home, with just a towel and won’t take more than a few minutes.”

Ultimately, improving your grip strength doesn’t require hours of extra training. Building overall strength can help too, as stronger muscles give you a better foundation for lifting, carrying and holding onto heavier loads.

Add these exercises to your usual workouts, practise the towel drill at home and progressively challenge your grip little and often. You might just find it’s not only your hands that get stronger – your lifts and your physical independence as you age could benefit too.

And let's not forget your handshake. First impressions really do count.

Garmin’s screenless wearable was rumoured for what felt like forever before the brand finally announced the Cirqa in July 2026. Of course, I was otherwise engaged, as is often the case when Garmin launches a new product, so I didn’t start testing the new screenless wearable until a couple of weeks ago.

As a longtime Garmin watch fan, I have been waiting for years for the company to launch a screenless wearable, but I thought it would be a smart ring, not a Whoop- and Polar-rival band. There is nothing wrong with bands, but given the popularity of models like the Oura Ring 5, I thought Garmin would bring out a finger wearable first.

I was wrong (not the first time), but I’m not disappointed. The Cirqa has some personality and does what a screenless wearable should do: passively track your health and fitness. Better still, it gives you access to the company’s polished ecosystem for a lot less than your average Forerunner or Fenix.

All that said, the Cirqa suffers from the same issue as other casual Garmin wearables: the algorithm caters more to athletes than everyday people. Still, it’s hard not to like the Cirqa. If you have a Garmin watch but don’t like wearing it to bed, the Cirqa might be a good accessory. It’s also beneficial for people who do resistance training and often handle kettlebells.

Garmin Cirqa review

Price and availability

The Cirqa was announced in July 2026 and is available to buy now at Garmin UK, Garmin US, Garmin EU and Garmin AU for £180 / $200 / €200 / AU$299. It comes in two sizes (S-M and L-XL) and four colours, including Black, Captain Blue, French Grey and Mauve. It’s one of Garmin's more affordable wearables and is on par with watches like the original Vivomove.

Design and build quality

The Garmin Cirqa is essentially a heart rate sensor with a vibration motor attached to a strap. The removable module itself measures 27 x 47 x 9mm and weighs just 14.8g with the smaller S-M strap. The L-XL strap makes the setup marginally heavier at 21.2g, but it’s quite light overall.

The case is made from fibre-reinforced polymer, the same material most Garmin watch cases use. The 24mm-wide fabric strap attaches using 14mm quick-release pins. The smaller strap fits wrist circumferences between 120 and 200mm, while the larger fits 145 to 240mm. You can also pair the module with an optional upper-arm band.

The Cirqa uses Garmin’s Elevate Gen 4 optical heart-rate sensor. It’s not the latest Gen 5 hardware used by watches such as the new Fenix 8 Pro or the Forerunner 970, although this particular implementation also supports skin-temperature tracking.

It has 128MB of onboard memory (for data, not music), Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity, and a 5 ATM water-resistance rating, making it suitable for swimming.

Features

The sensor can also track blood oxygen (a.k.a. Pulse Ox) and includes an accelerometer, but no built-in GPS. Like cheaper fitness trackers, the Cirqa uses connected GPS from a paired smartphone to track outdoor position.

The band can continuously monitor heart rate every second and feed data into familiar Garmin metrics, including HRV Status, Body Battery, stress, sleep, Training Readiness, and Training Status. It also supports advanced sleep tracking, nap detection and respiration monitoring.

Performance

It’s hard to talk about the Cirqa band's performance, as it’s essentially the same as other Garmin wearables that use the Elevate v4 heart rate sensor. It has no screen or GPS, so it mainly tracks your vitals and sends them to the Connect app, where the algorithm makes sense of it all.

I have Active Intelligence, part of Connect+, Garmin’s paid subscription service. As a result, the algorithm provided activity summaries and suggested workouts based on my activity. The Cirqa band tracks workouts (e.g. walks) automatically and takes them into account.

Now, the issue is that even though I walked loads during the testing period, my sciatica prevented me from doing any proper workouts like runs or cycles. Even though I reached over 650 intensity minutes in a week, my Training Status still said I was in ‘Recovery’.

Not sure about you, but doing that much walking a week does count as workouts for me and the algorithm, but Garmin’s athlete-centred training features don’t seem to care, which creates a strange situation where you’ll continuously feel you’re not exercising enough while also doing quite a lot.

Another strange thing is that Active Intelligence requires an internet connection and won’t give you any info without it. Most companion apps, including Oura, will provide plenty of insights without data usage, so I don’t understand why Garmin can’t do the same.

As for data accuracy, there isn’t much to criticise. The Elevate v4 is more than sophisticated enough to track most of what you'd track with the Cirqa band. Sleep, stress, and blood oxygen all seemed okay to me compared to the Oura Ring 5 and the Ultrahuman Ring PRO, both of which I wore simultaneously.

Battery life and charging

Garmin rates the Cirqa for up to 10 days of battery life, which sounds good until you realise that on most wearables, the display eats up most of the battery power. Since the Cirqa doesn’t have one, even with the sensor being on most of the time, the band will last for well over a week.

My testing came close to Garmin’s official figure. I took the Cirqa off the charger at 100% when I started testing it, and it had dropped to 86% just over a day later. After a little over five days of continuous wear, there was still 40% remaining.

The battery finally reached 12% just over eight days after the test began. Based on that discharge rate, I would have expected the Cirqa to make it comfortably through a ninth day and potentially get very close to Garmin’s quoted 10-day maximum.

Charging is fairly quick, too. Starting from 12%, the Cirqa recovered almost 80% of its battery in 57 minutes. You probably won't need to charge it particularly often, then, and even a relatively short top-up should be enough to keep it running for several more days.

The Cirqa uses the same four-pin charger the company has used for years, so if you already have a watch, you should be able to charge your band with the same cable.

Verdict

The Garmin Cirqa is a comfortable, discreet and impressively long-lasting fitness tracker that makes Garmin’s excellent health ecosystem more accessible without putting another screen on your wrist. It works particularly well as a companion to a Garmin watch (and is a decent enough fitness tracker on its own), although the company’s athlete-focused algorithms still feel less accommodating to casual activity, and some of its smartest insights sit behind Connect+.

When Katie Becker first saw Arc’teryx at a trade show in 1998, the brand stood out because it was doing almost everything differently.

At the time, snowboard and outdoor clothing was dominated by bright colours, oversized fits and bold graphics. Arc’teryx had taken a different approach.

Sitting on a pedestal was a simple, one-colour jacket that looked almost out of place among everything around it. It was the Alpha jacket, and what caught Becker’s attention was not just the appearance, but the thinking behind it.

The jacket featured waterproof zippers, a new approach to Gore-Tex construction, and a three-dimensional design inspired by the way climbers move. Even then, Arc’teryx had looked at the problems with existing products and tried to solve them from the ground up.

Almost three decades later, Becker, now Chief Creative Officer at Arc’teryx, sees that same mindset behind System 0, the brand’s attempt to tackle one of the most difficult problems facing the outdoor industry: how to create high-performance equipment while reducing the amount of waste created throughout a product’s life.

System 0 is not a single jacket, material or technology. Instead, it is a broader approach that brings together product design, manufacturing, repair, and end-of-life solutions, aiming to create products that last longer, are easier to repair, and, eventually, easier to recycle.

As Kyle Wood, Arc’teryx VP of Strategy, explained during the System 0 presentation, circularity is a highly complex, systemic problem, and it won’t be solved with a single product or strategy overnight.

For Arc’teryx, the project extends what the company has always tried to do: solve difficult problems with real consequences.

Starting with the hardest problem

Arc’teryx’s approach to product development has always been based around a few simple filters. Is the product authentic to the brand, does it solve a genuine problem, is it beautiful, and does it meet the company’s standards around responsibility?

That final point has become increasingly important as the brand has looked at what responsibility means beyond simply making durable products.

“We have people that love our product that have been wearing the same jacket for 12 years, 15 years,” said Becker. “And we really started to look at what does responsibility really mean? How do we build it to repair it? What are we doing about end of life?”

That thinking eventually led to System 0, a four-year project exploring how Arc’teryx could approach circularity in a way that matched its existing standards.

The team quickly realised that creating a circular product couldn't mean simply making a jacket with different materials. It required a wider system around the product, including repair services, manufacturing changes and a way to recover materials when the jacket eventually reached the end of its useful life.

Alex Plante, Arc’teryx’s VP of Advanced Concepts, explains that the team wanted to avoid treating circularity as a separate sustainability project.

“We knew that circularity wasn’t going to be about a product alone,” she said. “We knew that a product needed to be created, because that’s what we make, but it needed to be a product that was a proof point for a new system that we wanted to drive forward.”

The team could have started with a simpler product category, but that would not have been the Arc’teryx way. “We don’t start with easy problems,” said Plante. “Hard problems are generally the most rewarding.”

The chosen product was a waterproof jacket, one of the most technically demanding categories in outdoor clothing. A shell has to protect users from rain and snow, allow freedom of movement, work with climbing equipment, and remain durable after years of use.

And, as Arc’teryx found out, it also happens to be one of the hardest products to make circular.

Learning from products that came back

One of the biggest advantages Arc’teryx had when developing System 0 was ReBIRD, the brand’s repair programme. It gives customers the option to repair damaged equipment rather than replace it, but it also gives Arc’teryx something equally valuable: information.

Because returned products come back through the company’s Vancouver facility, designers can examine where products fail, which components wear out, and what customers need from their equipment after years of use.

“We were able to learn and understand how people use our hardshells,” said Plante. “We were able to learn what breaks first, what people loved about them, so that we could design out failure points right from the very beginning.”

The first version of the jacket pushed the idea of recyclability much further than the final product. One early prototype removed zippers completely because zippers are one of the biggest challenges in recycling garments.

However, when Arc’teryx tested that design with athletes and professional users, the response was clear: it was not practical. “It was sustainable, but it didn’t make sense,” explained Becker.

The jacket became easier to recycle, but it lost the functionality that made Arc’teryx products useful in the first place. That became one of the key lessons of System 0: circularity could not come at the expense of performance.

No compromises on performance

For Andrew Yip, Senior Director of Materials in Advanced Concepts at Arc’teryx, the biggest challenge was creating a jacket that could use more recyclable materials while still meeting the same performance standards customers expect.

“The common theme, especially from the beginning, was an uncompromising approach,” said Yip. “We knew that we wouldn’t be able to create something that we weren’t proud of, and that meant not sacrificing performance in any way.”

The project involved working with several industry partners, including Aquafil, GORE and Toray, to create a new three-layer laminate using post-consumer waste.

Aquafil supplies the recycled nylon used in the jacket, produced through chemical recycling. Unlike mechanical recycling, which melts materials down and can reduce their quality over time, chemical recycling breaks nylon back down into its original components before creating new material.

Yip compares the process to ice cream. “If you’ve ever had ice cream melt and refrozen it in your freezer and tried to eat it again, you know that ice cream doesn’t taste or feel the same,” he explained. “That’s mechanical recycling.”

Chemical recycling works differently because it breaks the material down further, allowing it to be rebuilt with performance closer to the original material. The jacket isn't made from a single material, though, because the company found that a completely mono-material approach would require too many compromises.

“We knew that really wasn’t an option for us because of our standards in performance and durability,” said Yip.

Some components, including zippers and reflectors, still need separate handling at the end of life. The important change is that Arc’teryx has designed the jacket so those parts can be removed and processed as efficiently as possible.

Even small details were considered. The black zipper teeth, for example, were chosen because changing colours during manufacturing creates additional waste.

Designing a product people want to return

One of the hardest parts of creating a circular system isn't just recycling materials, but collecting and sorting products when people no longer want them.

This is where Arc’teryx believes ReBIRD gives it an advantage. “The idea is that we’re building the garment that people want to bring back to us,” said Yip. “They want to bring it back to us because they want to keep it, and they want to repair it, and they want to use it as long as they can.”

Eventually, when a product can no longer be repaired, Arc’teryx wants to use that existing repair network to identify when it is ready to be recycled. This is a crucial part of System 0 because collecting and sorting old textiles is one of the biggest challenges in creating a circular clothing system.

Testing beyond the laboratory

Given Arc’teryx’s history, it is perhaps unsurprising that System 0 involved extensive testing, including placing jackets in a cement mixer with gravel to simulate abrasion, then checking whether they remained waterproof.

Another test looked at contamination from human oils, which can eventually affect the bond between a waterproof membrane and the outer fabric. These tests were designed to understand how long it could realistically remain functional.

The final product was also tested by professional users, including search and rescue teams, who helped shape the design. Their feedback sometimes meant choosing function over recyclability. More pockets, for example, were necessary because rescue teams need space for medical equipment and additional supplies.

The beginning of a bigger project

Arc’teryx sees the Sperro SV as a starting point, with lessons that can eventually influence more product categories and services. “This is really the beginning of our journey,” said Plante.

The ambition is not simply to create more sustainable products, but to change how people think about their relationship with equipment. “We’re really looking to change the way that people think about their products from a customer or consumer to a custodian of a product,” she said.

System 0 aims to keep those products in use as long as possible while reducing the impact created along the way. It is a complicated problem, and Arc’teryx is clear that this jacket will not solve it alone. But that has always been the company’s approach to innovation: start with the hardest problem, test relentlessly, learn from failure and keep looking for a better way.

Casio has unveiled a new G-SHOCK that blurs the line between rugged surf watch and fitness tracker.

The GBX-H5600KI-5 is the fourth signature timepiece created with professional surfer and G-SHOCK ambassador Kanoa Igarashi.

It takes the already feature-packed GBX-H5600 G-LIDE and adds a distinctive new design inspired by one of Igarashi’s favourite training locations.

The GBX-H5600 launched earlier this year as the first G-LIDE model to feature a heart-rate monitor, bringing Casio’s surf-focused range closer to the capabilities of its G-SQUAD fitness watches.

Alongside tide graphs, moon data and sunrise and sunset information for thousands of locations worldwide, the watch tracks workouts, steps, sleep recovery and training metrics using Polar-powered algorithms.

For Igarashi’s fourth collaboration with G-SHOCK, Casio has given the square watch a unique finish inspired by the cliffs and rocky coastline around Ericeira, Portugal, where the surfer trains.

The brown mixed-colour resin bezel and strap are designed to recreate the look of the landscape, with purple accents representing the “magic hour” around sunrise and sunset.

Because of the unique moulding process, every watch features a slightly different pattern.

A lighter G-SHOCK

Casio has been dabbling with turning its classic watches into fitness trackers for years.

The Japanese brand teamed up with Polar to add smart features to its G-SHOCK watches through the Powered by Polar system.

Casio uses its own optical heart-rate sensor and accelerometer to collect raw data, then Polar’s algorithms/library turn it into training and recovery insights.

The GBX-H5600KI-5 features a lightweight carbon fibre-reinforced resin case back, reducing weight by around 18g compared with the previous heart-rate-equipped DW-H5600.

Despite the lighter construction, it retains the features G-SHOCK fans expect, including shock resistance, 200-metre water resistance, solar-assisted charging and a high-visibility MIP LCD display.

As a signature model, the watch is packed with Igarashi-specific details.

His signature appears on the watch face and case back, while the number “50” on the strap references his competition number on the World Surf League Championship Tour and the meaning behind his surname.

The Casio G-SHOCK GBX-H5600KI-5 is priced at $370 and will be available at G-SHOCK from September 2026.

The best adjustable dumbbells share one very useful feature: they take up far less space than the next-best alternative (a rack of fixed weights). Thanks to their clever mechanical design, they offer a weight range that covers everything from light exercises to heavy compound lifts while keeping the same footprint as a single pair of dumbbells.

Although not every brand that’s cobbled a set of adjustable dumbbells is worth your attention. Some more affordable options feel a bit rough around the edges, while premium offerings from brands like Bowflex and NordicTrack come with price tags that make your eyes water.

But stress not, as UK fitness equipment brand MuscleSquad has been carving out a niche somewhere in the middle for some time. Its last adjustable dumbbell release offered decent value but never quite felt premium enough to compete with the big names.

The Elite is the brand's attempt to change that, swapping the plasticky finish for an all-metal build and adding a few design refinements to close the gap with pricier rivals.

Available in 32kg and 40kg variants, each adjustable in 2kg increments, the Elite promises a weight range that covers pretty much any home workout you'd want to do. I've been putting a 32kg dumbbell through its paces over the past month to see whether the "Elite" moniker really lives up to its name. Here's how they stack up.

MuscleSquad Elite Adjustable Dumbbell review

Price and availability

The MuscleSquad Elite Adjustable Dumbbell is available to buy now directly from MuscleSquad for £225 for a single 32kg unit. The brand's store currently offers a discount code that brings the price down to £213.75 for a single unit, or £417.50 for a pair.

The 40kg variant is also available at a slightly higher price point of £250, or £237.50 with the discount code, bringing it to a nice rounded £475 for a pair.

That makes the Elite notably cheaper than rivals such as Bowflex, which just a few weeks ago launched the SelectTech 55 adjustable dumbbell, which carries an RRP of £270 for a single unit or £530 for a pair.

Elsewhere in the adjustable dumbbell market, there’s the Primal Personal Series 34kg, which comes in at £259.99 per dumbbell, or the BrainGain 40kg Octagon - although this product is sold in pairs priced at £700.

The Boxbell 3-in-1 sits at just £150 per unit (£300 for a pair), but it only goes up to 20kg. So either way, the MuscleSquad Elite undercuts most of the competition on price while offering a comparable or wider weight range.

Design and build

The Elite sports an all-metal construction, a real upgrade over MuscleSquad's last release. It gives the dumbbells a clean, industrial look that feels far more grown-up. The colour scheme is minimal, comprising simple silver tones with no garish accents or flashy branding.

If you've ever been put off by the bright red or orange detailing you often see on other adjustable dumbbell offerings, the Elite's understated finish will be a welcome relief.

Another big improvement is the flat ends, which make a big difference for press-based exercises. For example, setting the dumbbells on your thighs just before a chest press or shoulder press lift-off is way more comfortable and stable with this design, which isn't always the case with models that have uneven edges or dials at the ends.

So if you’re not twisting a dial on the end of the plates to adjust the weight, how do you do it? Well, the Elite uses a twist-handle mechanism. Simply turn the grip to your chosen weight, and the corresponding plates will lock into place.

What I really enjoyed about this design is that the dumbbell's physical size changes with the weight, so selecting a lighter setting gives you a more compact, less unwieldy unit. At lower weights, this makes exercises feel far more natural than on models (like older Bowflex designs, for example) where the dumbbell stays bulky regardless of what you've dialled in.

The metal storage dock keeps things tidy and is sturdier than the plastic variations you tend to get from other brands. However, I did notice that docking the dumbbell isn't always seamless. It can catch slightly as you move it in and out, which isn't a major problem but is noticeable if you're moving quickly between exercises.

Annoyingly, I found that this catching also meant that, after just a few sessions, the black paint on the dock started to chip where the dumbbell knocks against it as you slot it back in. You don’t get this with a plastic dock - contact usually just leaves a scratch that's barely visible.

But with painted metal, you get chips that expose the bare surface underneath, and I won’t lie - it makes the whole thing instantly look a bit scruffy and cheap.

Performance and features

Once you've set your weight and picked up the dumbbell, the Elite generally performs very well. The 2kg increments across 16 settings give you plenty of room for progressive overload, from light lateral raises and bicep curls at the lower end to heavy rows, goblet squats, and dumbbell presses at the top. For most home gym routines, the 32kg maximum is more than enough.

Thankfully, the plates feel comfortable during longer sessions, too. Over a month of regular training, I didn't experience any rubbing, pinching or soreness from the plate edges, which can be an issue with adjustable dumbbells that have exposed metal surfaces. Mid-set, the weight feels stable and locked in with only minimal rattling of the plates (this is kind of standard for adjustable dumbbells).

The adjustment mechanism itself feels a little less polished. The handle twist does the job, but it doesn't always turn so smoothly. When going from lighter to heavier weights especially, the dial can feel stiff and needs a firmer grip to click into the next increment.

During supersets where you want to change weight quickly and get on with the task at hand, that extra second or two of fiddling can break the flow. It's not a dealbreaker, but it is the kind of thing you’ll notice every session. Still, at this price, the Elite's mechanism is perfectly acceptable – it just lacks the buttery precision of more premium rival dumbbells.

Verdict

The MuscleSquad Elite’s all-metal build not only looks and feels considerably more premium than the brand’s last offering, but performance-wise is a level up, too.

The flat ends are a bonus for pressing movements, and the size-adjusting mechanism is a smart feature that makes lighter weights less cumbersome. What’s more, the weight range covers everything most home gym users will need, with the pricing mostly undercutting the big names in this space.

The dumbbell is not without its cons, though. The twist mechanism could be smoother, the docking catches occasionally, and the paint-chipping issue is disappointing for something marketed as "Elite”. These aren't things that totally ruin the experience of using it, but they do remind you that you're paying a little less than for top-notch rivals, and in places, that shows.

Nevertheless, for anyone who wants a clean-looking, well-priced adjustable dumbbell that covers a wide weight range without dominating the room, the MuscleSquad Elite is a smart option.

I’ve just spent three days of hot-weather camping in the four-person Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton family tent, and I already consider it to be one of the very best tents to buy in 2026.

If you go on a lot of family camping trips and have never had the pleasure of camping under polycotton fabric (like those elegant Dutch models you see at most French campsites), I urge you to seriously consider taking a look at this five-star model, which oozes sophistication, comfort and impressive stability in almost all weather.

So grab yourself a drink, pop up the parasol and dip into what must surely be the longest tent review I’ve ever written.

Decathlon Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton review

Price and availability

The Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton currently costs £999.99 at Decathlon UK, although availability may vary during the year. In Europe, Decathlon sells it through its European stores. Here’s a link to Decathlon’s French portal where this tent retails for €999.99.

Outside Europe, availability is more limited and may depend on importing from Decathlon or specialist resellers. Incidentally, UK buyers can also find the standard polyester Air Seconds 4.1 at Argos, where it retails for a considerably lower £300.

Specifications

• Seasons: 3-season
• Style: Tunnel
• Sleeps: 4
• Assembly type: Inflatable (3 poles)
• Pack size: L: 86cm; W: 56cm; H: 46cm
• Packed weight: 37.25kgs
• Exterior: L: 455cm; W: 305cm; H: 215m
• Interior (lounge): L: 220cm; W: 305cm; H: 215cm
• Interior (2 x bedrooms): L: 210cm; W: 280cm; H: 185cm
• Canopy Fabric: Polycotton (30% cotton, 70% Polyester)
• Rainfly Hydrostatic Head: Approx 2,000mm
• Floor Hydrostatic Head: 5,000 mm
• Guy points: 32
• Pegs used: 24

Pitching

The Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton comes in a superb polycotton bag with a solid floor, two wheels, and plenty of grab handles for remarkably easy transport from car to pitch. At over 37 kilos, this tent is much heavier than the norm, and its pack size is pretty large, too, but the wheels lessen the load considerably.

Everything you need is in the bag except for the air beam pump, which you will need to purchase separately. Do not forget this, or you may arrive at a remote campsite with no way to pump the tent up. While this tent can be easily erected by one person, it’s handy having an extra pair of hands when opening it out and pulling it into a suitable position.

The first thing my wife and I did was unfurl it and lay it out flat while we tried to work out which way to face it. I then used four of the supplied heavy-duty nail pegs for the corners of the tent, just in case of any wind gusts.

Since this is a three-beam air tent, I never bothered using my Quechua hand pump and instead reached for my Jackery Explorer 1000 portable power station and Quechua’s excellent electric pump. I attached the push-in nozzle to the valve on the first air beam, set the pump’s pressure to the recommended 7 PSI, tapped start, and watched in wonder as the pole expanded.

All I had to do was step onto the collapsed tent to reduce any kinks in the tube while it filled. After about 30 seconds, it was on to the next two poles, and after about three minutes, all three poles were erect, and the tent had taken shape.

Stage two involved hammering in all 24 pegs, and this took at least 30 minutes. Thankfully, most of the guy lines are split to cover two tie-out points per peg, so it was much quicker to finish than on the Coleman Air Valdes my friends took along.

The final stage of assembly involved fitting the fabulous internal carpet (easy), the internal telescopic ceiling support and the solid fibreglass pole into the sleeve of the front porch overhang. A couple more porch pegs later, the tent was fully erect and ready for the enjoyable part: stuffing it with all our gear.

I’d say the whole process took about 40 minutes, but 90% of that time was spent pegging in the numerous guy lines. Thankfully, there’s a large instruction sheet sewn into the top of the bag, so follow it if it’s the first time you’re erecting it.

This is especially important when you fold it up and pack it. Oh, and when taking it down, don’t forget to remove the ceiling support pole, or you’ll have to climb into the collapsed tent to retrieve it – just like I had to do.

What is polycotton and why is it such a great tent material?

Polycotton is a hybrid fabric that combines the natural breathability of cotton with the strength and durability of polyester – the synthetic material almost all modern tents are made from.

For decades before the advent of polyester, tents were made almost exclusively from natural cotton canvas, mostly because of its strength, weatherproof structure and superb breathability.

Many Dutch tents from manufacturers like De Waard are still made using the same pure cotton material today. However, pure cotton canvas is hampered by considerable weight, enormous pack size and exceedingly long drying times when damp.

Skip to the 1970s, and manufacturers began mass-producing camping tents using new synthetic polyester weaves that transformed camping by offering lighter, cheaper, and faster-drying shelters.

However, polyester is so well insulated against rain that it can feel unbearably hot inside on a sweltering day. Polyester is also noisy in the wind and rain and not very breathable, which leads to high levels of condensation, especially in the evenings and early mornings.

Cut to the 1980s, and polycotton – usually a mix of 35% cotton and 65% polyester – emerged as a clever compromise that combined the comfort and breathability of pure cotton with polyester’s durability, practicality and marginally lower weight and pack size.

As a result, we are seeing far more polycotton tents coming to market, mostly because the material offers a much more comfortable camping environment than any lightweight synthetic alternative.

Why? Put simply, cotton fibres allow air and water vapour to pass through the fabric, which helps regulate the temperature inside the tent while vastly reducing condensation.

So a polycotton tent like the Quechua we're reviewing here is much more pleasant in hot weather, when a conventional polyester tent can quickly turn into a stuffy oven.

The heavier fabric also stays more stable in strong winds, with very little flapping. It’s also much quieter in rain. Moreover, Polycotton is extremely durable and ideal for repeated use.

According to the web, 'a well-maintained polycotton tent can last for decades or many seasons of heavy use, whereas a standard polyester tent typically degrades much faster under the same conditions'.

Apparently, the main killer of polyester tents is ultraviolet (UV) degradation from prolonged sun exposure. Who knew?

Although you can see daylight between the fibres of polycotton, it is a remarkably weatherproof material that can withstand heavy downpours.

However, this only applies after the tent has been weathered by soaking the erected tent with a hosepipe so its cotton fibres can swell, helping close the weave and improve the fabric's resistance to rain.

Once weathered, it is essential to let the tent dry completely before packing it away. At this juncture, I should add that the Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 we’re reviewing here comes out of the bag pre-weathered, so there's no need to wet it first.

What are the compromises of polycotton tents? They're heavier for a start – almost double the weight of their polyester counterparts. Their packed size is also much larger, which means smaller cars simply won't be big enough to transport them. Finally, polycotton takes a lot longer to dry and is more susceptible to mould.

Hence, if your camping trip ends with rain and you've packed up a wet tent, you will need to erect it on your lawn to thoroughly dry it out as soon as possible – like within a couple of days!

I've weighed up all these trade-offs and, on evidence of the three polycotton tents I've so far reviewed – the Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 we're looking at here, the Lotus Belle Air Bud and, more recently, the Dometic Pico FTC 2x2 TC-i – I am now an absolute polycotton convert and, where possible, will always choose the material for my outdoor home from home.

In my opinion, the pleasure of living and sleeping under polycotton is absolutely worth the extra financial cost, the hassle of fitting it into the car and the drying malarky when wet. In fact, the nearest thing I can compare the experience to is staying in a yurt or an African safari tent. It's less like camping and much more like, well, glamping. Relatively low-cost luxury, in other words.

Design

The Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton inflatable four-person family tent demonstrates how far Decathlon’s Mont Blanc-based camping brand has progressed since it started in 1997.

While the company originally built its reputation on affordable, no-frills outdoor equipment, they have since grabbed a large slice of the market in the UK and France with a massive portfolio of exceedingly well-designed tents at great prices, along with a veritable tranche of camping and outdoor accessories.

The Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton looks and feels like a product designed to compete with considerably more expensive polycotton rivals from Jack Wolfskin, Kampa and, of course, the Dutch kings of drum-tight full-cotton tents, De Waard.

The four-person Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton has a substantial 455cm x 305cm footprint and offers a good-sized living area and two dark side-by-side bedrooms, divided by a strip of black material that can be unzipped to form one large room.

I always advise going up a couple of sizes when it comes to buying a tent simply because it provides more interior space – and space is something you'll come to appreciate when everyone's stepping over each other.

Hence, while this tent will comfortably fit four – especially two parents and young kids – I still think it's a better fit for two. That's how I've been using it – my wife and I on one side of the bedroom and our two labradors on the other.

Aside from its delicious desert taupe colour, one of the tent's most appealing features is its inflatable Air Seconds structure. Rather than relying on a complex network of fibreglass or aluminium poles, the Air Seconds 4.2 uses three inflatable air beams that create a remarkably rigid framework once filled to their recommended pressure of 7PSI.

As with any tent of this nature, the air-beam system removes the annoying frustration traditionally associated with pitching a large family tent like this and vastly reduces both setup time and, perhaps more importantly, the likelihood of incorrect assembly.

Unlike the very similar Quechua Air Seconds 5.2 Fresh & Black I reviewed in 2024, which has its air beams on the outside, this one's beams are on the inside with the valves on the outside, and this makes for a much more taut and elegant appearance.

However, I must warn you that this model doesn't come with an air pump as standard, so don't forget to add one before hitting the checkout button. I recommend the Quechua Ultim Comfort Hand Pump for ease of use and low price, or, if you can stretch the budget and have a car or portable power station nearby, the Decathlon 0-20 PSI 13.8 V 10 A Electric Pump for effortless inflation in mere seconds.

Right, back to the tent. The Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton's flysheet is undeniably this model's main selling point. The blend of cotton and polyester – in this instance 30% cotton and 70% polyester – offers substantial advantages over conventional synthetic fabrics, regulating internal temperatures more effectively while reducing condensation during cooler mornings and nights.

Polycotton feels noticeably thicker and far more substantial than polyester, giving the entire package a premium glamping level of quality that is immediately noticeable the moment you step inside.

Unlike lightweight polyester, which feels slippery and thin, flaps noisily in windy conditions and makes a high-pitched racket in rain, the Quechua's polycotton fabric hangs with reassuring weight and improved tautness, and is much quieter in both wind and rain.

I also did a quick temperature test while camping with this tent and a couple of polyester models. Since it was really hot outside, I checked the internal temperature in each tent, and the polycotton tent was noticeably cooler by about two or three degrees.

The front of this tent has a wonderfully large aperture for taking in the view and letting in plenty of fresh air, and it can be completely closed off to the elements, including being zipped to the front of the groundsheet or rolled back and pinned to the side using the provided toggles.

Alternatively, you can keep it all zipped up with a huge part of the front section unzipped to expose a wide expanse of insect mesh. Lots of options, in other words. Above the entrance is a small porch peak that uses the only fibreglass poles in the package.

Quechua's designers are campers and adventurers themselves, so this tent is packed with fantastic, genuinely practical details and features.

The extraordinarily tough and watertight built-in groundsheet has a hydrostatic head of 5,000 and completely encases the tent's footprint. I took a good look and couldn't find any gaps to the outside, which means it's creepy-crawly-proof.

Furthermore, you can fold the front section of the groundsheet flat to prevent tripping, or pin it up to create a four-inch barrier against floodwaters. As mentioned above, the front fly can be zipped securely to the front of the groundsheet to create a fully sealed chamber that no dog can breach in the middle of the night.

Heading outside, I counted 32 guy points on this tent – both ground level and attached to the fly – and that's a reassuring amount of support. Mind, to make things easier, most of the side tie-out points are in pairs, with one guy line serving both, so only 24 pegs are used throughout.

Likewise, the rear has five tie-out points served by just two guy lines. I struggled a bit with the rear because each three-way guy line has three tie-out points, and it took me ages to even out the tension.

I still never really got it right, so I bought a pack of guy lines and plan to remove the existing rear guys and attach each new guy rope to each of the five rear tie-outs. I'm figuring it will be easier to adjust the rear tension that way so it all looks flat and smooth.

Why? Because I'm a bit OCD when it comes to making a tent look perfect. Incidentally, this tent comes with a full complement of pegs, including several heavy-duty nail-style pegs for the most important ground-level pegging points.

Living space

Like its polyester stablemate, the Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton provides a generous 6.8 m² living room area measuring 305cm wide and 220cm deep, with enough headroom (215cm) for someone well over six feet tall.

In fact, there's a telescopic aluminium bar in the roof of the lounge section that serves as an extra tensioner, and I can just reach the area with my arms fully stretched out while standing on tiptoes.

The living area has a plastic window on one side and a mesh window on the other. Both windows have Velcroed taupe screens to keep the sun out.

For some reason – probably aesthetics – both windows are not entirely square, which looks more peculiar when you're indoors than it does from the outside. I would personally prefer square windows so the inner screen looks less messy when rolled up.

Also, as I mentioned when reviewing this model's larger polyester version, it would be amazing to have one of these windows made into a side door, both for extra ventilation but, more importantly, for use as another exit and entrance to accompany the main front one. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but for me the more doors, the merrier.

Incidentally, both windows have a washing line above – handier than you might think – and just below them a long strip of netted storage pockets on each side. There are several more net pouches attached to both centre beams and hanging points aplenty for attaching camping lanterns, keys and whatever else you don’t want disappearing into the depths of the tent.

One very surprising and extremely welcome feature of this tent is that it comes with an integral patterned carpet for the living area that clips into place, so there's zero chance of it ever getting ruffled. I can't tell you how useful this carpet is since it not only feels great under bare feet, but its padded structure keeps ground chill at bay in the evenings. Nice one, Quechua.

Bedrooms

The first thing you notice as you approach the rear hanging bedroom section is two white strips running the length of the two doors.

These are magnetic doors, and again I can't tell you how incredibly useful they are, especially if camping with the family. With most other tents, you need to reach down and unzip a whole swathe of fabric before stepping in or out, and we all know how loud a zip is in the dead of night.

With this tent, you simply push your hand against the join in the door and it magically parts before immediately closing behind you. And it does this perfectly every time. Total silence and insane practicality in one tidy invention. Nevertheless, you can also zip up both rooms to stop kids or dogs from sneaking out.

The Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton's bedroom measures 280cm wide and 210cm deep. This depth measurement is standard in almost all tents – enough to accommodate all mattresses and cots – but I'm still waiting for the day that someone in camp-land increases this measurement by at least 10cm so one's feet or head never touch the walls of the bedroom.

Grumble over, the Quechua's bedroom can be easily turned into one larger 280cm x 210 sleeping space by unzipping the partition, rolling it up and attaching it to the supplied toggles.

Most people these days love a blackout bedroom because it stops the morning sun from brightening the interior of the tent while everyone's still kipping.

This model's blackout fabric isn't as dark as others – specifically those from Coleman – but my wife and I prefer it that way because we can both see an element of ambient light peeking through the fibres, and we don't end up stumbling about in almost total darkness.

It wakes you up at a sensible time, too. The bedrooms also have their own storage pockets on either side and two hooks for hanging a pair of LED lamps.

Ventilation

Most polyester tents – specifically smaller ones – are comprised of an outer flysheet and an inner flysheet made from polyester and mesh replete with several ventilation channels.

This is because synthetic polyester is so well weather-sealed that it cannot breathe, resulting in a lot of condensation, mostly caused by occupants simply breathing. Condensation is worst in the evening, overnight, and in the morning.

By contrast, the inherent breathability of polycotton neutralises condensation to a huge degree, though it's true that polycotton still needs some form of ventilation, if only to make it more pleasant for the occupants. This tent has plenty of ventilation, especially in the bedroom department where condensation is usually at its worst.

Like most tents, the Quechua has a wide ceiling vent at the rear of the bedroom, but unlike most of the competition, it also has two large side-mounted, semi-circular ground-level vents perfectly positioned to align with the sleeping occupant's face, at least when sleeping with feet against the tapered rear. These vents can be adjusted in a number of ways: fully opened to the elements, with a mesh lining to fend off bugs or sealed.

On the outside, two large rain flaps can be hooked to the side of the guy lines in an open position or completely closed when it's especially chilly.

The best part is that you can adjust any configuration of the outer flaps from inside the bedroom by simply sticking your arm out and attaching the flap to the floor hooks or the two rings on the guy rope. Ingenious, that's what it is, ingenious!

Performance

We took the Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton for a couple of nights camping in the Cotswolds. With the UK experiencing the longest and hottest summer in living memory, I was keen to see how well this tent performed in a climate akin to the south of France or even southern Africa, given the overall brownness of the drought-ridden landscape.

Our first and only hurdle was getting the tent into our Honda CR-V SUV since it weighs a considerable 37 kilos. Getting it to the car and the pitch was easier than with any other family tent I’ve used because its bag has two wheels on the end and plenty of handles to pull it along. The hard part was hoisting it into the boot. Mind, those wheels came in handy again because I simply rolled it in.

I will admit that I underestimated the size of the bag (it measures 86cm in length, 56cm in width and a modest 46cm in height), which took up much more space in the boot than expected.

Nevertheless, we are both so enamoured of the tent and everything inside it that my wife and I are prepared to accept this size limitation and just go with the flow because the tent paid dividends once we’d settled in.

I’m not trying to diss synthetic polyester in any way because it is still the go-to fabric for the vast majority of campers – it’s cheaper, lighter and more practical to transport. But, by jove, once you’ve lived and slept under polycotton, there’s no turning back. It’s difficult to explain, but the whole ambience is simply matchless.

The safari-style taupe colour has an immediately relaxing ambience about it and I love the semi transparency of the polycotton weave which allows for a slightly brighter interior, even in the darkened bedroom.

In fact, when you look up at the weave, you wonder how it could possibly be waterproof. Trust me, it is more than waterproof enough for most European storms.

Rather conveniently, a band of rain accompanied by a few gusts visited the Cotswold escarpment on one evening, and the Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton shook it all off with aplomb. I even did a quick sound test during this period and popped into our friends’ polyester-based Coleman Air Valdes to have a listen to the rain and monitor the amount of tent flapping.

Despite the Coleman being tautly erected, there was definitely more flapping going on than with the Quechua, which hardly budged. But it was the differences in the sound of the rain that further convinced me that polycotton is on another level.

In the Coleman, the rain had a high-pitched pitter–patter – basically the sound of rain hitting thin plastic. But in the Quechua, the sound was much lower in frequency and far less noticeable. Another win for polycotton.

Everything in this tent is designed to make an average day at the campsite go more smoothly. The surfeit of storage pockets, the magnificent magnetic bedroom doors, the clever floor-level air vents in the bedrooms and the fully enclosed and exceedingly rugged groundsheet, along with the added bonus of a fitted carpet. This tent has it all.

I thought the polyester-based Quechua Air Seconds 5.2 was an amazing tent (it still is), but this one’s on another level when it comes to sophistication, comfort, style and overall internal ambience. Bite the bullet – you won’t be disappointed.

Verdict

The Quechua Air Seconds 4.2 Polycotton is a stunning four-person air tent that makes a compelling case for choosing comfort, sophistication and a spot of luxury over ultralight convenience.

Its polycotton fabric is the real clincher because it breathes in warm weather, helps regulate temperature, and creates a wonderfully natural, homely atmosphere inside.

The trade-off is weight and pack size because polycotton is considerably heavier and bulkier than lightweight polyester. But that’s a small price to pay, in my opinion, because once you’ve tried polycotton, there’s no going back. Screw the weight, screw the pack size, screw the higher price – I’m 100% in.

Some tools don't really need reinventing, and the humble utility knife is arguably one of them.

Give it a sharp, replaceable blade and a reasonably comfortable grip, and the job is pretty much done.

Jimmytronics clearly disagrees. Its new Tarpon Utility Knife takes one of the most basic cutting tools and turns it into something that looks more like precision EDC equipment.

The big attraction is its unusual manual out-the-front action, which you can activate by pressing the Tarpon's Fin Lock and sliding the blade forwards until it locks into place.

You can even flick it out with a quick hand movement, which is probably considerably more entertaining than opening a cardboard box has any right to be.

The movement is entirely manual, with the locking mechanism simply holding everything securely once the blade reaches either position.

Over-engineered in all the right ways

The rest of the Tarpon is similarly elaborate for something that's essentially designed to cut tape, cardboard and packaging.

Its body is machined from solid 316 stainless steel and measures just 6mm thick.

At 119.5mm long and around 100g, it's substantial enough to hold properly without becoming another bulky tool fighting for space in a drawer or toolkit.

It also has a reversible Cerakote-coated wire pocket clip, a lanyard hole, and a knurled wheel that lets you swap blades without turning the process into a miniature engineering project.

Despite all the precision machining and unusual deployment mechanism, the Tarpon accepts standard full-size utility blades, so when one gets blunt, you can simply replace it.

Jimmytronics is currently crowdfunding the Tarpon, with pledges starting at $68.

The campaign has already comfortably exceeded its original funding target.

As ever with crowdfunded products, you're backing a project rather than buying something that's already sitting on a shop shelf, so delivery dates and final specifications can still change.

It's also worth remembering that UK rules around carrying knives are strict.

Locking knives aren't covered by the general exemption for small non-locking folding pocket knives, so treat this as a utility tool for appropriate jobs rather than automatically throwing it into your everyday pocket.

Still, as an example of what happens when someone applies an unnecessary amount of engineering to a thoroughly ordinary object, the Tarpon is extremely appealing.

Check out the project on Kickstarter.

[via GearPatrol]

Solo Stove has just upgraded its Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit with a stylish new finish. Designed to bring some warmth – in more ways than one – to your garden, the new Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit now has a Teak Steel finish, but the price may shock you.

Best known for its smokeless fire pits, Solo Stove's Infinity Flame collection has a tabletop design so up to eight people can sit around it and enjoy its warmth. The original Infinity Flame fire pit launched in 2025, and marked a first as the brand’s first-ever propane fueled fire pit, so there’s a lot to like about this model.

Previously, the Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit has come in a subtle charcoal colour, but this new upgrade gives it a golden hue. The Teak Steel finish includes a teak woodgrain-patterned tabletop that’s UV-resistant and measures 42 inches in diameter. It sits on a slatted steel frame and base which is resistant to rain, sun and rust.

When in action, the surface and base of the Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit remains cool to the touch. It also has adjustable feet so it can be front and centre on your patio or blend into the background at a shorter height.

With its propane fuel, the Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit uses a dual burner and precision airflow to create a flame that looks like a natural wood fire. The use of propane gives you more control over the flame, and as it’s a smokeless fire put, there’s no smoke, ash or sparks to worry about.

The Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit can be adjusted via its single dial which delivers up to 72,000 BTUs. There’s a built-in compartment in the fire pit that hides your gas tank, and an integrated heat shield to keep everything safe. It also has a 5.5 hour run – or burn – time so you can bask by the fire all evening.

The Solo Stove Infinity Flame Propane Fire Pit is available to buy for $799.99 at Solo Stove. As of writing, it’s not yet available in the UK and Europe. Compared to Solo Stove’s other fire pits, the Infinity Flame is the more expensive model, and it’s $120 more than the charcoal steel version.

Is it worth $800? It’ll depend on your budget and the style of your garden, but it’s hard to deny the quality of a Solo Stove fire pit. I like the look of the Teak Steel finish, and agree that it gives your outdoor space more warmth, although if you’d prefer something subtle, the charcoal version is the one I’d choose.

Adidas has taken inspiration from one of its most advanced road racing shoes and sent it into the mountains.

The new Agravic Speed Ultra Evo brings technology developed for the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 to trail running, creating what adidas calls its fastest trail running shoe ever.

The Agravic Speed Ultra Evo borrows the ENERGYRIM technology first introduced in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, adapting it for the unpredictable demands of trail racing.

It lets each side of the shoe move independently and is said to improve adaptability across uneven terrain while increasing stability and energy return.

The Adios Pro Evo 3 goes wild

While road racing shoes can focus purely on efficiency and speed, trail shoes must be able to handle rocks, roots, climbs, and technical descents, so the company had to rethink how the technology works off smooth tarmac.

Weighing an average of 250g, the Agravic Speed Ultra Evo is around 5% lighter than the Agravic Speed Ultra 2, while adidas claims it delivers more than 10% greater energy return and a 1% improvement in running economy.

Underfoot, the shoe uses a moulded LIGHTSTRIKE PRO midsole, designed to deform 15% more while maintaining stability.

A tuned rocker geometry and landing platform are intended to create smoother transitions and more confidence when moving quickly over varied surfaces.

The upper has also been engineered for long-distance racing, using a soft, one-way stretch woven material with an integrated debris-protection collar and minimal stitching to create what adidas describes as a second-skin fit.

“Trail running asks so much more of a shoe. Our challenge was finding the balance between speed, stability and confidence, and that's exactly what the Agravic Speed Ultra Evo was built to deliver,” said Korbinian Lehner, Senior Manager Footwear Innovation at adidas.

The Agravic Speed Ultra Evo launches in very limited numbers during UTMB Mont Blanc from 25 August, priced at $500/€500 (~£428 / AU$818), with initial availability limited to selected retailers in Chamonix.

Visit Adidas for more information on the Agravic line.

When you go to the doctor for a checkup, you probably expect them to check your blood pressure and cholesterol. What they're less likely to test is whether you can get up from the floor without using your hands, balance on one leg for a minute or hang from a pull-up bar.

As we get older (and wiser, of course), it’s not just about those health markers, but how well we can actually move matters too. After all, living longer is one thing. Living well, and staying strong, mobile and independent enough to enjoy those extra years is another.

That's where functional fitness comes in. Simple movement tests can give you a useful snapshot of the strength, balance, mobility and physical resilience you're taking into your forties and beyond. And, crucially, they give you something you can measure and work on.

Inspired by a post from Men's Health & Performance Coach Rob Morgan, these six tests won't tell you whether you'll live to 100, but together they can reveal plenty about how well your body is functioning right now. Best of all, you don't need a lab or doctor to test them - you can do them at home yourself.

1. Deep squat hold

Target: 2 minutes

Drop into a deep squat, keeping your heels on the floor, chest lifted, and feet planted, then hold the position for as long as you can comfortably.

The deep squat challenges mobility through your hips, knees and ankles, while also testing lower-body and core strength.

Can't do it? Start by holding onto a sturdy support or TRX, then gradually increase your squat depth and the time you can comfortably hold the position.

2. No-hands get-up

Target: Get down to the floor and back up without using your hands

This one sounds ridiculously simple until you try it.

From standing, lower yourself to a seated position on the floor without using your hands, arms or knees for support. Then stand back up without using them to boost yourself.

The movement combines lower-body strength, mobility, balance and coordination - all physical qualities we want to hang onto as we age.

Some interesting research supports this, too. In a study involving more than 2,000 adults aged 51 to 80, lower sit-to-stand scores were associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality over a follow-up period of about 6 years.

In other words, being able to get yourself off the floor could reveal more about your health and longevity than you might think.

Can't do it? Sit down on the floor and practise getting back up. It may be totally ungraceful at first, and you might need to roll onto your side or use your hands. That's OK. Keep practising.

3. Single-leg balance

Target: 1 minute per leg

Stand tall, lift one foot off the floor, and see how long you can stay balanced without putting it back down or grabbing something for support. Then swap sides.

Balance might not get the same attention as strength or cardio, but it becomes increasingly important as we get older. Staying stable on one leg requires coordination between your muscles, joints, vision, vestibular system, and nervous system.

Good balance also matters for something considerably less glamorous but increasingly important with age: staying steady on your feet.

Can't do it? Standing on one leg is one of the easiest things to practise because you don't need any equipment. Try it while brushing your teeth or waiting for the kettle to boil, and add more single-leg and unilateral exercises to your gym workouts. There's nowhere to hide when you take one leg away, so embrace the wobble and keep working on becoming more stable.

4. Fists to floor

Target: Touch your fists to the floor without bending your knees

Stand tall with your legs straight, hinge forwards and see whether you can reach your fists towards the floor without bending your knees.

It's a quick test of mobility through your hamstrings, hips, and spine, and it can highlight stiffness that creeps in after years spent sitting at desks, driving, and generally moving less.

Don't force your way to the floor, though. Mobility is something to work on progressively and consistently.

Can't do it? It might be time to stop neglecting those basic stretches. Lying hamstring stretches can help, or simply bring the floor closer to you - and start by folding forwards and placing your hands on yoga blocks to get that yoga stretch. You can then gradually reduce the height as your mobility improves.

5. Push-ups

Target: 20 perfect reps

There's a reason the humble push-up always pops up.

Twenty clean repetitions require upper-body strength, muscular endurance and core stability, without the need for a dumbbell, barbell or even a gym.

Research also links push-up capacity to cardiovascular health. One study of active adult men found that those who could do more push-ups had a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease events during the subsequent 10-year follow-up.

That doesn't mean doing push-ups prevents heart disease, of course, but your ability to perform them can provide another useful snapshot of your overall physical capacity.

For this test, quality counts. Keep your body in a straight line, lower your chest towards the floor and fully extend your arms at the top. Twenty half-reps don't count.

Can't do it? Do as many clean reps as possible before dropping to your knees. Over time, aim to increase the number of full push-ups you can complete before switching to the modified version.

6. Dead hang

Target: 1 minute

Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, lift your feet off the floor and hang.

Simple? Yes. Easy? Give it 30 seconds. Still with us?

The dead hang challenges grip strength and upper-body endurance while requiring you to support your entire body weight from your hands.

Grip strength has become one of the biggest talking points in longevity research because lower grip strength is consistently associated with poorer health outcomes as we age. It doesn't mean hanging from a bar for 60 seconds will make you live longer, but maintaining strength through your hands and upper body can indicate overall strength and physical capacity.

Can't do it? Start by hanging for as long as you can and aim to add a little more time each week. You can also use a resistance band to support your body as you build grip and upper-body strength.

What if you can't pass all six?

Firstly, don't panic. These aren't pass-or-fail medical tests, nor are they a crystal ball for longevity. Think of them as a starting point - and a way to identify which areas of your fitness might need a little more attention. After all, you can't manage what you don't measure.

It's exactly why I strength train, get around 10,000-15,000 steps a day and prioritise mobility. I'm not only exercising for what my body can do now; I'm investing in what I want it to do decades from now.

One day, my kids might have kids of their own, and I want to be the grandma who can confidently get down on the floor with them - and, importantly, get back up again. I want to carry my own shopping, climb the stairs, travel, and keep doing the things I love without relying on somebody else.

Because the goal isn't simply a longer life. It's staying strong and capable enough to enjoy it.

Nike has revealed the Pegasus Plus 2, a new tempo-focused addition to its long-running Pegasus franchise that introduces a feature rarely seen outside the brand’s performance racing shoes.

The exposed forefoot Air Zoom unit immediately recalls the look of Nike’s Alphafly 'super shoe', but the new trainer isn't a stripped-back race shoe.

The spiritual successor to the Pegasus Turbo, Nike says the Pegasus Plus 2 is a versatile trainer for runners who want a faster ride for tempo runs, intervals, and long runs without committing to a carbon-plated racing shoe.

It combines the visible curved Air Zoom unit with a ZoomX foam midsole, creating what Nike describes as a lighter, more responsive ride.

According to the brand, the setup delivers at least 18% more energy return than the first-generation Pegasus Plus.

“Our goal was simple: speed without sacrifice,” says Deepa Ramprasad, senior director, Nike Running footwear.

“We spent years obsessing every ingredient in this system. Nothing more and nothing less than what a runner needs to feel fast, comfortable and confident to push their pace.”

Nike’s running lineup just got clearer

Nike has spent the last few years revamping its running shoe lineup, and the Pegasus Plus 2 shows it's not done with it yet.

By now, the range has become increasingly specialised, with the brand offering distinct options for different types of runners.

Vaporfly remains the pure racing weapon, designed for chasing personal bests over shorter road distances and marathon racing.

Alphafly sits at the top of the marathon hierarchy, combining maximum energy return with a race-focused geometry.

Pegasus Plus 2 now occupies the middle ground as a high-performance trainer for runners who want some of the excitement of Nike’s race shoes without the compromises.

Pegasus remains the dependable everyday option, built for runners who want one shoe that can handle almost anything.

Vomero is Nike’s maximum-cushion option, prioritising comfort and protection for easy miles and longer runs.

Structure provides a more supportive ride for runners who need extra stability.

The result is a running range that looks less like a ladder and more like a toolkit, with each shoe designed around a specific type of run.

The race-day feeling, without the race-day shoe

The Pegasus Plus 2’s biggest technical change is the exposed Air Zoom unit in the forefoot.

Nike says the curved design helps create a smoother transition from landing to toe-off, while internal tensile fibres act like preloaded springs to return energy through each stride.

The shoe also gets an updated MR10 2.0 last, first introduced in the Pegasus 42, with a more accommodating forefoot and toe box.

That could make it a more appealing option for runners who have traditionally found Nike’s faster shoes restrictive.

The upper has been refined with elevated ankle materials, reflective details, and a redesigned waffle outsole with flex zones, all aimed at creating a lighter, more connected feel on the road.

Nike says more than 30 elite athletes across marathon and track disciplines tested the Pegasus Plus 2, with input from the Nike Sport Research Lab helping shape the final design.

The Nike Pegasus Plus 2 launches in late August at Nike UK, Nike US and Nike EU. AU availability TBC. Price in all regoins TBC.

On has made plenty of running shoes designed to help you move faster, but its latest collaboration with FKA twigs is focused on what happens after the finish line.

The Swiss brand and the artist have unveiled their Fall/Winter 2026 collection, headlined by the new Cloudmonster 3 Mule, which happens to be On’s first-ever mule silhouette.

The slip-on takes inspiration from the Cloudmonster family, bringing the brand’s distinctive oversized cushioning aesthetic into a recovery-focused shoe designed for slower moments.

It features a triple-layer CloudTec construction, Helion superfoam midsole and Speedboard technology.

The unique footwear also combines the soft cushioning expected from an off-duty shoe with the energetic feel synonymous with On’s footwear.

The result is a surprisingly technical take on the humble mule, built around the idea that recovery is part of movement, not an absence of it.

Available in two earth-inspired colourways, including Cacao/Espresso and Loess/Hare, the design swaps traditional laces for a hook-and-loop strap system, with a plush terry lining adding a more relaxed feel.

The upper features subtle branding and a sculptural shape that feels closer to a fashion sneaker than a conventional recovery clog (it certainly looks more sophisticated than your average Crocs).

The collection continues the creative partnership between On and FKA twigs, which has previously explored the relationship between training, movement and self-expression.

For the launch campaign, FKA twigs directed a series of images shot by photographer Sharna Osborne, inspired by the aesthetics of 90s VHS footage and portraying restorative movement through sculptural poses.

Alongside the Cloudmonster 3 Mule, the collection includes relaxed apparel pieces such as the Club Collective Full Zip Hoodie, Club Collective Pants and Studio Bodysuit, all designed around softer textures and post-performance comfort.

The On x FKA twigs Fall/Winter 2026 collection launches on 27 August 2026 through On’s website and selected retailers.

The Cloudmonster 3 Mule will cost £170 / $180 / €190 / AU$280 at On UK, On US, On EU and On AU.

If you’ve been waiting for a Garmin outdoor watch that doesn’t cost Fenix money, this could be the deal to watch. The Garmin Instinct 2X Solar has dropped to just £199.99 at Ernest Jones, saving £140 off its usual £339.99 price tag.

Shop all Garmin deals at Ernest Jones

The Instinct 2X Solar sits in a slightly different corner of Garmin’s ecosystem to the company’s premium Fenix and Epix watches. It focuses on being a tough, dependable companion, with a rugged fibre-reinforced polymer case, solar charging and a monochrome display designed to be readable in bright sunlight.

Despite its more utilitarian appearance, it still packs many of the features that make Garmin watches so popular with runners, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. You get built-in GPS, extensive sports tracking, health monitoring, navigation tools, and a built-in LED flashlight.

The biggest selling point remains battery life. Thanks to Garmin’s Power Glass solar charging lens, the Instinct 2X Solar can last dramatically longer than most smartwatches, making it a great option for multi-day hikes, camping trips and anyone who doesn’t want to charge their watch every night.

Newer Instinct models are available, but the Instinct 2X Solar remains a very capable watch, especially at this price. If you’ve been tempted by Garmin’s adventure watches but couldn’t justify spending several hundred pounds, this is one of the easiest recommendations right now.

When heading off to university, the obvious bag choices usually involve laptop compartments, canvas totes or whatever happens to be trending on campus.

But The North Face’s Base Camp Dry Bag makes a surprisingly strong case for something a little different.

Shop all The North Face Back to School backpacks

Originally designed for outdoor adventures, the 18-litre dry bag could easily become a student’s everyday companion.

It is compact enough to carry books, gym kit, and daily essentials, yet tough enough to handle everything from rainy commutes to weekend escapes.

It combines the rugged appeal of The North Face’s famous outdoor gear with a price that won’t make a student loan disappear.

The 18-litre version costs £60, while the smaller 12-litre model drops the price even further to just £47.

For that money, you get a bag made from 300D recycled polyester with a TPU coating and non-PFC durable water-repellent finish, alongside an IPX7 waterproof rating.

In practical terms, that means unexpected downpours, muddy trails and accidental puddle encounters are far less of a concern.

The roll-top design helps keep contents protected, while the reinforced base adds durability where cheaper everyday bags often start to fail.

There is also a Hypalon collar for easier rolling, daisy chain webbing for attaching extra gear and a removable padded shoulder strap for more comfortable carrying.

Available in The North Face’s distinctive outdoor-inspired colourways, it looks more adventurous than the sea of generic backpacks found on university campuses.

It is the sort of bag that works equally well heading to lectures, cycling across town or disappearing for a weekend camping trip.

While many back-to-school purchases are designed to last a year or two, this gear could stick around much longer.

A waterproof, hard-wearing bag from a brand with The North Face’s outdoor heritage for £47 is a rare combination, making the Base Camp Dry Bag one of the more interesting alternatives for students heading back to campus.

YETI just unveiled its latest collection, and it's actually two new colours fused into one.

The Estancia Collection takes inspiration from the vast ranchlands of South America, with the two new shades designed to reflect the region’s rugged landscapes and traditional gaucho culture.

The name itself comes from the Spanish word for a large ranch or estate typically associated with Argentina and Uruguay.

The theme carries through into the two new colours: Pampa Green, named after the famous grasslands of South America, and Stag Red, a warmer shade inspired by the tones of the open countryside.

Both are available across a broad selection of YETI’s existing gear, including the brand’s popular Rambler drinkware range, Tundra coolers, Hopper soft coolers, Camino carry bags and accessories.

Highlights include the Rambler 18 oz and 26 oz water bottles with matching Flip Chug Caps, the Rambler 35 oz Straw Mug, the Roadie 15 Hard Cooler, Hopper Flip 12 Soft Cooler, Camino 35 Carryall Tote, and the new Ranchero 4L Crossbody Bag.

Wide-open landscapes

The Estancia Collection’s campaign imagery leans heavily into its inspiration, featuring open landscapes, traditional clothing and outdoor gatherings, reinforcing YETI’s long-running connection with adventure, camping and life away from the everyday.

While the products remain unchanged, the new collection gives some of YETI’s most recognisable gear a distinctly different personality, swapping the usual utilitarian outdoor aesthetic for something closer to a South American ranch retreat.

As ever, YETI's products work both around the house and when you're camping, making them versatile enough to justify the premium price tag.

Quite unusually for the brand, the Estancia Collection launched simultaneously in the US and the UK, offering both countries a wide selection of products in the new colours.

That said, the UK range is only 50-something strong, while US customers have access to nearly 90 products.

Luckily, at least one patch (Stag Leap) made it across the Pond, which is always the highlight of YETI collections, at least for me.

The YETI Estancia Collection is available now at YETI US and YETI UK, with prices from $10 / £10 (~€8 / AU$14).

EU and AU prices and availability TBC.

It’s been a long, hot, dry summer, but we all know what that means… The clouds are already gathering on the horizon, and you don’t have to be Bob Dylan to realise a hard rain’s a‐gonna fall, very soon. And once it starts, well, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

So, as autumn approaches, are you ready? And by ready, I mean: do you have a decent, dependable waterproof jacket hanging somewhere within arm’s reach? If not, and you plan to spend any time outdoors doing things like hill walking and trail meandering, it’s time to get prepared.

Peak Performance is a Swedish brand created by a couple of elite skiers who know a thing or two about outdoor activities in challenging environments.

The Ridge Hipe Ace Jacket is a three-layer, breathable, windproof, waterproof hardshell outer jacket designed to make adventures on the wild side more comfortable and enjoyable in all kinds of conditions. Does it succeed? I’ve been testing the Ridge for months to find out.

Peak Performance Ridge Hipe Ace Jacket review

Price and availability

Available in just one colourway – cliff edge (a kind of greeny brown) and major brown for men; cliff edge and plum truffle for women – the Ridge Ace Hipe jacket sits in the middle of the Peak Performance range and will cost you around £350 in Britain, close to $400 in the United States and near enough €500 across the European Union.

Design and materials

Designed in Åre, northern Sweden (and made in Vietnam), like all Peak Performance apparel, the Ridge outer shell jacket is constructed primarily from 40D lightweight ripstop polyester, backed by a soft tricote layer, with Hipe Ace membrane technology doing the clever stuff to keep biting winds and wet weather at bay while letting internally generated moisture out.

It has an adjustable hood with a reasonably rigid laminated brim, a long back panel, a hem that can be tightened with toggles, Velcro straps at the wrist, and three pockets: two large zippered pouches on the outside and a mesh pocket on the inside.

While it has a full-length two-way YKK AquaGuard zipper on the front, it has no pit zips or underarm ventilation.

Specifications

• RRP: £350 (UK) / $399 (US) / €499.95 (EU)
• Gender availability: Male and female versions available
• Materials: 40D lightweight ripstop polyester with a soft tricote backer and Hipe Ace technology
• Waterproofness: HH 20,000mm
• Breathability: 20,000 g/m2/24h
• Weight: Men’s 446g; Women’s: 402g
• Colours: Men’s: Cliff edge & major brown; Women’s: Cliff edge & plum truffle
• Sizes (UK): Men’s: S–2XL; Women’s: XS–XL
• Best for: Trail walking, hill hiking, scrambling, backpacking

Performance

I have been trialling the Ridge jacket on trails since spring, wearing it on adventures ranging from walking the dog along the occasionally rain-streaked South West Coast to camping and hill hiking in the Highlands of Scotland.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say the weather gods are a bit afraid of this jacket, since they have avoided throwing anything too soggy at it for most of the test period, but I have been out and about in my fair share of showers and downpours while wearing it. And I can confidently say that it works. It keeps the wind and rainwater out brilliantly.

This jacket has a pretty relaxed fit, so you can easily wear a base layer and a chunkier midlayer – such as a fleece or a puffer jacket – underneath during colder conditions, but the soft tricot backer means the material is comfortable next to your skin if you choose to simply wear a T-shirt underneath.

The hood, which features an embedded RECCO Rescue System reflector (to help emergency service searchers locate you if things go belly up in the wilderness), can be pulled tight in adverse conditions for maximum protection. It also boasts a proper peak, not some flimsy thing, and this directs rainwater and snow away from your eyes.

With a single Velcro strip, the cuffs fasten securely around gloves, and while there’s no dedicated snow skirt, the long back panel and adjustable hem keep breezes out.

I really love the little touches on this jacket that contribute so much to its overall comfiness, such as the soft-touch material that surrounds the chin guard.

Plenty of other jackets have a zip garage, so you don’t catch your chin skin or beard in the zipper (never a nice experience), but I’ve never come across a jacket with such a generous amount of velvet-soft material to shield the lower face from rubbing. When conditions are hard you have your jacket zipped right up, this makes a big difference.

The pockets on this jacket are nice and large, so you can fit everything in them from smartphones and other devices through to old-fashioned maps. The zips on the two outer pockets are excellent quality (YKK), and there’s also an interior pocket to keep things protected from the elements.

One downside is that the shoulders don’t appear to be reinforced with any additional protection, so wearing a backpack might damage the material in this area as the harness rubs against it. That said, few jackets offer this level of protection.

A bigger complaint from me is that there are no pit zips. On test, I found that the Hipe Ace technology worked just as well as a waterproof barrier as better-known systems, such as Gore-Tex. However, all of these membrane-based systems work on an evaporative basis that is only truly breathable when conditions are right and relatively dry (like in the Alps and the Rockies in the US).

In the more wet and humid conditions we experience here in the UK, they perform less well, and despite the impressive figures produced by lab tests, you will still get hot and sweaty and experience the build-up of moisture on the inside of synthetic jackets, especially if you are doing something dynamic, like hiking up a hill, clambering up a steep peak approach or cross-country skiing… unless, that is, they are very well vented.

The Ridge does feature a two-way main zip, so you can open it from the top or bottom (or both), which helps you dump excess heat when necessary. But, in my opinion, pit zips are by far the best way to resolve temperature regulation and moisture problems, not least because you can have them undone in the rain while you’re hiking or climbing, and rain still won’t get in.

Verdict

Overall, the Ridge Hipe Ace outer shell from Peak Performance is a great jacket, which provides good protection, looks and feels good, and has quality features. I would like to see it available in a few more colours – while it’s a nice natural hue, brown and another shade of brown don’t excite everyone – but on a more functional level, the main thing the coat is missing is pit zips. In my opinion, the very best waterproof jackets need pit zips, and this is a hill I’ll die on (probably because I’ve overheated and got mad about the lack of underarm ventilation).

Also consider

For a top-notch waterproof shell that does have pit zips, and offers sensational protection against even the angriest of elements when you're doing some proper adventuring, the Makalu Jacket from Mountain Equipment is hard to beat.

Alternatively, if you’re counting grams, the Montane Phase Lite is a super lightweight shell jacket, tipping the scales at just 300g, which still offers excellent waterproof performance (HH 28,000mm).

For a more budget friendly option, which will still keep you dry and fend off windchill, the Jack Wolfskin Eagle Peak jacket is well worth a look, and you can often find it for under £100.

Arc’teryx has launched the second generation of its Kopec hiking footwear, including an updated Kopec 2 Low GTX Shoe and Kopec 2 Mid GTX Boot.

I’m a big fan of the original Kopec GTX, as it's one of those hiking shoes that feels reassuringly capable without making you feel as though you’ve strapped a pair of traditional walking boots to your feet.

The original Kopec arrived in 2024 during the first year of Arc’teryx’s new era of fully in-house footwear design, following the Vertex Alpine, Sylan and Kragg that launched earlier that spring.

While the Kopec 2 features GORE-TEX waterproofing and a Vibram Megagrip outsole, Arc’teryx has made a couple of potentially significant changes to how the shoe feels on foot.

Space programme

The biggest update is a wider, more forgiving fit, which supposedly gives your toes more room to splay on longer hikes.

It’s worth stressing that Arc’teryx hasn’t turned the Kopec into a dedicated wide-fit shoe – the brand says the Mid remains a standard D width – but there is more room through the forefoot.

There’s also new, more responsive midsole foam, which Arc’teryx says improves energy return while providing more protection from rocks and other obstacles underfoot.

That could make the Kopec 2 Low particularly appealing for fast hiking.

Its low collar allows more dynamic movement, while the Mid adds ankle support and better debris protection for longer hikes and trips with a pack.

Both versions use 5mm lugs and a Vibram Megagrip outsole incorporating LITEBASE technology.

They also share an 8mm drop, with a listed stack height of 23mm at the heel and 15mm at the forefoot.

The Low weighs a claimed 357g per shoe, while the Mid comes in at 399g.

That actually makes both models heavier than their predecessors: Arc’teryx lists the original Kopec GTX at 315g and the previous Mid at 350g.

Waiting game

The Arc’teryx Kopec 2 Low GTX costs $190, while the Kopec 2 Mid GTX is $210 in the US.

At the time of writing, the new models don’t appear to have made their way onto Arc’teryx’s UK store.

The previous-generation Kopec GTX is still listed at £160, while the outgoing Kopec Mid GTX costs £180.

There’s no need to bin your existing Kopecs, then, but the combination of a roomier forefoot and livelier midsole sounds like a sensible evolution of a shoe I already rate highly.

EU and AU availability and prices TBC.

ASICS has unveiled the Sonicblast 2, an updated version of its energetic super trainer that cuts weight, changes the shape of its plate and promises a bouncier ride for faster training sessions.

The shoe arrives as the hero model in the new Rise & Shine collection, which gives eight ASICS running shoes bright colourways inspired by the changing colours of sunrise.

ASICS has redesigned its Astroplate (a.k.a. carbon plate) into a forked shape, allowing more FF Turbo Squared foam (which debuted in the equally stunning Tokyo Collection) to extend through the midsole and into what the company now calls the Trampoline Pod.

ASICS says this setup is designed to increase propulsion and bounce while keeping the shoe light, with FF Blast Max foam forming the second part of the dual-density midsole.

The Sonicblast 2 weighs approximately 242g for a men's US size 9, down from 256g, while the women's model drops from 223g to 212g.

The 8mm heel-to-toe drop remains unchanged, as does the listed 38–46mm men's and 37–45mm women's stack.

The upper has also changed, with ASICS replacing the previous jacquard mesh with a new engineered mesh that is designed to improve breathability and comfort. The outsole still uses ASICSgrip rubber.

Within the wider Blast range, ASICS positions the Sonicblast 2 as the option for uptempo and interval running, sitting between the easier-running Novablast 6 and the Superblast 3 and Megablast models.

The shoe combines FF Blast Max and FF Turbo Squared cushioning with the Astroplate, while its quoted 242g weight makes it slightly heavier than the Superblast 3 and Megablast.

Eight shoes get the sunrise treatment

The Sonicblast 2 is joined in the Rise & Shine collection by the Megablast, Superblast 3, Novablast 6, Gel-Nimbus 28, Gel-Cumulus 28, Gel-Kayano 33 and GT-2000 15.

Each shoe receives sunrise-inspired colours, with whites and pale tones joined by shades of orange, yellow and red across the range.

The collection covers a broad mix of ASICS running shoes, including softer daily trainers, stability models, and faster options, so runners don't need to change the type of shoe they normally use to get the new look.

The Rise & Shine collection, including the Sonicblast 2, launches globally at ASICS US, ASICS UK and ASICS EU on 1 September 2026 for $190 / £170 / €190 (AU$268).