70 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 11.19
sleeping bags—simply disap-
peared when we were done with
it? That’s the goal of the latest
weapon in the green arms race:
biodegradability.
Leading the way is PrimaLoft,
which in 2018 introduced Bio,
a line of high-performing syn-
thetic insulation and fabric that
break down when they hit the
landfill. Lab tests in accelerated
conditions showed 80 percent
degradation in 394 days. (The
company declined to provide
real-world degradation rates.)
Vanessa Mason, the brand’s se-
nior vice president of engineer-
ing, says Bio “represents the
largest investment of dollars Pri-
maLoft has made into the devel-
opment of any technology since
the company’s founding in 1988.”
In fall 2020, companies like
Helly Hansen and L.L.Bean
will release apparel featuring
the fabric, and other PrimaLoft
partners are working on con-
cepts for fully biodegradable
garments, zippers and all. Add-
ing to that, hard-goods manu-
facturers like Igloo and Casus
have recently released biode-
gradable coolers and grills, and
Bella Eco has started making
women’s underwear, bras, and
leggings that break down at the
end of their life span.
Of course, it’s pointless to
make biodegradable gear if it
doesn’t perform well, so Pri-
maLoft spent two years mak-
ing sure that the materials were
up to company standards. “The
biggest challenges were the in-
credibly long period of time and
high cost of the testing required
to ascertain the biodegradation
rate,” Mason says. “Every fiberYour Truck
Gets
Electrified
RIVIAN IS BUILDING
RIGS TO APPEAL TO
THE GREEN CROWD AND
OVERLANDERS ALIKE
BY WILL EGENSTEINER
Though the electric-vehicle
startup Rivian was founded ten
years ago, the company inten-
tionally flew under the radar
until 2018, when it pulled back
the curtain on the R1T pickup
at the L.A. Auto Show. Why
spend nearly a decade avoiding
the limelight? Founder and MIT
mechanical-engineering grad
R.J. Scaringe and his team were
quietly developing a battery
system that could hold enough
power to get you far off the
beaten path and was sufficiently
rugged to withstand the bumps
along the way. The result? The
world’s first full-featured elec-
tric truck.
“There wasn’t really someone
making a vehicle that catered to
the outdoor adventurer and that
was also conscious of the envi-
ronment,” says Jeff Hammoud,
Rivian’s vice president of de-
sign. “It’s amazing to see how
many people have a Prius or a
Tesla as a daily driver, and then
when they go on adventures,
they’ve got a Jeep or a Tacoma.”
The midrange R1T runs
on a 135-kilowatt-hour bat-
tery pack—good for up to 300
miles— integrated into the floor
of the cab. The four-wheel-drive
version has four motors that sit
above the wheels, providing 750
horsepower. But the rig’s de-
fining feature is what it doesn’t
have: an internal combustion
engine. The big compartment
where a normal truck would have
an engine is an 11.7-cubic-foot
- the tools
space called the frunk. Where
the truck bed meets the cab,
there’s a gear tunnel big enough
to accommodate a snowboard.
The R1T isn’t cheap: it will be
priced at $69,000 when pro-
duction begins in 2020. And if
Tesla’s factory issues and strug-
gles scaling are any indication,
making a mainstream electric
vehicle can be tricky. But plenty
of big names are optimistic that
Rivian can deliver on its prom-
ises. The company has already
secured $700 million in invest-
ment from Amazon and another
$500 million from the Ford
Motor Company. And perhaps
most notably, they’ve recruited
Alex Honnold as an ambassador.Gear that
Disappears
IT DOESN’T GET
RECYCLED...IT TURNS
TO DUST
BY ARIELLA GINTZLER
For more than a decade, compa-
nies have been doing whatever
they can to up their green bona
fides, investing in everything
from enviro-friendly manu-
facturing to shipping methods
that reduce packaging waste.
But until recently, there were
few solutions for mitigating the
impact a product has once its life
span is over. According to the
EPA, the textile industry alone
generated more than 16 million
tons of solid waste in 2015. But
what if all our stuff—jackets,
water bottles, tents, coolers, anditeration or change to the fiber
composition had to be tested.”
Given that reality, it might be a
while before we can toss our en-
tire gear closets into the compost
pile with our eggshells and coffee
grounds, but soon we’ll at least
be able to start with our jackets.Insurance
for Risk-
Takers
ON-DEMAND POLICIES
CHANGE THE GAME
FOR ATHLETES
BY DEAN KING
Sooner or later, most outdoor
enthusiasts encounter a pitch
too steep, a bend too tight, or an
immovable object on the trail,
and then it’s ass-over-elbows.
But now there’s backup: Buddy,
an on-demand insurance policy
that you can buy on your phone
or laptop in minutes, 24/7, from
virtually anywhere. As their
inspiration for the startup,
founders Charles Merritt, David
Vogeleer, and Jay Paul, all avid
outdoor athletes, cite rising
health-care deductibles—the
U.S. average for individuals
is around $4,000—and out-
of-pocket medical expenses
for their friends who’ve been
hurt mountain biking, skiing,
and pursuing other adventure
sports. “We have dozens of
stories about ourselves, friends,
and others who’ve been injured,”
says Paul, 59, who has worked in
the insurance industry for moreWITH ONE HAND BEHIND YOUR BACK
A true one-handed multitool has long been the holy grail of gear design. Enter the Leatherman Free
P4 ($140), which uses magnets to hold its two sides closed. Simply slide your thumb between them
to flick open the P4 and use the pliers (or any of the other 20 tools) single-handed. —Will Taylor
COURTESYOF^ RIVIAN^AUTOMOTIVE