Staff Picks: What Our Outdoors & Fitness Team Is Into Now

Welcome to another installment of Staff Picks from our Sports and Outdoors team. Every other week, we select our favorite pieces out of the gear we’re testing, mainstays in our kits, as well as items on our wish lists. It’s like a sneak peek at the gear we’re testing and what we’re stoked on. Have something you think we should check out? Or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at [email protected].

Nau Utility Down Jacket

With a felt-like melton wool exterior, the Utility Down Jacket is a supremely soft and warm winter garment that’s built for city streets. True to Nau’s vision, the company uses exceptionally sustainable materials, like recycled wool, recycled polyester, PFC-free DWR, and recycled down insulation. Its shape is sleek, refined, and goes well with any winter outfit. — Presented by NAU

Yeti Panga 50 Duffle Bag

At its core, it’s such a simple product. Still, Yeti’s Panga 50 duffel continues to impress me with every adventure I take it on. It’s 100 percent waterproof (to the point that you can submerge it), and is about as durable as a duffel could possibly be. The laminated high-density nylon body is abrasion resistant and nearly impenetrable. Toss it in the bed of a pickup, strap it to a whitewater raft, sling it over your shoulder when running through the airport; the Panga is ready for anything. — AJ Powell, Assistant Editor

Bear & Son Cutlery Incognito Automatic

It’s good that it rarely leaves my desk, because if the fuzz caught me lurking around Manhattan with this thing, I’d be thrown in jail. It’s the scariest pocketknife I’ve ever owned. It’s also the most impressive. First of all, it’s stupidly tiny, no bigger than a jalapeño; even more stupid is its spring-loaded, push-button opening system, fast enough to cause a flash of adrenaline in even the most jaded of knife junkies. — Michael Finn, Associate Staff Writer

Garmin Fenix 5 Watch

Unlike many of my colleagues here at Gear Patrol, I’m not one to wear a fancy watch (my last was a $30 digital Timex that I still haven’t replaced). I started wearing Garmin’s feature-packed Fenix 5 in order to keep track of my running parameters while training. At first, I’d just put it on for the run and take it off after, but then I dug a little deeper into its functions and started to wear it hiking and mountain biking, too. Now, it’s almost a permanent fixture on my wrist. There are far too many features to dig into here (GPS, compass, altimeter…), but one of my personal favorites is a battery that lasts nearly a week. Maybe, in the end, those amenities do make it fancy — but in an entirely different way. — Tanner Bowden, Editorial Apprentice

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