We Noticed: Brooks, Spinlister
This week we noticed the Brooks Heritage Collection, the Spinlister bike rental by owner service, the Bungalow Munch granola, the Ironman Boulder Cookie Project and clever cable holding assistants for your home or office.
Brooks Heritage Collection
Retro athletic shoes are much more appropriate to wear when going out socially, and several brands have dug deep in their archives to bring back some classic shoes. For 2014 Brooks offers the Spring Heritage Collection and there are quite a few shoes in that group that I would wear in a heartbeat. There is a big variety of models and color options and that should give most folks something to suit their style and preferred color theme. The shoe below is the Brooks Vantage and I would say that one is my favorite.
Colors: many
MSRP: $79.95
Spinlister
We all have been in the situation where we travel for work to a different town and would love to go for a ride, but do not want to deal with the hassle of schlepping a bike with us. Based on how vacation rentals by owner works, Spinlister offers a similar service for cyclists who are looking to catch a ride in a different town. What works with homes and cars is however not so simple with bicycles as there are many variables in terms of bike fit and expectations. A car is a car, and we also have a good idea what we expect when we rent a home, but when searching 3 popular cycling towns in the USA (Boulder, San Diego and Portland), I did not really find anything that would suit me. If I had been looking for a city bike or a mountain bike, I absolutely would find something, but no such luck with a nicer road or triathlon bikes that would actually fit me. New bikes are added to the site constantly and I noticed several nice bikes that I would and could ride, but they were not in places I needed to go, or not in my size. Rental costs range from $15 a day for fairly basic bikes to $100 a day for high end tri bikes with race wheels. If you are interested in listing one of your bikes, each bike offered on the site is insured for up to $5,000.
MSRP: varies
Bungalow Munch
Jeri Howland uses and old family recipe from the mountains of Vermont to make handmade granola. As an ultra endurance athlete she is well aware which fuels will keep people going, be it for athletic endeavors or just daily life. It is available in 16 and 32oz packages and is also offered in a glass jar. Should you need a gift for a birthday or possibly father's day, Bungalow Munch also has a gift set offering on their site. Alicia Kaye, Jarod Shoemaker, Meredith Kessler, Beth Gerdes and Luke McKenzie are among the Pros who enjoy this granola mixture.
MSRP: $30 (32oz in a refillable glass jar)
The Cookie Project – Boulder
People who live along a race course aren't always passionate about the spectacle that is about to befall them. And that is even more so true for the nuisances and inconveniences that something accompany big events. To reach out to the 800 neighbors who live along the Boulder Ironman course, the Cookie Project will deliver a bag of cookies to each of these families, as a peace offering of sorts. From Thursday June 12th through Sunday June 15th, four locations in Boulder will accept cookie donations, in bags of 6. But the more bags of 6 are delivered the better it is. Accepting these cookies are Newton Running Lab in Boulder, Endurance House in Westminster, TriBella in Denver and Fleet Feet in Boulder. They will be labeled with a thank you note from the Boulder & Denver triathlon community and then delivered on June 16th. This is a wonderful idea that started in Madison, Wisconsin in 2013 and looks to be embraced by other communities now. Initially though this was not connected to a race, but a girl who shared cookies with folks who lived along a route she cycled past on a daily basis. A link to the site is above in the intro.
MSRP: priceless
Clever cable assistants
If you have kids, you likely have Legos in your home and if you are not yet married or with kids, chances are that your mother still has some of your old Legos. Plus if none of those situations apply, they are simply not that difficult to get. Lego figures can really serve you well with all those charging cables that you likely have floating around your home, as their little hands seem to be the perfect diameter to hold them. I personally hate it when my cable constantly slides down from my desk when the unit that is supposed to get charged isn't attached. But in my case, the Simpsons are awesome assistants, in this case holding my iPhone and my Pebble charger. The selection of Star Wars figures is also quite impressive and would appear to be a great theme.
Options: Endless
MSRP: $3.99 per figure.
