Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2019: Carry Awards

Ever year, a small group of Carryologists spend two full days roaming the main convention floor and Venture Out, trying to discover brands worthy of winning one of the coveted awards.

We give out three: Best In Show for the company that has the overall strongest product showing. Best Innovation for that stroke of genius and or technological breakthrough that makes you go wide-eyed. And Rising Star for the newcomer or young brand making the biggest splash.

There were hours of debates and we found ourselves visiting the same booths repeatedly to flush out who truly deserved the big prize.

So without further adieu, here are this year’s Carry Awards winners from Outdoor Retailer 2019.

Best In Show

Never resting on their laurels, Mystery Ranch always comes correct each year. With their wildly successful Urban Assault line seeing both new colorways (check out the Mystery Pop program), as well as two new sizes (smaller 18L and the larger 24L which includes a dedicated laptop compartment and water bottle side pockets), Mystery Ranch continues to churn out hits.

Traveling with gear seemed to be the theme this year. The Mission Duffel has been overhauled in a slick TPU coating (as well as other finishes) and larger openings for easy entry. The Mission Wheelies are your duffels on wheels and have also been overhauled for the new season.

Keep an eye on Mystery Ranch as there is some fun stuff coming out you’ll be sure to like.

Best Innovation

Peter, Art, and the gang in San Francisco continue to disrupt any industry they step foot in. Teased during livestreams of their travel packs, Peak Design has gone ahead and designed their own tripods. As of this post, the campaign is sitting at $6.9M and with 24 days to go, it’s sure to go through the roof.

The story is how compact they were able to get the total package, when collapsed. It fits in the profile of a water bottle! They were able to accomplish this by tossing aside the convention of tubular legs, and instead used trapezoidal ones that complement each other. They also created their own ball head with quick disconnect and an extremely quick and intuitive locking mechanism that allows you to rotate the camera for the perfect shot. Finally, the integrated smartphone mount is perfect and stows away in the bottom cavity, where the stability hook also resides.

We also checked out their new travel duffels which share a lot of DNA from their travel packs.

Rising Star

“It’s not easy to start a bottle company” – that’s what I told Mike, our Managing Editor, as we walked away from the Purist booth. What I really meant to say is it’s hard to start a successful one. Just like t-shirts, everyone seems to be doing it but none are really bringing anything innovative or noteworthy to the discussion.

A few months ago, on an invitation, I tried out Purist bottles. Now it’s my wife’s go-to bottle. The finishes are great, the handles are integrated, and the interiors are coated with a “glass”-like film that is non-stick. That means no residual flavors and no foaming up.

At the show, the Purist team introduced their new Union Top which is compatible with all existing bottles. It’s a spout with a cover but it locks back with a satisfying click so the cover doesn’t hit your nose when drinking. If you haven’t tried one out yet, you really need to do yourself a favor and check them out.