National Hardware Show 2016: The Coolest Gear

by Tucker Allen + · Published May 11, 2016 · Updated May 19, 2016

Last week the Gearographer crew took a little adventure over to Las Vegas to attend the National Hardware Show. At the show you can find everything in the world of home improvement. We came to explore the “outdoor improvement” niche, and this is what we discovered.

Eco Garden House
Release: Currently Available
MSRP: $999

This little 6×4 indoor garden is pretty great if you like growing things. It allows you to bring your favorite plants from outside into any space in your house with just a plug-in. You set it up anywhere in your house, preferably your basement. The self-contained system has all of the lighting, watering, and filtration systems pre-installed. I’ve built numerous green houses in the past, and this little guy blows those out of the water. You can grow anything in here: veggies, flowers, small trees, marijuana — you name it and you can grow it. Of course, if you have a garden, keep it there in the summer time, but come winter and you are going to want this for those “important” plants. Eventually winter is coming, and this will help.

ZippKool – BPN-500
Release: Currently Available
MSRP: approx – $250

This light jacket has 2 fans installed in the back that allow you to keep cool in even the warmest climates. As outdoor enthusiasts, we at Gearographer tend to get a bit hot and sweaty on a regular basis. The ZippKool uses its fans to help vaporize moisture and keep the body cooled. The product is designed for any indoor or outdoor manual laborers. I see a lot of potential for outdoor recreational activities especially fishing, hunting, hiking and more importantly day-drinking activities.

Spin Chill
Release: Currently Available
MSRP: $20.00

In the same family of “day drinking activities:” meet the Spin Chill. My introduction to this product was quite incredible. I found what I thought was one of those fake “model beer cans,” totally full but sitting out in the sun. So this beer was about 90 degrees, and I wasn’t about to drink it because I wasn’t that desperate just yet. But as I was beginning to contemplate it, I came across these guys. They took that warm beer and tossed it in their little doohickey. Within a minute they handed the beer back to me and it was gloriously cold and tasty. I just assumed they used magic, and didn’t really care because I had a nice cold brewski now.

Then the guy explained this magic to me and I’ll do my best to repeat it for you. What they do is spin the beer in really cold water for about a minute. This pushes all the warm beer to the outside of the can, chills it and then continues this process until its perfectly cold inside and out. It’s quite an ingenious little invention.

Ace Camp (Munkees) – Micro Knife
Release: Currently Available
MSRP: $5

One of the hardest things about being a traveler and more specifically an adventure blogger is having to leave your trusty knife and tools at home. With the strictness of TSA these days, you just gotta learn to go without these important tools when traveling. This is why the new Munkees Micro-Knife is so damn cool. I carried it on my key-chain and TSA didn’t say anything when I brought it onto the plane. It may be tiny, but if you work hard enough you can cut just about anything you need. Although, I sure wouldn’t want to try cutting a steak with this little guy.

Allocacoc – Travel Adapter
Release: Currently Available
MSRP: approx $25

This travel adapter is a little different from the rest of our recommendations. That’s because it is more for use in traveling than just outdoors in general. This thing is great for anyone traveling abroad. It comes with four interchangeable plugs for various regions of the world including the UK, USA, Australia, and Europe. This allows you to use it at home and abroad, and it doesn’t just disappear into a drawer. You can also plug-in another Allocacoc adapter and double your plug-in space. If you take an old printer cable you can even turn this little guy into an extension cord. This opens up a new world for backpackers looking for a compact travel adapter.

Say you wanted to charge a cell phone you bought in the US, a camera battery you bought in Bali, and an electronic razor you bought in Australia. You could charge each of these one at a time using 3 different adaptors. Or you could charge them all at once using the Allocacoc Travel Adapter.