Mac in a SacTarget Dry is a Belfast-based outdoors clothing brand that's been around since 1987. So they should know all about rain. This is the foundation of Target Dry's success: the Mac in a Sac.
It’s a lightweight, breathable jacket, 100 per cent waterproof, with zipper pockets and a draw-cord at the bottom. The balance is always between breathability and water protection. A refuse bag might offer you 100 per cent waterproofing, but you’ll quickly be soaked in your own perspiration. Attractive. Here their Mac in a Sac does well for a packaway jacket like this, but can’t compete with watertight hi-tech shells if you’re doing serious hiking. On the other hand, it’s tightly competitive on price, with a great range for the casual walker to choose from. Target Dry Mac in a Sac from £27
[ targetdry.com ]
Saltwater LED Lantern
Whatever about dreams of a car that might run on water, Japanese company, Green House has delivered on a more modest, but equally mind-twisting chemical equation for a torch that is powered by seawater. For the Periodic Table heads around, it’s actually really a magnesium/carbon lantern. The dissolved salt acts like an electrolyte in a regular wet battery, with a magnesium rod as the anode and a carbon one as the cathode. You’re still with me? Anyway, the resultant electrolysis generates enough juice to put out 55 lumens of light via its 10 LEDs. Hardly the
Fastnet Light, but more than enough to see through a tricky blackout on boat. Now all you have to do is remember its name – the GH-LED10WBW – until they’re on the market next month apparently.
Saltwater LED Lantern Price TBC, see green-house.co.jp(use Google Translate to do the rest)
The Wunder Bundler
Poler Stuff, who make this, as well as a whole bunch of other cool stuff for crashing about outdoors, refer to the Wunder Bundler as “the world’s first temperature regulating modular vessel”. Tongue firmly in cheek.
It is a neat idea: an insulated wrap with an adjustable strap that will keep a six-pack chilled or a hot breakfast roll warm for a couple of hours. Simple, but being wrappable means it’s foldable too for easy packing and will bundle up all sort of odd shapes. Like an eight-pack, for instance. A Wunder indeed.
The Wunder Bundler $25 from polerstuff.com