What a night! Tonight I went to my first Focus Pointe survey. I’ve responded to probably 4 or 5 of the emails I’ve gotten from that group so far, but this was the first that I was selected for. In the screening process they asked me a lot about how much hiking and camping I did, and what out door magazines I subscribed to, etc, so I knew this was going to be right up my alley.
Turns out this survey was for a new ad campaign for Gore-Tex‘s new
AIRVANTAGE™ product line. They showed us about 8 or so different two page adds and then asked us what were our initial reactions, and what we thought about the product, etc. All and all I thought the ideas behind the ads were good, but some of the color choices, layouts, and analogies they tried to make fell a bit short of accomplishing what they wanted.
Apparently though, they really found a few of us at the survey to have provided really good feedback, and so when the session was over they asked four of us to stay after. The herd of previously anonymous spectators came out from behind the two way mirror and asked us a few more questions. As they were all entering the room the four of us joked that’d we’d all be really interested in testing out this gear, and low and behold, that’s just what they wanted us to do! They took our contact information and clothing sizes and we should be hearing from them soon! I can’t wait!
I was so excited, that once I got home, I had to look up more at what I had won, and so I went to the
AIRVANTAGE website and read up everything I could find out about it and it actually looks like a pretty cool product. It sounded like the other guy that was going to get one of these to test out does a lot of mountaineering and tears his shells more often than others, so I’m sure he’ll be giving this product a good durability test, but for me, I think this is going to be my new favorite layer for snowshoeing, winter hiking and back country snow boarding.
Update: After reading more, it looks like this technology has actually been out for about a year now (old engadget article), but it looks like its just starting to become more popular now. Gore-Tex’s website currently has two listings, one being a Bass Pro Shop’s Vest, and the other being a pretty nice looking Quicksilver Jacket. Between the two I really hope I get one of the latter, but since I just got a new shell last season, I’ll honestly be siked with either one. I’ll definitely post again later in the season after I try this out!