Sheets Loves the Steri-Pen and Injinji

Today at O.R., we met with inimitable Jeff Sheets, our sales rep for Ex Officio travel clothes. Jeff is a great sales rep because he is gregarious, an incredibly nice guy, and because he has a deep belief in (and excitement for) the products he represents. Jeff reps a panoply of other products aside from his main gig with Ex O (as we in the business refer to it), and among those are Injinji Socks, and the Steri-Pen, which Jeff has been trying to get us to carry for several year now.

The Steri-Pen is a great idea, but one we think people would not buy at our store. It sterilizes water using UV light. It's small. It runs on AA batteries. But we've never had much success with water purification of any kind. If anybody reading this disagrees, please feel free to send us an email or comment.

We didn't expect to be too into Injinji socks either. We sell some travel socks online and in the store (Travel Sox, Tilley Unholey Socks, and Zip It Socks) but we were not sure that toe socks were in our niche. But after hanging out at the Injinji booth and talking about them, we think we're going to bring them in. The thing that sold me was the point that socks that individually cover each toe are great at counteracting blisters. When I travel, I walk a lot. And for at least the first week of a trip, until I get used to walking from one corner of London to the other (like I did in November of 2006), I end up with some vicious blistering. And I remember wrapping Band-Aids around my toes to keep them from rubbing against each other and aggravating the blisters. After talking to Jeff and the folks at the Injinji booth, I kind of wish I'd had a pair of their sock with me instead.

O.R.? Oh, yeah!

Tomorrow morning my mom (Joan) and I will be heading out to the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City. That's right - we are leaving San Diego, in January, and going to Salt Lake City. And we do it for you.

While our business is not particularly focused on "outdoor" activities, O.R. is by far the best place for us to find groovy new stuff for our store. Among the things we found last time were Sunscreen and Hand Sanitizer from GoReady and Contourwear clothing. We'll be there for three days, and you'll be seeing posts on this website about what we find this year.

Steve's Bag

Steve and Nona Barker founded Eagle Creek a few years before Bill and I started Le TRAVEL STORE. Both companies are in San Diego County and, over the years, the Barkers and the Kellers have become friends. Steve Barker is Eagle Creek's CEO. He is an impressive businessman and, in addition, he is a "gear head".

Steve likes the stuff. He likes thinking about the stuff, talking about the stuff and making sure the quality is there in the stuff Eagle Creek makes. Every now and again there will be a product in the line that is Steve's pet bag. When you talk to Steve about one of these products you can tell it is his pet by the way he tells you, in detail, how and why the bag was created. Steve's pet bag in the current season's new products is the Tarmac Plus One.

This is the bag Steve wanted for his short business trips. There had to be enough space in the main section for a toiletry kit and for a change of clothes (packed in a Pack-it 18" Folder). It also had to have a zip off day pack that was big enough to be useful and made to carry his laptop. Steve loves the Plus One. I love the Plus One. Check it out. I think you will love it too.

Hillary's Pillow

On "Today" today, Hillary Clinton gave a shout-out to the Bucky Neck Pillow, which we have been carrying at the store for years. It's a neck pillow that is filled up with buckwheat hulls which stay cool and conform to the shape of your neck. It has a super-soft velour cover, too, which is apparently the senator's favorite thing about it. You can see the video on MSNBC's site - she talks about the Bucky at about 3:20.

Candidates on the campaign trail have some the most ridiculously grueling travel schedules of anybody in the world, so Hillary endorsing a travel pillow is like Tiger Woods endorsing golf shoes. You know you can trust it