In Utah last month more than 1,000 brands and tens of thousands of attendees gathered for the twice-annual Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. GearJunkie editors and reporters met with a large percentage of the represented brands to seek out “Best in Show” products, the most innovative and unique items put out by the industry this year. Take a look below. We’ve crowned these products, most of which will hit shelves in 2013, as winners for part I of our “Best in Show” coverage. Congrats to the brands and the designers behind this great new gear!
Rack Art — Whispbar, a new line from Yakima, offers high-end aerodynamic rack bars
and mounts that seem to scream the words “premium and sleek.” From the Whispbar
line, which includes multiple products ranging from crossbars to ski racks, a bike
mount, the WB200, stood out.
The fork mount connects to a Whispbar rack bar in seconds via adapters that cam into
a T-slot on the bar. Its tray is a solid swoop of aluminum, and the front adapter is so
refined it looks like sculpture art. A bonus, this bike mount works with standard 9mm
forks as well as 15mm through-axle forks without adapters. A premium car-top
accessory but with a premium price tag, too. $249.
pacificrepworks.com 