ISPO Award: The winners after the first jury meeting 2023

Heads were spinning above the rooftops of Innsbruck: six experts came together to scrutinize the best products, services and apps in the sports and outdoor world at the first of a total of four jury meetings in 2023.

The jury's conclusion: The outdoor boom continues. Both product design and material selection have reached a new level - in terms of quality, functionality and sustainability. Sometimes only one important detail of a product has been improved, sometimes the usability has been significantly enhanced, and sometimes an idea has been presented that could become a real game changer. The focus is always on sustainability, which now permeates all segments and categories.

Which products ultimately receive the coveted award is always a surprise. The composition of the independent jury was deliberately designed to bring together different perspectives.

Half of the panel consists of consumer experts, i.e. sports enthusiasts from the ISPO Collaborators Club, who are selected each time from a whole pool of applicants for the jury meeting and contribute their practical expertise. With the participation of the Collaborators in the jury meeting, ISPO promotes a lively community.

The other half is made up of industry experts with many years of experience in the sports and outdoor business. All votes carry equal weight.
This time, the concentrated sports power was also supplemented by Textile expert Louisa Smith who is also Jury member of the ISPO Textrends Award. Smith was not part of the expert jury, but her textile expertise assisted the jury in assessing the increasingly important and complex issue of sustainability for each product declared sustainable.

Sports and outdoor experiences are at their best when they are shared. This is precisely the motto of the ISPO Award, whose jury meetings are much more than just product evaluations. Community is lived here, first during the discussions on each individual product, and later during the sporting activities, which are always real highlights for all jury members. After the meeting in the Villa Blanka above the rooftops of Innsbruck, we went snowshoeing in freezing sub-zero temperatures in nearby Kühtai and ended there - wrapped in warm expedition sleeping bags - with an unforgettable night in the igloo village.

Which products convinced the jury? Here are the winning products from the first jury meeting in 2023.

The A.Round by ABS is the first backpack with a removable twin airbag system for avalanche protection. This allows the backpack to be used all year round for a wide variety of applications, not just skiing or splitboarding.

The backpack offers a full airbag system that can be easily removed and numerous other features for year-round mountain adventures. Not only does this save money because you only need one backpack instead of two, it also reduces the CO2 emissions associated with manufacturing each new product. The robust workmanship and timeless design allow for a long service life.

The A.Round is available in two back lengths. The shorter back length was designed so that the backpack ensures a comfortable weight distribution, especially for women.

German shoe manufacturer Bär is one of the pioneers of the toe-free concept and has developed the Bergkomfort 2.0 mountain boot, a product that is a true innovation thanks to its combination of function, comfort, health, sustainability and digitalization.

The shoe promises support and pain-free hiking thanks to its special fit, which gives the feeling of walking barefoot. Thanks to the wide toe box, the foot can use its own biomechanics in delicate movement compensations through the toes. The soles with patent-pending Firmoflex® technology are sure-footed and robust.

For materials, Bär relies on sustainable Terracare® upper leather and chrome-free tanned, breathable lining leather.

To be able to observe the effect of the shoe shape on the arch of the foot, Bär has developed a special service: Customers can log in and access 3D scans of their feet in a timeline, for example to see improvements over time or to make live fit comparisons of foot and shoe shapes.

How can trekking poles be designed more sustainably? Black Diamond has answered this question with the Pursuit Shock. The premium poles feature natural cork grips in two sizes for large and small hands that incorporate an algae-based Bloom EVA grip component. This is the first outdoor product to use Bloom algae foam outside of footwear. Black Diamond also relies on recycled fibers for the wrist straps and a high-quality and particularly durable aluminum quality for the shaft, which can be recycled again.

There are no compromises when it comes to comfort: Under the handle is a new damping system that dampens vibrations and reduces joint pain.

The Climfeet insole from France is a reversible insole that naturally warms the feet in winter and naturally cools them in summer. There is no time restriction as with battery-powered or chemical warming solutions, for example. The effect lasts just as long as the feet are in motion.

This is made possible by an innovative technology that uses the energy of the steps and utilizes the principle of the heat pump. Here, the effect is based on the compression and expansion of gas in the more than 200 air cushions in the insoles: Compression of the air causes heating and expansion of the air causes cooling.

Climfeet is just as suitable for athletes as for people who are exposed to extreme (working) conditions all day long. The technology is still in its infancy and promises a wide range of applications that go far beyond insoles.

The GO Hydration Water Faucet & Jug faucet from Dometic not only looks tremendously chic, it is also incredibly practical and turns any water container into an easy-to-use water dispenser.

The self-powered faucet features a self-priming pump and hose with a rechargeable battery that dispenses 150 gallons of water per charge. An automatic shut-off function prevents the faucet from accidentally continuing to run once the container is empty. This allows water supplies to be used optimally without water being lost through spillage. To match the faucet, Dometic offers beautifully designed water containers for transport and storage.

Even with dumbbells, there is still room for improvement in the area of sustainability. With the Eco Grip Disc, the British dumbbell specialist Evergreen Barbell has developed a dumbbell that consists of 80 percent recycled material.

While conventional weight plates are mostly made of virgin cast iron, which is extracted and processed in Asia, Evergreen Barbell relies on a novel, patented process to reuse discarded steel from the construction industry. This steel is at the end of its life cycle and would otherwise have to be disposed of. Production takes place in Europe. In this way, the company aims not only to prevent the waste of new resources, but also to reduce CO2 emissions from transport and promote the European economy.

The PFC-free winter jacket Osteri (in German: Auster) is the first bluesign® winter product from Reima. The super-warm children's jacket is made of waterproof, breathable Seawool® material. Seawool fibers are made from recycled polyester and ground oyster shells, a waste product from the Taiwanese food industry. Compared to regular polyester - and even wool - these fibers have better insulating properties and also feel like wool due to their special structure.

The jacket is also padded with bluesign® certified loose Fellex® Ocean Ecofill insulation, which helps keep our oceans clean. The lining is also bluesign® certified and is made of 55 percent recycled polyester and 45 percent polyester. The new jacket is representative of Reima's goals: from 2023, the Finnish company aims to produce over 90 percent of its clothing from sustainable materials.

The Nordic Lynx 2 tunnel tent for two people from Robens is designed for winter conditions, but it is intended for year-round use. Special care has been taken to ensure that the tent is easy to pitch even with gloves on, for example through large pole channels and long peg loops, while still achieving the necessary stability. The large, extended vestibule is accessed through a side opening with a double-slider zipper that allows for flexible ventilation. The new large ventilation system offers front and rear snow and insect free vents that can be adjusted from the inside.

Lightweight and compact, the tent is suitable for hiking in all seasons and the green color matches nature.

This product impressed the design lovers on the jury: The Solid Peg Herring from Terygen Lab & Autumntree in China demonstrates what good design is. With its shiny silver surface, the peg is not only chic, the special shape is also optimally designed for function. An angle of 1.5 degrees between the striking surface and the tip optimally aligns the peg when hammered in and ensures a firm hold in the ground. Stainless steel cast in a traditional Chinese craft process was used. It has better corrosion resistance and stability than conventional materials.

The overall shape is inspired by the forks of natural tree roots.

The waterproof and windproof NS60 jacket from Tropicfeel is a real quick-change artist and can be worn in four different variations. It consists of two separate garments that can be easily joined and changed. Thus, the jacket can also be transformed into a vest and a parka, and in each variant perfectly complements the matching midlayer.

The main fabric of the PFC-free NS60 jacket is polyester, which is coated on the inside with a graphene membrane: graphene helps to balance skin temperature in cold weather by transferring heat from warm parts of the body, such as the head, to cold parts, such as the arms and hands. In addition, the materials have been strategically placed to match the body's response to activity.

The jacket is unisex and fits both women and men and is ideal for traveling light.