Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Outgo – PT Pod (Sport Towel) & GIVEAWAY(!!!)





If you’re in the backcountry for any length of time, you’ll likely find a need for some kind of towel.  Whether you subscribe to the one-bandana-fits-all theory or choose to bring something more robust, a towel serves several purposes.  Whether it is as a pot grabber, sweat wicker, shelter condensation remover, or for hygiene reasons, for outings longer than several days, a more robust option in contrast to a bandana might be worth considering.

Enter the Outgo PT Pod Fitness/Utility Sport Towel by McNett (90g/$16).  That’s right, the same people (McNett) who brought you the Frontier Pro water filter and backpacker-sized seam grip and field repair kits bring you a pretty handy towel.

The PT Pod (towel) is 20” x 32” and made of microfiber materials treated with silver for anti-microbial performance.  It absorbs 5x its weight in water, dries fairly fast, hangs from a snap loop, and has its own built in stash pocket which is 6” wide x 4.5” tall.  It is extremely soft and packs small.

Over the last month I’ve been testing the PT Pod during several outings to the trail, beach and swimming.  It proved to be an especially great option for my kids who wanted more coverage whether to cut the chill after being wet or for modesty purposes.  The silver treatment, which is something I’m familiar with in a towel I use for the gym, is extremely helpful to reduce bacterial growth.

I was approached by McNett to review the PT Pod and they were kind enough to make one available to my readers.  If you’re interested in being considered for a new Cobalt (blue) PT Pod, simply leave a comment below with a short paragraph on how you’d use it.  A winner will be selected at random in the very near future. 

When I received the PT Pod from McNett, they also provided a brochure on their product offerings.  It was quite impressive and caught me by surprise.  Many familiar brands fall under McNett which weren’t previously known to me.  These included Gear Aid, McNett Tactical, M Essentials, Outgo and AquaMira.  I’ve used AquaMira drops, tablets and water filters for years and found them to all be high quality products.  McNett Tactical offers camo adhesive and gear patches for hunters in addition to anti-fog lens cleaning systems.  Gear Aid is familiar to many backpackers as they offer popular water-proofing and cleaning treatments in addition to Gore-Tex and Tenacious tape repair patches and other repair products related to replacement buckles, zippers, toggles, shock cord, etc.  M Essentials are products geared more towards the “water” crowd (i.e. wetsuit and drysuit conditioner and repair products).  Bottom line, there is a lot to look at and a lot to consider with McNett.

Happy trails.


7 comments:

AlanR said...

I can see me getting one of these when they hit the UK.

Josh Mitchell said...

that's a nice little bit of towel kit. Quite simply, I'd use this in my stash bag for when I go camping with my two boys. Both of them are cub scouts (aka, small) so I generally take just one bag for the three of us.

icefest said...

I'd use it both as a normal towel, but also to dry condensation off my tent.

idryfly said...

Would be improvement on my bandana for for next year's hiking season.

kps143 said...

Would definitely use it on my backpacking excursions! should come in handy for just about everything, pre-filter for really gross water, condensation remover, hygiene, dry cookware, etc. Although I imagine I won't be doing all those things on one trip with the same towel!

Unknown said...

I would use it in multiple ways, probably most frequently for hygiene and condensation wiper.

roughkat said...

I'd take this while hiking the SHT.