GEAR:30 Podcast

This is where we geek out hard & go deep into the details about the most important outdoor gear.

Recent Episodes:

Willi's Staff
Listen Here
JE-CPG-photo-by-Charlie-Renfro
Listen Here
On our latest GEAR:30 podcast, Jonathan, Kara, and Luke, discuss getting back on snow, the best holiday of the year, ski boots, frontside skis, mountain biking in Nepal, engagement taco parties, and new apparel.
Listen Here
What are some of the biggest mistakes skiers make when buying gear? And what do regular, recreational skiers & snowboarders (who aren’t racing against the clock) need to know about ski tuning and waxing? On GEAR:30, Jonathan discusses these questions and more with Logan and Riley Boone of Boone Mountain Sports. They also talk about how they all met (it was in Austria), and Jonathan announces our upcoming ‘Blister 90-Flex Challenge’.
Listen Here
On GEAR:30, we talk with Ted Ligety (2x Olympic Gold Medalist & 5x World Cup champion) about his approach to gear; the specific gear he’s using today; how to best deal with flat light and low-vis conditions; his take on the current state of skiing and ski racing; and more.
Listen Here
This past Monday, Jonathan was at the Parlor Custom Skis factory in East Boston to check out the factory and record a GEAR:30 podcast with Parlor owner & manager, Mark Wallace, about building custom skis in Boston; assessing skiers (and skiers assessing themselves); custom vs. semi-custom skis; and more.
Listen Here
Jeremy Jones is back on GEAR:30, and this time, he brought along with him Xavier Nidecker (global brand director of Jones Snowboards) to talk about Jones’ new Re-Up Tech — what it is, how it works, and what it could mean for the greater ski & snowboard industry. We also discuss FIS, POW, & climate change, and which board Jonathan ought to start on.
Listen Here
Tekdapter Touring retail-270 banner 2024px
Listen Here
For this week’s GEAR:30 podcast, Jonathan Ellsworth sat down with Kara Williard, Dylan Wood, Justin Bobb, and Luke Koppa to debrief about our 2023-2024 Winter Buyer’s Guide, discuss what changed this year (and what has *not* changed), go over some trends, and more. Along the way, we dole out our unofficial “RIP,” “Good Riddance,” and new “Best Glow-Up” awards; talk about what we’re most excited to get on this season; and Jonathan debates whether Luke isn’t even invited to his funeral, or if he’ll be managing the whole thing…
Listen Here
On GEAR:30, Kara Williard and Jake “Fasa” Nelson clear up some of the most common bootfitting myths and misconceptions out there, provide some clarity on what you should realistically expect from a ski boot and bootfitter, discuss how to go about shopping for a boot this season, and more.
Listen Here
In our latest episode of GEAR:30, Luke Koppa & Jonathan Ellsworth talk with Blister Member Giovanni Saccarola (an Italian living in Switzerland), about his ski quiver, ski boots, and ski boot liner options. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts, or on our site.
Listen Here
Jørgen 3
Listen Here
PFAS chemicals have been used in tons of technical apparel for decades, but that streak is ending very soon. So on GEAR:30, we sat down with Outdoor Research’s Alex Lauver to learn about this significant shake-up to the outdoor industry; PFAS-free DWR alternatives; how this will impact consumers and manufacturers alike, and more.
Listen Here
Ep. 263: GEAR THERAPY! – Session #3
Listen Here
Ep.262: BOA & Ski Boot Design with Hoji, K2’s Tom Pietrowski, Fischer’s Christoph Lentz, Dalbello’s Riccardo Bonaiti, and Dynafit’s Ross Herr
Listen Here
On our latest GEAR:30 conversation, Luke and Jonathan discuss apparel testing, show pigs, & the underrated importance of ballpoint pens with our Blister Labs colleague, Melanie Peddle, who is a faculty member in the partnership program between Western Colorado University & the University of Colorado Boulder. We also discuss some takeaways from the compression, abrasion, and UV tests we’ve been running; steps toward developing new standards; and more.
Listen Here
GEAR:30 Ep.260: A Guide to Skiing in New Zealand with Outside Sports
Listen Here
When it comes to gear, we’ve all been there: loads of questions, crippling confusion, severe analysis paralysis. You need some help! So on our GEAR:30 podcast, we’ve just published our inaugural episode of GEAR THERAPY, where Jason Verlinde — a self described “average / normal / non-industry / non-pro Blister member” — poses some gear questions and conundrums to Jonathan Ellsworth & Luke Koppa, and “gets to confess my ignorance and state my real-world situation, with the experts weighing in, straightening me out, and steering me toward some products I might love.”
Listen Here
On GEAR:30, we talk with Oliver Steffen, founder and president of G3, about their new line of “R3” ski and snowboards, which G3 says are completely recyclable. We discuss how they accomplished this; the recycling process; how it can be more widely applied to the outdoor industry; why Oliver’s passion for innovation and problem-solving led him down this path, and more.
Listen Here
Too often, the consumer reviews you find online are incomplete and unhelpful. But through our Blister Labs partnership with Western Colorado University & the University of Colorado Boulder, we’re working to change that. With Blister Community Reviews, we are creating a better method of gathering, synthesizing, and displaying user feedback from people of all shapes, sizes, ability levels, and locations, to produce even more helpful consumer product information for outdoor enthusiasts all around the world. On GEAR:30, Luke Koppa and Jonathan Ellsworth discuss the origins of our Blister Community Reviews initiative; the takeaways from our beta testing at Blister Summit 2023; our goals for the future; and more.
Listen Here