Gift ideas for outdoor lovers

What can you offer a lover of the outdoors when you don’t have much time to shop, don’t have much inspiration and are on a budget?

Marie Tison
Press

In fact, you don’t have to go very far. There are lots of interesting, beautiful, good, inexpensive things placed right next to the cash registers in outdoor stores. The idea behind these displays is obviously to tempt customers caught in a line that does not move quickly, quickly. However, the proposed objects can very well slip under the tree or in the Christmas stocking.

The good old tubular scarf, for example, better known under the Buff trademark. The outdoor enthusiast probably owns two or three of these scarves already, but he is always ready to add a new color to his collection, or to get his hands on a scarf that has special characteristics. There are thus tubular scarves in merino wool or with reflective bands.

Caps, toques, mittens, gloves and socks are also often found on the shelves near the checkouts.

Of course, serious outdoor enthusiasts are already equipped with all kinds of woolens, but the more serious they are, the more they use and abuse these accessories.

Mittens are lost, socks are pierced, gloves are burnt near the stoves … A new pair will always be a pleasure. The same goes for mini crampons, which tend to get dull over time (and with trail adventures).

Bright idea

Another classic of the exit display is the headlamp. A simple, inexpensive model is often offered, which can complement the ultra-sophisticated headlamp, but can discharge at the worst time, which outdoor enthusiasts often have. A tiny headlamp slipped into the bottom of a backpack has frequently saved hikers surprised by nightfall.

Care products are often found on outlet shelves, such as soaps and waterproofers created specifically for Gore-Tex clothing (Nikwax and Grangers). It is obviously a gift that lacks poetry, but these products are rather expensive, and you always have to buy them back. A non-sentimental outdoor enthusiast might appreciate a few bottles of soap (he would appreciate even more an offer to clean and waterproof his Gore-Tex clothes, but that’s another story!).

Heat sachets for hands and feet have also appeared on shelves. It is a product that many outdoor enthusiasts consume in industrial quantities, especially ice climbers and winter campers. Others keep bags in their backpacks for emergency situations. Slipping new sachets into new mittens or socks would create a particularly warm gift. You can complete it all with a cream for cold feet (Akileine) offered at La Cordée.

Outdoor shops also offer thermos bottles of different sizes. It’s a gift that will appeal to particularly clumsy hikers who keep denting their thermos (an excessively dented thermos flask loses part of its insulation).

“Gugusses” of all kinds

There is no shortage of “gugusses” on the shelves near the exit, from alarm sirens for runners to waterproof matches, emergency blankets, small fuel cartridges, reusable straws and mini-bags. carabiners. If you can’t go wrong with waterproof matches and emergency blankets (something that should end up in every outdoor enthusiast’s backpacks), you have to be more careful with fuel. : the stoves do not all require the same type of gas, you have to know what the loved one is using. Again, we are not talking about the most romantic gift there is.

The displays are also full of energy bars and gels of all kinds. It can be an opportunity to concoct a range of bars and gels to allow his favorite outdoor enthusiast to discover and compare new products.

If inspiration continues to run out, outdoor stores offer gift cards that can definitely help out.

It’s not just cheap products that end up near the checkouts. At the MEC store in the Central Market, we positioned self-draining kayaks (sit-on-top) and paddle boards near the exit. It doesn’t fit very well into a Christmas stocking, but it can still be fun!