Sea Otter 2015: One Industries goes casual. Prototype 661 pads.

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We got a good look at some of One Industries new clothing for 2015, which includes a good few pub-friendly tops and shorts, as well as stuff you’d be happy to wear out anyway and then ride in if the mood took you.

We also had a ‘You! Come with me round the back and see some secret stuff’ moment and got to see some of the stunning new protection that 661 is working on for 2016…

Firstly, here’s the Atom short, which includes a removable chamois, zippered pockets and a 13in inseam.

Easy for the mountain rescue to find you in this…

 

More conventionally, we have the Ion 1/4 Zip jersey, with One Industries’ typical flat collar yoke that keeps it out of the way of chins/beards and helmet straps.

Almost a superhero look

 

 

OK, everyone look scenic!

Right, now here’s where things get a little more pub-friendly. This is a full-on technical riding shirt, from the ‘Trails to Ales’ range (yes, really). There’s a two-way stretch flannel, a 30SPF sun protection, under arm vents and neatly laser-cut pockets.

Tech Casual shirts

How’s this for a smart riding short? Possibly too smart to go out and get muddy, the Tech Casual short. And this has two-way stretch fabric too. So that was the Tech Casual range…

Tech Casual shorts

Crossing the ride/pub divide, we now move on to the Vapor XC Short that is a great riding short that won’t look too Red Bull Rampage in the pub/cafe after the ride.

Vapor – a ride short that isn’t too ‘Look at me!’
Vapor jersey has full sleeves and foam padded elbows. Very vented back panel too.
And here’s the Vapor short sleeve jersey.

661 Prototypes

Now, on to 661’s prototype gear for 2016. Not all of it will look exactly like this, but it’ll give you a good idea. Starting with the padded top – it’s very light jersey-style top that contains a slim D3O back panel, padded shoulders and hips. The pads are removable to tune it to the kind of protection you want and it looks light enough for regular burly XC use. The sleeves also feature 661’s wonderfully named ‘Pad-Lock’ for attaching elbow pads and keeping them in place with simple snaps.

Look at my hip pads!
There’s a lightly padded chest pad too.
Slim D3O back panel. Or remove it and you can fit a Camelbak bladder in there for lighter use
Shoulder pads are very flexible and fit really well (at least on Seb, our model anyway)

Moving on to the knee pads, there’s a more sculpted look to them, with additional lower knee protection and some very subtle reflective logos that’ll light up in car headlights (or press flashguns…)

Light and simple, the new look
The rather bizarre wording will change, but there’s a lot of silicon to help keep the pad in place.

There is also a larger knee pad that gives riders options if they want shin protection from pedals, but don’t want to go the full Stormtrooper look.

New lighter knee/shin option

The pads are engineered to be as light and vented as possible to make all-day wear bearable.

Knee-backs are kept open

For more gnarly stuff, there will be a hard shell padded, er, pad.

Hard shell will keep pointy rocks at bay.
…and allow a certain amount of sliding without dragging the pad up or down

There’s also a very light padded sleeve for enduro riders. These were used on the first EWS round and we’ll see more of them in the future. The production one will be black rather than banana though.

A banana flavoured super light knee protector

Possibly the nicest looking product we saw were the diminutive new elbow pads. They’re tiny, but still offer full elbow protection. We’ll eagerly await their appearance later in the year.

Super venty on the inside
..and a full coverage on the elbow
And yet look how tiny it is. It looks more like a kid’s kneepad than a grown up elbow pad

 

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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