The first time I realized that shopping for outdoor gear was complicated, I was in the legendary Paragon Sports on Broadway in New York City. It must have been around 2009 and, while I’d been hiking since my early teens, until then I’d always just worn whatever gym gear I happened to own to get out on the trail.
But I’d met someone I liked in Vail, Colorado, was eyeing a move out to the Rockies, and had discovered that my cotton yoga pants and Nike running shoes might not cut it at high altitude. So I was in the market for a technical fleece jacket (after wearing my trendy Converse Fleece bought for a trek across Lapland for at least a decade) and a decent hiking backpack.
