Does New Gear Motivate You to Get Outside?

I know you know this feeling: You’re eight years old or so and your sneakers are tattered, tired, and torn, so Mom takes you out for a new pair and all of a sudden you can run faster, jump higher, and leap farther. It’s as if that glowing new rubber sole came with a magical anti-gravity boost, good for the first 24 hours or so.

We humans are enamored of the novel, and even the most hardened anti-materialist certainly has the desire, deep within that crusted heart, for the joy of a new bike, or new pack, or, at least, a new pair of shoelaces.

Some people just want to acquire, and they take comfort in the bulwark of stuff. Others, who hold onto the world of things less tightly, are focused on the benefits new gear can bring. And certainly, either way, we all must take a certain pleasure in the new, and in the performance promises of the new. The question is, how much? Is your motivation to get out and play completely decoupled from your gear? Or do you run more, and run farther, right after you get a new pair of kicks? Is your gear inert? Or is it like a little electrical charge, stimulating the motivation center in your brain?

[polldaddy poll=8238021]

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WIN SMITH SUNGLASSES JUST BY VOTING


This week, one poll participant will receive a pair of Smith Optics Cornice sunglasses from Smith’s Archive collection. We’ll pick the winner via random number generator (and announce it here) – all you have to do to enter is vote and leave a comment so we have your email to contact you. Must have a U.S. or Canadian address. Contest ends Sunday, August 17, at midnight PST.

Congratulations to Doug Ferguson, who wins the Smiths this week!

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