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The coolest outdoor toys don't always cost a fortune

What do world-famous pilots like Jeb Corliss and Joby Ogwyn have in common? They all wear suits sewn by Tony Uragallo, a garden-loving designer who helps daring men zoom through the sky.

Royal Robbins: Climber, businessman, and archetype for the modern clean-climbing ethic, which espouses the use of removable protection instead of pounding pitons into rock.

An incomprehensive history.

Gear companies know how to make packs lighter, jackets more waterproof, and skis burlier. The only problem: young people couldn’t care less.

Rollerblade: A roller skate with soft, linearly arranged wheels offering fast, smooth glide.

Chamois: A diaper-like pad first used by cyclists around 1900 to prevent saddle sores and chafing on their nethers.

Rubbermaid Bin: A polyethylene storage container commonly used for gear.

Chip timing: The practice of using a small wearable transmitter to track race participants’ times at regular checkpoints along a course.

Carabiner: A gated aluminum fastener used with rope and other equipment to arrest rock climbers’ falls.

Base-Camp Duffel: A large, 155-liter bag often seen loaded on yaks in Nepal’s Khumbu region for a few simple reasons: it can take a beating, it has straps that convert it into a backpack, and mountaineers know that it can carry all their gear.

Snowboarding: A snowsports alternative to skiing.

Crowdfunding: A method of raising capital to launch commercial ventures in which small individual donations are made through an online platform.

Jacques Cousteau: A French explorer and arguably the most prolific marine scientist and ocean conservationist of the 20th century.

Direct to Consumer: A business model in which a company sells its products via its own website, catalog, or store, reducing retail markup and passing the savings along to the consumer.

Spork: An eating utensil that adds fork tines to a spoon and never fails to amuse its users.

Dithering: The intentional degrading of a satellite’s signal to discourage unauthorized use, which deterred citizens from tapping into the Department of Defense’s Global Positioning System, or GPS, for ten years.

Denali Jacket: A popular performance fleece garment made by the North Face and commonly seen on mountaineers and college students.

BMW GS: An iconic adventure motorcycle introduced in 1980 to compete in the Dakar Rally race, the famed long-distance off-road endurance event.

SUP: Short for stand-up paddle-board, a stable floating platform that combines the cool of surfing with the practicality of a spin workout.

Dropper Post: A mountain-bike component that can be raised or lowered with a button mounted on the handlebars.

Double Plastic Mountaineering Boot: A highly reliable style of footwear that prevents frostbite in alpine environments.

Lifa Shirt: The first commercially available base layer made from polypropylene, released in 1970 by Helly Hansen.

Duct tape: A cloth-backed metallic gray adhesive that fixes anything worth saving.

Bill Bowerman: A legendary Oregon track coach who cofounded the shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964; 14 years later, it became Nike.

Tech binding: A lightweight binding system that transformed backcountry skiing and put telemarking on the path to obsolescence.

Sports Bra: A groundbreaking invention that lets women participate comfortably in a range of vigorous athletic activities.

Teva sandal: A water shoe that came to define a generation of river athletes.

CamelBak: A hands-free hydration system that can be carried in a backpack.

Tough-ass pants: A term for rugged work trousers that are particularly good at handling abuse.

Camouflage: A varying pattern of earth-colored prints designed to obscure the wearer from view, worn by hunters and members of the U.S. military

Utility bike: A bicycle built for hauling children, gear, or grocery bags full of organic quinoa and local honey.

Canned Beer: A usually cheap, thirst-quenching alcoholic beverage in a durable package, now commonplace on rafting and camping trips.

The raw materials that make up the tools for hiking, running, paddling, skiing, and cycling. These 36 building blocks are indispensable to the design and function of gear, from mankind’s first wool layer to the latest lab-born membranes. (Some things just look better in print. To see this in all…

And how it's going to change the way you see all of your stuff

Elk Skin Gloves: Hand protection made from the skin of the great wapiti.

Pulaski: A wildland-firefighting tool that combines an ax and an adze and is used to clear brush and small trees.

Sunglasses designed to protect a pilot’s eyes against high-altitude sun.

Therm-a-Rest: The first mass-market inflatable sleeping pad.

Blake Mycoskie: A 38-year-old philanthropist and entrepreneur who founded Toms Shoes (originally Shoes for a Better Tomorrow) in 2006.

P-cord: Parachute cord, also known as paracord, the world’s most versatile survival tool.

Greg Lowe: Inventor of the internal-frame backpack.

A category of gear that came into being in the late 1960s as more and more skiers ventured beyond resort boundaries.

Headphones: Any device used for playing music close to or within a wearer’s ears.

A rapid sequence of radical innovations, such as appeared in cycling between 1984 and 1987, the sport’s Age of Enlightenment.

Filson, a Seattle-based maker of high-quality leather goods.

Jogging Stroller: A stroller that allows parents to run and, theoretically, get their toddlers to nap.

The surprising tendency for technical products and trends from the outdoor world to find their way into mass culture.

Thule: A company founded by Swedish outdoorsman Erik Thulin, originally to make fishing gear.

Nalgene bottle: A durable, wide-mouthed vessel originally designed to hold chemicals.

Westfalia: A breed of Volkswagen camper van prone to expensive repairs, yet beloved by those who own them and coveted by road-trip dreamers everywhere.

Sick Footie: A visual recording worth replaying for others.

An instrument of mass exhibitionism.

Blimp-tired bicycles were developed for one of the most grueling endurance races in the world. But then everyone else realized how much fun they were.

Double Vacuum: A technology dating back to 1892 that suspends one container inside another, leaving a small amount of air between the two to insulate the inner contents from external temperature changes.

Howard Head: The founder of ski brand Head.

Lumbersexual: A fashion-conscious male urbanite whose clothing and accessories project an aura of rugged manliness.

A bindingless monoski invented in 1965.

Heart-Rate Monitor: A device that measures a wearer’s heart rate; particularly useful for monitoring exertion in athletes.

Nike+: The original wearable technology for athletes.

Portaledge: A collapsible sleeping platform for climbers.

Lululemon: A yoga-apparel brand founded by Canadian entrepreneur Chip Wilson in 1998.

Repurposing: Taking a product and adapting it for a different use.

USGS Topographical Map: A detailed representation of a landscape, created by the United States Geological Survey, and a rare example of something every bit as beautiful as it is useful.

Vasque Sundowner: A svelte hiking boot that serves as a testament to how well-made products can endure despite evolving design trends.

Dutch Oven: A large cast-iron pot and the campfire cooking vessel of choice for pioneers, cowboys, and river guides.

Doug Tompkins: Businessman and crusading conservationist who cofounded the North Face and Esprit.

A packable device producing fire for camp cooking.

The Perfect Size Wheel: An elusive and controversial hoop that allows mountain bikers the ability to optimize progress over rocky terrain.

Gatorade: A sports drink formulated in 1965 for the University of Florida Gators football team and currently produced by PepsiCo.

Pour-Over Coffee: A method of brewing coffee by passing near boiling water through grounds held in a paper filter.

Jeremy Jones: A pioneering big-mountain snowboarder and snowboard designer.

Fat Skis: Skis that are at least 115 millimeters underfoot.

Helmet: An apparatus designed to protect the wearer against head injuries.

Velcro: A two-piece fastening material that features hooks on one side and a swath of loops on the other.

Surfboard Fin: A structural element, usually made of wood or fiberglass, attached to the bottom of a surfboard to aid maneuverability.

Lifetime Warranty: A company’s promise to repair or replace an item that breaks.

A pioneering social-fitness app released in 2009.

These innovators-in-chief changed the way we play

Jack O’Neill: A former commercial fisherman widely credited with inventing the neoprene wetsuit.

Leatherman: A multitool invented by Tim Leatherman after wishing he had a pair of pliers while working on a rust-bucket Fiat with a pocket knife during a 1975 European road trip.

Wetsuit: An insulating garment that allows individuals to spend more time in cold water.

PowerBar: The first portable energy bar.

The most valuable currency in gear marketing of the past 40 years.

Garmin Forerunner 201: The world’s first all-in-one GPS-enabled running watch, released in 2003 by Kansas navigation company Garmin.

Hummer: The civilian version of the military’s Humvee off-road vehicle, which was produced by AM General from 1992 to 2006.

Backcountry.com: Online retailer of a wide range of outdoor gear.

Catalog: A magazine-like print presentation of a company’s or retailer’s products.

The world's leading design center for outdoor footwear—everything from featherweight climbing shoes to hard-shelled mountaineering stompers—is a small city in northern Italy where craftsmanship reigns.

Vibram: A vulcanized-rubber sole that revolutionized footwear.

Gary Fisher: A major figure in the development of mountain bikes.

Suunto Vector: The original smartwatch.

Polarization: A lens technology that cuts glare created when light reflects off materials like plastic and glass.

Caves, tepees, wall tents, those green canvas triangles that caused hypothermia in so many Boy Scouts—in one form or another, ideas borrowed from these flawed shelters appear in their modern descendents.

Gel: A sugary fuel used during races and serious training, typically packed into sealed foil pouches.

Jeep: A four-wheel-drive vehicle first produced for the U.S. Army during World War II.

The original American road-trip trailer, designed in 1931 by Wally Byam, was inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.

Odor Control: The relentless attempt by apparel makers to tame human stink.

Telescoping front forks and articulating rear frame triangles that absorb bumps and shocks.

Pack Raft: A small inflatable raft that can be rolled up to fit in a backpack.

Puffy: A lightweight jacket insulated with duck or goose down or synthetic fill.

Founders of the Recreational Equipment Co-op (REI), which the couple started in their West Seattle home in 1938 as a way to help climber friends gain access to cheaper ice axes and harnesses by ordering bulk gear from Europe.

Mountain House: Maker of 33 varieties of tasty freeze-dried meals packaged in polyester, aluminum, and nylon pouches.

A sturdy, purpose-made fishing boot that has become the gold standard of footwear in the 49th state.

Washing a single polyester jacket can send 1,900 tiny synthetic micro-fibers into waterways, where they can soak up toxins and get eaten by fish. So what is the outdoor industry doing about it?

Waffle: A repeating inverted cube shape adopted by sporting-goods manufacturers, beginning with Nike, which used the pattern on the sole of its iconic waffle trainer.

Little Things: Those items that mark the difference between a miserable experience and a joyous one—pit zips on jackets being a prime example.

Phil Knight: Cofounder of athletic-shoe company Nike.

Kite: A lightweight aircraft—often erroneously considered a toy—propelled by the wind and controlled by a user on the ground via a line or set of lines.

A cooler company whose two-inch-thick, double-walled products are so effective that its creation, in 2006, began a new era in rafting.

Duluth pack: A heavy canvas rucksack, patented in 1882 by French Canadian Camille Poirier in Duluth, Minnesota, along the shores of Lake Superior.

Fat shoes: Shoes with roughly 20 millimeters of foam underfoot

Fly rod: A skinny stick, usually 6 to 13 feet long, used in conjunction with a reel, a line, and hand-tied simulations of in-sects to catch fish.

Recall: A request by a manufacturer, and usually the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), to return a product after the discovery of safety issues.

Swiss Army Knife: The world’s first consumer multitool, designed by cutler Karl Elsener with two blades, a screwdriver, and a can opener.

The brand of zipper that is likely keeping your britches up at this very moment. Headquartered in Tokyo, 81-year-old YKK (short for Yoshida Kogyo Kabu­shikikaisha, which translates as ­Yoshida Company Limited) was founded by Tadao ­Yoshida, who started making cus­tom zippers to take advantage of breaks and…

Tenth Mountain Division: An Army outfit specializing in mountain warfare, devised during World War II around the idea that it was easier to make troops out of skiers than skiers out of troops.