Do you want to routinely get 30 to 50 percent off of name brand travel gear and clothing? It’s not all that hard. You just need to understand the seasonal cycle at retail and take advantage of it.

Even if you don’t shop much in clothing stores, you’re probably vaguely aware of the silly practice of putting swimsuits on the racks in February and putting sweaters and down ski jackets on the shelves when it’s still baking hot outside. That’s because manufacturers and wholesales really care more about the push (big order wholesale numbers) than they do about the pull (individual consumer purchases.) Sure, they want what they ship to sell through, but the whole industry is built around “What’s new for spring?” and “What’s new for fall?” This is as true for Patagonia as it is for Prada.

Over at Practical Travel Gear, where I’m editor, this sometimes leads to some strange conversations with PR people representing these brands. Last week one told me it didn’t do her any good to have ski clothing reviewed in January, even though that’s when the ski season really kicks off in earnest. “We’re only promoting the spring lines then,” she said. In other words, don’t review the things people are actually buying in stores, review the things we’re trying to get the big chain wholesale buyers to buy.

It’s bass-ackwards, but that’s the mentality. The travel gear companies are pumping out new shirts and jackets as fast as the companies you see advertising in Vogue, even though the differences from year to year are too insignificant for the average consumer to even notice.

So how do you act on this? It’s quite easy once you know how the game is played.

1) Buy things at the last minute.

Sure, this feels very uncomfortable for people who plan ahead and shop often, which is why the silly retail cycle works the way it does. But if you buy ski clothing right before your February (peak season) ski trip, you will probably find what you need already marked down or on the clearance rank. Same goes for a bathing suit in July.

2) Buy things off season (which may be your on season).

If you want to really rake in the deals, but winter clothes in the spring and summer clothing/gear in the fall. Sure, this could mean hanging onto them a while before using them, but maybe not. If you’re going to the Southern Hemisphere in your travels, the seasons are backwards anyway. If you’re going to the tropics, you need summer clothing no matter what time of year it is. If you’re going somewhere high altitude, you need layers whenever.

3) Hit the virtual outlet malls.

If you visit the markdown sites of the big online gear retailers, you don’t even have to keep any of this straight. Just click on their clearance section and you’ll often see items everyone coveted two months ago going for 50% off—or more. Follow these links to see what I mean and bookmark them (or subscribe to their RSS stream) to return. The selection changes quite a lot from month to month.

Backcountry.com
REI Outlet
Summit Hut Sale Gear page
Campmor Sale Items
Sierra Trading Post Clearance
Rock Creek Clearance
Altrec Deals of the Day

Happy hunting, and remember that if you’re not finding a price you can live with on the item you really want, just wait a while and you’ll almost surely see it reduced. For people who hate paying list price for anything, procrastination and being a contrarian are the paths to big savings.

As the editor of the top travel gear blog on the web, I check out a lot of new clothing, gear, and gadgets on a regular basis. I get offered a lot of samples and am therefore cycling through enough items in the field to do eight fresh reviews each month.

So if I’m packing something over and over again, not just taking it because I need to review it, you know it’s really worth getting.

Here are the items that go with me nearly every time I pack a bag. They’re the things I don’t even think about: I toss them in because they’re a given. In some cases, I’ve been tossing them in for years.

Chargepod Callpod multi-gadget charger

I reviewed this Callpod item way back in January of 2008. It was more necessary when every damned device had a different connector, a trend that is finally reversing with most (but still not all) cell phone companies and other gadget manufacturers. Still, I typically need two or three kinds of USB and an Apple connector, so this handy device lets me leave the house knowing I’m covered no matter what. No chargers and connector cords to pack. Just this. For some reason a Verizon version of this is on sale at Amazon for the super-cheap price of $11.99 with six adapters. Grab it now because that might be a mistake.

Eagle Creek or Sea to Summit Toiletry Kit

If I’m checking a bag, I usually take the larger Eagle Creek toiletry kit I’ve been using since 2006. If it’s a carry-on, I take this Sea to Summit compact toiletry kit, filled with trial size bottles and a small toothpaste tube. The former has a mirror, which is nice, and pockets for things like deoderant and face lotion. Both hang from a hook, unfolded, if you don’t have much counter space. That’s quite handy in budget hotels and hostels.

Kangaroom Gadget Case

All kinds of assorted little items end up coming along for the ride when I travel, like spare camera batteries, a mini tripod, a Skype earbud/mic cord, a thumb drive, a mini mouse, a 3-prong adapter, etc. I can stuff all of them into this Kangaroom pouch, zip it up, and not be fishing around later for the little stuff. It’s all in one place and when I get home I just put it back on the shelf.

Shoe Bag

I’m not really a big fan of packing cubes, but I do often take one to put dirty clothes in (or a mesh laundry bag) and one for my second pair of shoes. If you get the right size and your shoes are relatively flat, you can fit two pairs into one. That way no matter what your shoes go through on your trip, they don’t have to dirty up what’s next to them in your bag. I just use a regular packing cube, but you can also get thicker ones with a lining specifically meant as shoe bags.

Innergie Mini Power Source

This Innergie PocketCell Charger  is a rather recent addition to my regulars, and sometimes I take it without needing it, but when I do use this Innergie charger it’s a lifesaver. It’s a little battery with a multi-functional cord that will recharge your dead phone, e-reader, or music player when you can’t get to an outlet. I’ve found it especially helpful when on a very long flight or overnight bus ride (my iPod Touch has terrible battery life) or when in a 240-volt country with funky outlets. This can charge up from a USB port, then the output can be USB, mini-USB, micro-USB, or Apple. It holds enough juice to fully charge one item and sometimes two, but it takes up very little room and adds almost no extra weight.

What about you? Besides a phone, laptop, or tablet, what gear or gadget item makes your packing list every time?

 

I reviewed this innovative Camelbak All Clear bottle in detail over at Practical Travel Gear, but it speaks to such a strong travelers need that I’m mentioning it here as well.

Anybody who has read this blog for a while knows that I put bottled water in single-use plastic somewhere on the evil scale between Darth Vader, Dick Cheney, and Bashar Al-Assad. The manufactured demand for these drink-and-toss bottles of water has led to giant floating garbage dumps in the oceans and the soiling of almost any landscape where people leave the bottles in their wake. Almost nowhere in the world does a majority of them get recycled. Most end up on or in the ground, where they’ll stay for centuries. (The Grand Canyon finally banned them this year, but not without encountering massive pressure from Coca-Cola that led to delays.)

So I’m hoping this Camelbak All Clear bottle is a success. You fill it with ordinary tap water, turn it on, shake it around for about a minute, and drink. That’s it!

In places you couldn’t drink the water before, now you can. So far I’ve only used it in Mexico, but it worked like a dream there: I didn’t buy any bottled water for nine days and drank with this from six different taps. No digestive problems at all.

Sure, this magical technology is going to cost you. The All Clear retails for about $100. But have you ever tracked how much you’ve spent on water over the course of a few weeks or a month on the road? Chances are, that’s about how long it would take to pay for itself. Everything after that is gravy, plus you’ve kept 100+ bottles out of the landfills or streams. It charges by USB, quite handy, and there’s a carrying pouch for the purifier part. (You can put any Camelbak top on it when you’re actually drinking from it.)

You can get the CamelBak All Clear Water Purifier Bottle at REI.com.

If you want something that takes up less room and can be used with any wide-mouth bottle you have already, check out this review of the SteriPen Freedom wand.

If you’ve ever had the bad fortune to have your laptop die in another country while you were traveling, or have had to replace a stolen camera, you have learned first-hand about the strange world of international electronics pricing. If you’ve ever been to the airport in Hong Kong or Panama City and wondered why you felt like you landed in a shopping mall, it’s because these duty-free zones are a bonanza for people who can’t get fair pricing at home.

Wired magazine recently published a rundown of what a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad goes for around the world. As you might expect, only one place on the list had a cheaper price than the usual $499 in the United States—Malaysia was a tad less at $483. Here’s a look at other places on the globe.

Canada – $507
Mexico – $519
South Korea – $557
Vietnam – $560
China – $579
Japan – $583
Chile – $595
India – $603
UK – $629
New Zealand – $633
Russia – $647
Hungary – $653
France – $672
Denmark – $683
Ukraine – $687

As you can see, there’s no correlation between how cheap the country is in other ways or how high national GDP is in relation to others. So why the disparity? And why is it even worse with non-Apple items like cameras and laptops?

In most cases, you can chalk it up to protectionism, inefficient distribution, or both. When I lived in Mexico, for instance, I learned that goods made in the U.S. or Canada can be imported freely, thanks to NAFTA, but goods made in China get hit with a big taraiff. So even if it’s a product from HP or Whirlpool, the “Made in China” tag drives the price up. With most cheap electronics and apparel made in China these days, electronics are more expensive than they should be—in many cases 50 percent more than in your local U.S. Best Buy store.

In protectionist countries like Argentina and India, the government has made imports artificially high in order to protect the domestic economy. Research in Motion actually had to open a factory in lower Patagonia, Argentina to start making Blackberrys there—otherwise they wouldn’t make it past customs. A million books are sitting in containers on the docks and you can’t buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle no matter how much money you have.

When I first visited India as a backpacker, it was hard to even find a camera from Canon or Nikon. You had to seek out a specialist store that had a special import license. And you paid a fortune for the product. Things are better now, but when the government recently said it would allow big box retailers like Wal-mart and Carrefour in, with a local partner needing to hold a 49 percent stake, the outcry was loud and widespread.

In other countries, such as Korea and Japan, there are simply too many middlemen. For a product to get from dock to store, it goes through several hands, each adding their margin to the price. You’re paying for the pass-through.

There’s no easy answer to how to get around this except to wait until you’re in the right country to buy. My Spanish tutor in Mexico had one request when I was taking a quick trip to the U.S. for a conference. “Can you buy a camera there for me?” I did, and a model that would have been more than $200 in Mexico was $119 stateside.

Want some free travel gear? NOW CLOSED – See gear winners list at the end.

I moved back from Mexico recently and unloaded all the stuff that was crammed into our storage facility. I’m talking all the things that were formerly occupying a good-sized house before we left with just a few suitcases.

After living a simpler life, an American house crammed with possessions has been a strange change. I have too much stuff. I’m not a pack rat, but I get a lot of gear to review because I run Practical Travel Gear and once in a while I need to purge. My pain could be your gain.

To get any of the items below, send your preference to the e-mail address that follows, along with the proof of one of the actions listed at the bottom. None take much effort, so this could be an easy score.

1) Eagle Creek convertible laptop bag

I like this Eagle Creek Global Commuter bag pictured at the top and I wrote a nice review of it (follow that link), but after trying it out on two trips I put it away and haven’t used it since. That’s just because of personal preference: I like keeping my laptop in a backpack because I can carry all my other stuff in there as well and I’m not advertising my wealth in cheap countries.

This one is really nice though, so chime in if it’s your style. It can be carried by hand, as a backpack, or as a messenger bag. It’s checkpoint-friendly, so you can just zip it open for the security theater at the airport.

2) Collector’s item laptop sleeve from Woolrich

This is a rare laptop sleeve made in signature thick Woolrich red and black patterned wool. Again, I like this, but I just don’t use it. A PR person from Woolrich gave it to me at a trade show and it would really make a statement to pull this wool laptop sleeve out in a coffee shop in Burlington, Montreal, or Seattle. But for the foreseeable future I’m living in warm and sunny places…

You can’t buy this sleeve in a store. It’s something they made special in the factory for a giveaway. It fits 13-inch laptops and netbooks.

3) Briggs & Riley Excursion Field Bag for the iPad

Think of this Excursion Field Bag as the modern version of the man purse, a quality item for carrying around your iPad, tablet, or Kindle, plus a phone, pocket camera, some pens, and other items. This is a great flashpacker daypack with a lot of cool features, guaranteed for life as all Briggs & Riley products are. I’ve got nothing bad to say about this tote except that I don’t have an iPad and don’t intend to buy one. Yeah okay, if I win one somewhere maybe I’ll start pining for this bag I gave away, but sometimes you’ve gotta let go.

4) Eagle Creek Tailfeather

My review of this Eagle Creek Tailfeather tote said “don’t call it a fanny pack,” because those words didn’t appear in any of the marketing material or tags. But let’s face it, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who like these carriers and those who don’t. I’m all for logic and practicality, but I haven’t pulled this back out since I first wrote about it, so it’s all yours if you want to give it a good home. It would be great for biking, hiking, or other pursuits where you need your hands and a should strap isn’t practical.

5) PodFlex Pro Flexible iPhone, iPod, Touch holder

This flexible smart Touch/iPhone stand is cool and it works well (see the full review and photos here: PodFlex Pro), but I don’t really watch videos on a tiny screen ever. If you do, you can use this on an airplane tray table, in the seat pocket, or on a nightstand, leaving your hands free.

How to get your free sh*t

I want engaged readers to get these rewards, so do one of the following you haven’t done already, then forward me the e-mail confirmation or the screen shot to prove you did. Send it to beach (at) perceptivetravel.com and include your shipping address. U.S. addresses only—sorry! I have to pay to send all this and don’t want to deal with customs.

- Subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog OR

- Subscribe to the RSS feed of PracticalTravelGear.com OR

- Follow PracticalTravelGear.com on Facebook

If you’re the rare creature that’s done all three already, then show me that. Send it to beach (at) perceptivetravel.com.

Deadline for entries is August 26, 2011 at midnight EST because I need to get this stuff out of my cluttered office. When there’s more than one request for an item, the winner will be picked at random. Items will ship by whatever method will get them there the cheapest after I notify winners the following week.

Update, August 29: We have winners! The following were picked at random from the requests for specific items. One item got no entries and has been re-gifted to a relative. You don’t enter, you can’t score!

1) Eagle Creek Global Commuter laptop bag – Brian Bruenderman of Kentucky
2) Woolrich wool laptop sleeve – Tom Hamann of Colorado
3) Briggs & Riley Excursion Field Bag – Warren Robinson of Maryland
4) PodFlex Pro iPhone/Touch stand – Kim Sanders of Pennsylvania

I’m notifying everyone by e-mail and sending out packages this week. Don’t forget, we do a gear giveaway every month at Perceptive Travel. So go sign up for the newsletter.