PressCamp2010: A Sneak Peak at Camelbak’s Upcoming 2011 Line

Camelbak, the world leader in selling portable hydration systems, has a long established record of offering a new and improved line of products every year. This is not to say that older products are bad, it just means that the newer models tend to include improvements and enhancements, reflecting the company’s active development of the personal hydration industry. As is the case with automobile manufacturers and others, Many of the new products are developed and introduced for review purposes (though not for sell) well in advance of the actual launch date.

This June saw some of Camelbak’s 2011 products displayed at PressCamp2010, a trade show featuring medium sized companies selling new biking products. PressCamp2010 was held in the last week of June at Deer Valley, a mountain resort in Utah. As a trade show, producers introduce new products and the like, but it also involves some serious cycling as well, just to test many of these new products and see how they perform. Situated at 6,500 feet above sea level, with the ride running up to 9,500 feet, the new products would get a good trial.

Probably the most hyped of Camelbak’s new products to be released in 2011 is the new Antidote bladder. Although Camelbak is hyping it as revolutionary, in reality it is simply adopting some of the more popular features to be found on the bladders of some of their leading competitors. For example, though the new Antidote bladder does not have the same stiff spine as the bladders offered by Osprey, they have achieved much the same result by baffling the bladder; making wider and less round just like the Osprey bladders.  Further, all of the 2011 packs have been redesigned for the new bladder and designed so that the bladder does not slip down into the pack as it empties, again somewhat imitating some of the innovations introduced by Osprey. In the same vein, the detachable hose long offered by Hydrapak is now being offered by Camelbak on the Antidote bladder system.

Despite the fact that many of these new Camelbak revisions are at least partially imitative of their competition, Camelbak has always been an innovator as well and the 2011 line will offer a number of interesting new options. For example, their Groove bottles and perhaps some of the new hoses for the Antidote bladder now come with an interesting carbon filter. This is very much the same sort of filter as one might find in a home water purifier and is designed to soften hard water and help remove heavier particulate matter from water. However, it is designed for sports applications, so the filter’s surface area will be large enough to permit the free flow of water without undue obstruction.

There is also a completely new pack designed for all day or long distance riders, the Octane LR. The great thing about this pack is that it is designed low, putting all of the weight on the wearer’s hips as opposed to on their shoulders. This pack is bound to be very popular and will probably spawn a lot of imitation from the other companies. Unlike most hip-born hydration systems, the Octane LR is not a bottle carrier, but a full hydration pack using the standard bladders and hoses; it is just designed to sit on the hips instead of the shoulders.