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Adidas Essential Shoe Bag
by northernlovely
**What is it?**
The Adidas Essential Shoe Bag is a simple bag for carrying sports shoes / trainers. It's suitable for a number of different sports shoes and for most adult sizes male / female.
**Price and Availability**
The Adidas Essential Shoe Bag is available on the high street most notably where I ... purchased it, Sports Direct. It can cost anything from £5 to £10 depending on sales and promotions, I paid £7.99 which I think is very fair for a branded item.
**Looks**
It's pretty simple looking in a black polyester finish with a black three quarter zip and a grey modern Adidas logo to the front. It has a small carrying strap woven in black nylon. It's not too fancy but the colour means it will wear well, with sports which are a bit muddier.
**Use**
The Adidas Essential Shoe Bag is very easy to use and fits most shoes well - I've used it with women's running shoes in a size 7 and my husband has used the same bag for football boots in size 11 so it certainly is versatile. I'd say it was durable too because in the 18 months we've had the bag it's as good as new and has been through the washing machine twice, too, it washes and dries well at 30 degrees and a radiator dry (I wouldn't recommend putting it in the tumble dryer).
**Recommend?**
Yes, I highly recommend the Adidas Essential Shoe Bag. For the money you won't get a better, more durable sports brand named shoe bag, and it's suitable for absolutely everyone.
Five stars out of five from me, the Adidas Essential Shoe Bag certainly lives up to it's name - it's an essential shoe bag, from Adidas!
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Atom Drop Deck Longboard
by Thebaker50
I have another review on another longboard, my first board, the saltrock cruiser. I was getting fed up with the high ride height, the unstable trucks and the rough ride, and so after some research, I decided on getting a drop through or a drop-deck longboard. I ended up decided on a drop deck (as seen above) for a few reasons, but mainly ... because I managed to buy a factory damaged atom longboard for a mere £57 including delivery (a normal atom drop deck is around £100-£110, and even this is one of the cheapest drop decks you can buy!).
So I am going to start by explaining what a drop deck is. Look at the picture at the top, can you see how the board "comes down" from the bit where the wheels attach. This is the deck being "dropped". By being lower to the ground, it is easier to push and stop, as well as being more stable (lower center of gravity).
Ok, so what is this board like. Now I admit from the start I am still relatively new to this sport, so I can only compare it to my first board, but basically, this board is faster (I think the larger 70mm wheels and the bearings help here), more stable (as expected), and WOW does it take the bumps out the road. The deck is a little "flexy", so its not really a serious downhill board, but this makes it good and turning, also known as "carving".
Its also pretty light, which is not what I expected (most drop-decks are quite heavy). For me this is a plus, because I wanted a board to "push" on, and for that you want a deck as light as possible.
The thing I like msot about this board is that it has potential. My old saltrock cruiser was an okish first board, but once you want to start thinking about bigger wheels and the like, you would have to replace almost the entire board (ok so say if you put bigger wheels on the cruiser, the board heigh would increase, and the wheels would touch the board, so you would either need stiffer bushings, or more riser pads, and to do that you would need new trucks, or new bolt and nut attachments). However with this board, you could realistically replace just the bit you wanted to improve. The same scenario, say I want to change the wheels on this, all I would need to do it remove the wheel nut, swap the bearings, and place the new wheels in. I wouldn't need to worry about the wheels rubbing on the board itself, as the board is cut to a shape to avoid the wheels in the turns. Making it very adaptable.
The looks and finish of the board are not the best though. The graphic on the bottom looks like it might just be a bit of coloured paper glued to a piece of wood (rather than painted on), and the longboar smells a bit like glue. However, bear in mind that to get these things right would make the board cost more money, and for personally they are acceptable to live with. The board certainly doesn't feel like its going to fall apart though.
Therefore, I think if I was going to recommend anyone a first time longboard, I think this is a very strong candidate. Enough of a board to learn a lot from (I am still learning a lot from this board), but adaptable enough to be upgrades should you want it. Unless you have your heart set on downhill longboarding, I think this is a pretty good longboard to learn the basics of longboarding on. However I am going to give this a 4/5 simply because it is not as good as the more high end stuff out there (rayne, lush, loaded etc), but in all fairness, those boards start from £180 plus, but if you are more "professional" longboarder, then you will want something from them most likely.
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Thermos Hydro Sports Bottle with Ice Tube - 0.5 Lt
by trayrope
My Daughter likes to take a drink to school with her each day. She usually refilled an old 500ml pop bottle or brought a new drink from the shop each morning on the way to school. I find both ways unsatisfactory as refilling a previously used disposable pop bottle is unhygienic and buying a new bottle of pop five days a week is costly. ... Then she started 'borrowing' my Husbands sports bottle that he uses for the gym each morning, not a very good solution as my Husband would have to hunt the bottle down when he wanted it and my daughter would have to do the same when she wanted it.
After a week of bottle hunting and borrowing my Husband had had enough and ordered our daughter a nice girly pink bottle from amazon.co.uk, the cost of this bottle was £4.99, equivalent to a weeks worth of pop from the shop.
When the bottle arrived I was impressed to see that the bottle was a Thermos branded sports bottle or to give it its proper title Thermos Hydro Sports Bottle with Ice Tube. The bottle is available in Blue (manly) Charcoal (unisex) Pink (girly) and maybe a few other colours.
I was intrigued by the ice tube idea, after a few minutes investigation I discovered that the 'Ice Tube' was a refillable plastic tube. To use the 'Ice Tube' all you need to do was fill the tube to the water line, screw the lid back on and then place it in the freezer. When the 'Ice Tube' has frozen it can then be placed in the drinks bottle. This will then keep your water or juice nicely chilled. I think this a great idea for warmer months as it will keep my Daughters drink chilled throughout part of the day at school.
When I gave the bottle a closer inspection I was impressed to see that Thermos have fitted rubber seals in all the right places, I know this sounds strange but bottles lacking in seals have resulted in soaking my daughters school bag and its contents on more than one occasion.
The lid is nicely domed and has a 'rapid flow' spout for easy drinking. I have tried this bottle out for review purposes and can report that my water flowed from the bottle at a good rate. The oval shape of the opening contours nicely with my lips. When the cap of the spout is flipped open it can be pushed back a little further where it will lock into place, this is great as it stops the cap from trying to flip closed while drinking. The hinge of the spout cap looks well made and does not stand too proud of the lid itself. I think this positioning will protect the hinges from being accidentally damaged while in my Daughters bag or when being carried about.
The lid of the bottle is accented with black rubber, not only does this look great but it provides grip when opening and closing the lid. The body of the bottle is nicely shaped and is again accented with black rubber, in this case it provides a good gripping point for your hand, ensuring that if your hands are wet and sweaty or the bottle is wet that it will not easily slip from your grip.
The sports bottle can comfortably hold 450ml of liquid (non carbonated beverages and cold beverages only) and this is indicated by the measure up one side of the bottle in ml indicating 250ml, 350ml and 450ml. The bottle also measures in fluid ounces and is indicated at 9floz, 12floz and 15floz.This is handy if you are monitoring your fluid intake levels.
My Daughter has been using this bottle for a couple of weeks now and it still looks in good condition, there are a few slight scratches on the outer of the bottle but nothing major. I think the bottle is a sound investment as it costs the equivalent of buying a weeks pop from the shop, any use after a week is a financial saving which really adds up when watching the pennies. I also feel this bottle is a lot better than refilling disposable pop bottles as it is very easy to dismantle and give a good wash out each day. My Husband was so impressed with the look and feel of the Thermos Hydro Active Sports Bottle with Ice Tube that he ordered a second one in blue for himself.
Specifications.
Spill resistant.
Contoured and rubberized bottle for better grip.
Dishwaher safe.
Ice Tube.
BPA free.
450ml capacity.
Made of Polypropylene.
Height 190mm, width 70mm.
Thank you for reading.
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