Subscription boxes are a fun way to try new stuff, in this case, gear. The Nomadik Box (“Premium Brands + Functional Gear = Better Adventures”) contains a selection of outdoor products geared towards anyone who loves adventuring. Boxes are sent based on your interests and you can skip any box that doesn’t appeal to you.
An outdoor gear box is right up my alley as someone pretty passionate about all things gear, and I was able to use everything in the Holiday box from Nomadik.
Correction: my FAMILY was able to use everything in this box since the kids were just as excited about the gear as I was.
What’s in the Box?
The neck gaiter was immediately taken by the oldest, and the NiGlo was taken by my middle. My toddler of course grabbed for the caffeinated stuff, because you know how toddlers need MORE energy right?
NiGlo
The NiGlo is a handy little gadget that I’m keeping on my keys when it’s not lighting my kids’ zipper pull. It glows dimly for quite some time making it handy to use for finding things in a tent (car keys when car camping would be a great use).
It gets really bright if you charge it directly with a flashlight but picks up charge from ambient light or sunlight for a soft glow.
Nomadik Gaiter
The gaiter fits all three kids really well, ages 2.5 to 6. It also fit me, for the 5 seconds that someone gave it up to let me try it. My oldest usually snags it first, but it’s snug enough that my 4yo daughter loves wearing it to help hold her hair back as her hair is almost always in her eyes no matter how we try to pull it back.
Alpine Start Instant Coffee Packets
I’ll admit I was most excited about trying the coffee. I’ve long been a fan of the Starbucks Via packets for backpacking, but the Alpine Start packets were also really great. I didn’t have any backpacking trips planned so I tested the coffee out immediately for an afternoon treat.
GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Dualist Stove
I also have a lot of camping stoves, but have never owned anything that doesn’t use fuel canisters. Now that I’ve tried this out I have no idea why I haven’t always had one of these since they retail for about $10-15.
It wouldn’t be my ideal primary camping stove but it’s a fantastic backup; it’s lightweight and tiny. It would also be great for backpacking trips that include air travel, especially to Hawaii where I’ve always found it particularly difficult to find fuel!
The hexamine fuel tablet lit right away, and took about 10 minutes to boil a pot of water on the snow with an ambient temp around 20 degrees. That pretty much used up the tablet, the stove comes with 6 and additional tablets are very inexpensive. If boiling more water or cooking a meal you’d use multiple tablets at once.
Yum, delicious chai made outside in 10 minutes. I tested it out while my toddler was napping; her room is right next to the kitchen and ANY sound I make in there wakes her up, even over her noise machine, so this was a big win.
It was easy enough to set up that I can see us packing this stove up for making hot chocolate or even heating up soup during a day out sledding or a winter hike. Sometimes the activity of making something outside is just more satisfying than bringing a thermos.
HeroClip
The small heroclip is also cooler than I thought it would be, and it’s really the big item in the box as it retails for $17.99. I have a ton of carabiners, but this works really great to hang mittens or snowsuits both in the house and in the car. It seems to be able to hang anything from anywhere!
We have places for most of our gear to hang, but when stuff gets really wet and we’ve been out a few times a day, having a few clips like this would really come in handy, and it’s more versatile than an ordinary carabiner because it swivels so you can get the perfect angle for hanging even in tight spaces.
Value of the Box
If you’re the type of person who loves new gear and doesn’t love shopping for it, this may be the box for you. Nomadik‘s website lists an “up to $60 retail value” and I don’t feel this box met that, but I did like the stuff I got and it would be something I’d try out for a few months to see what sort of variety comes in the boxes.
This box cost $32.99, and I think that was about the value of its contents for anyone who shops around for gear and doesn’t usually pay full retail. But I think the draw of this box for me wouldn’t be the savings, but being introduced to useful new items.
I like the heroclip so much I’m probably going to get another one eventually, so this box isn’t saving me any money there… but it helped me find some useful things.
The 12mo subscription isn’t enough of a deal ($29.99/mo vs $32.99/mo) for me to jump on that, so I’d subscribe for 2-3 months and then decide if it’s something I’m happy with and it I ended up using most of the stuff in the long term.
Nomadik does let you preview the boxes and skip any ones that don’t appeal to you and has a satisfaction guarantee.
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