Hydration systems like the ones we have read about the last month are still a very young product category, and I am certain we haven’t seen the end of the innovation cycle in this product niche. While Geigerrig has hands-down the most innovative system to date, it will be interesting to see if they manage to stay ahead of the curve and also, of course, what their competitors might come up with. An exploration of what might lay ahead of us in terms of features and functions that might define the next generation of systems.
While a Geigerrig reservoir is very easy to clean – just turn it inside out & give it a good scrub – I wonder if Nanotechnology will soon arrive in Hydration Systems, which keep our reservoirs longer clean from bacteria, dirt and odour. The biggest obstacle will be to make the nanotechnology safe for human consumption, and also money will play a roll – nanotechnology is not cheap, and given the relative small size of companies it is questionable if they have the money to fund R&D in this area. However, seeing how nanotech is increasingly being used in everyday items, it probably is just a question of time until we see some developments in this area. ¡Adiós, cleaning the reservoir after each trip!
Then there is the area of re-filling, particularly with contaminated water in mind, which might see some interesting developments. Will there be hydration systems with integrated UV gadgets to kill off bacteria, or smart & easy to use ways to enter Aquamira & Co. into your reservoir? How about nets at the opening of the reservoir which would filter out bigger stuff when you fill it in a stream or lake, hindering floating stuff from entering your reservoir? I hope that manufacturers are working on smart solutions to these questions, and especially the latter one could be an easy, yet very convenient add-on for reservoirs.
Technology is encroaching more and more into our lives and outdoor adventures – digital cameras, smartphones, e-readers, GPS, solar chargers and more are increasingly often found on the trail. Maybe it is thus a bit surprising that there’s not yet some hydration systems that has some kind of electronic system on board. But what could some gadget really add to a hydration system? Well, for starters your hydration system is likely in your backpack, hidden, so you don’t know how full/ empty it is. Imagine a smart meter which tells you how full it is, I could see a use for that.
This meter could become even more useful in conjunction with a connected GPS to it – hiking in an area with little surface water? It would be useful if then your meter would
- tell you how full/ empty your reservoir is and
- if this is a good place to refill it – maybe because it is the only water source for the next few kilometers and your best chance to refill
Spinning this further, I also can see some gadget being useful to remind you to drink – as funny as that might sound. Driving down a demanding singletrack, hiking and chatting with your friends or skiing over the fjells, you might feel thirsty but just ‘forget’ to stay hydrated. Some gadget which reminds you to take a sip each half hour (or more often/ less – depending on your activity) could be especially useful for beginners in the outdoors, which might not yet be aware of how important it is to stay properly hydrated. And if you use a watch with a heart rate monitor connected to it, it even could tell you when to drink to keep your optimal performance.
Ok, enough thoughts on what may lay ahead for hydration systems, lets look at the way we carry them. In my search for the one hydration backpack for all activities, I came to the conclusion that it is hard to find – mainly because different activities need different backpacks. And while it is super easy to throw my Geigerrig hydration system into my GORUCK GR1 when I’m in the city or into my Hyperlite Mountain Gear Porter when I’m out hiking and skiing, I wonder if a modular pack – which can be adapted to my needs – would not be a better, more sustainable solution. Wingnut Gear already offers such a pack with their MPS Alpha and it certainly looks interesting, and we can just hope that some major companies pick up this idea. This would allow one to really cut down on bags, and mod the pack for the current activity you’re going out for – small volume and tight for mountain biking, a bit more for day hikes, and the full monty for the city or overnighters.
The Bottomline? While Geigerrig currently leads the pack in terms of innovation in hydration systems, I don’t think that we have plateaued yet and have seen everything a hydration system and backpack can be. Whether it will be nano-treated reservoirs which keep them longer clean & less smelly, over nets & UV treatment of water to electronic gadgets which help you plan where to refill and remind you to drink, the future sure looks interesting.
But who knows, maybe I’m off and the future really will be tiny water tabs which give you a full pint of water, replicated to the size of a tablet?!
What do you think we might the future of hydration systems? Do you want gadgets which help you to plan when and where to refill, or can you do without? How about nano-treated reservoirs which keep them longer clean?
Great stuff! I don’t think many companies, other than GeigerRig and Platypus, have put much consideration into refilling water in the backcountry and it seems like there could be a lot of potential for development.
Thank you Whitney – your video for example illustrated very well how easy it is to refill different reservoirs. I imagine a no-see-um-mesh across the opening of some could easily filter the bigger, grittier stuff out. Lets see what Geigerrig & Co. have in the developments for us =)
Interesting ideas for the future, sounds like you’d be a great R&D guy for one of these companies! My guess would be that we’d see more developments targeted to professional and extreme athletes (bike races, ultra running races, sponsored adventurers) where money isn’t an object but performance is. Then they’d figure out how to mass market something that the typical consumer would pay for. Looks like GeigerRig is already pushing that envelope a bit further.
Thank you Nathan – that’d be a very cool job indeed!
And good points you make. Usually it starts like you said – high-end products for athletes, which then are adapted for the average consumer (thinking here e.g. about Mountain Hardwear’s line for Ueli Steck, or Geigerrig’s Tactical line http://www.geigerrig.com/hydration-packs/tactical.html).
I am hoping that the future of tiny pills with a liter of water comes true. Would be much easier to carry!
It totally would be my favourite, too – a litre of water weighing only two, three gram instead of thousand? Yes please!
This looks like such a cool product, really interested in checking it out!
I agree with Nathan about targeting the extreme athletes. But i think the pot of gold is in targeting the masses that have become a very interested “there’s an app for that” group. Smartphones are endlessly expandable with apps and bridging that gap between the hydration engine and a smartphone could provide a compelling reason for the weekend warrior to buy a system and pay a bit more.
It would be useful to connect the bladder, and it’s level, with a GPS, heart rate monitor, elevation tracking system, or waypoints on a downloaded track from a site like Everytrail. Though i’m sure such an integration would be costly, the other half of the equation is already established. It’s really a question of connecting the dots. i can turn my coffee pot on or off from a smartphone when I’m across the country. Why couldn’t my phone tell me that I have consumed half of my bladder contents?
I really hope there is some experimentation in this arena. Not sure I’d use it but I think it could be a big win for retailers and a great opportunity for brand collaboration.
Great thought starter Hendrik!
Thank you Tim.
I imagine if Geigerrig would get together with a watch maker like Suunto (heart rate monitors & watches) and the two hire a talented, enthusiastic startup (who often need money for boot strapping) or a development agency, for writing the app/ software; and take the like of Everytrail, ViewRanger, SocialHiking et al. on board we’d have our system ready. The way I see it, much of it already exists, and we just need to connect the dots.
On the usage, if you’re hiking your home trail, then it likely is not needed, though imagine you’re going to the Rockies, Utah, Arizona or similar then such a system could come in useful. I know I’d use it if going to a unknown area!
Wow, you really dug so much further into all these different possibilities for future innovations than I could have ever imagined. I particularly like the idea of a smart meter to let you know how much water is left in your reservoir. I tend to carry way more water than I ever end up consuming, so it would be great to have a digital way to figure out how much water I actually drink per mile/hour out on the trail.
Thanks for the info, I hope to put this to good use on my next hydration system purchase.
So happy to have discovered your site! Such valuable information that will surely add much enhancement to our outdoors Summer adventures. We are an outdoors loving family. Even my daughter commented just yesterday how advanced and amazing the outdoors gear technology has become. She just completed a 42 mile back pack hike in the Upper Peninsula along the Lake Superior Lake Shoreline. This is a trip that would have been much more difficult to endure without today’s outdoor gear technology. If only we had such gear when I was her age! Looking forward to connecting with you all here, Facebook and on Twitter too! Happy Trails!
Kimberly
@ciesla504
This is so awesome!! I cant wait until I can purchase one!
You should get one asap! They’re awesome to have when you’re hiking =)
Fantastic site!
I really think the next set of innovations are going to be level metering and powered sterilization. Using something like a Goal Zero Nomad or PowerFilm rollable you could easily power a built-in UV, as well as a small sensor suite that could give you any number of information variables. Using some type of open source hardware/software you could sync it to any number of devices, GPS, Suunto watches, data collectors like a Trimble Nomad for people using this for work. If you get complex enough, it could adjust your consumption for the amount of activity you’re doing, set it up to share water so it recalculates based on consumption by two people, even going as far as to base it on their weight, heart rates, etc.
You could take the Geigerrig pressurization idea even farther and go with a small inline pump so that you don’t have to take up pack space with a full pressure bladder. Added to any bladder inline and suddenly it can become pressurized. At this point it’s really just a matter of size and power. If it can be made efficient enough to run off a solar panel it could easily be the next big innovation.
I think they’ll probably only get more complex from here on out, and you’ll start buying bladders with the set of options you need just like a car.