Xbox is campy now
Xbox has released a clothing and accessory collection dedicated to camping. No, not the video game kind that esports organization 100 Thieves lambasted with its own clothing line — Microsoft’s is about actually getting outside and touching grass. The camper collection includes a variety of shorts, shirts, and headgear, along with things like a hammock and camping chair.
Given that most people don’t usually associate gaming with going outdoors, some of the items in the lineup actually seem decent. Xbox’s camp chair looks like a clone of the design popularized by the Helinox Chair Zero (to be fair, so does pretty much every other camp chair), but electric green and twice as heavy. Given that it’s significantly cheaper than the Helinox, though, it’s hard to complain about weight.
The hammock also seems fine — again, people who count every ounce probably wouldn’t want it, but it seems perfectly suitable for slinging up between two trees at a campsite. And while I love that Microsoft is trying to get people to drink more water with this Nalgene water bottle, I just wish it wasn’t charging double normal retail price for it now that its admittedly very cool topographical branding has been slapped on.
As an outdoorsy person myself, though, I’m not sure Microsoft’s “camper” marketing lines up with how some of these products are actually made. It says that its T-shirts, hats, and sweaters are for “exploring the great outdoors,” but they’re made of 80 to 90 percent cotton, according to their spec sheets. If you’ve ever even been within spitting distance of an REI or other outdoor shop, you might recognize that’s a bit of a problem — the phrase “cotton kills” is probably one of the most-cited pieces of advice in the hiking and
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