One of the latest arrivals at Backpackgeartest.org is the Leki Diva Antishock Trekking Pole system (left). This one got me wondering if there’s much need for a women’s trekking pole — they don’t have much to do with boobs or butts, so the idea seems like a stretch. I did some poking around and noticed several pole makers claiming to have female-specific models, but I couldn’t find any articles about about poles specifically targeting women (I did find one by a guy, however, who said the “female” poles he found fit his hands perfectly).
One thing I noticed: the women’s models didn’t seem to be any more expensive than the ones for guys (unlike the innovations common to hair salons and underwear manufacturers).
Presumably the women’s models are smaller and lighter (what, you want me to look this stuff up?), which means, as the guy noted above, they might be a choice for gram-slashing lightweight backpackers.
A few pole-related llnks, if you’re in a shopping mood:
- Leki.com’s Wildflower series (they think only girls like flowers, geeze?).
- A woman reviews a non-female-targeted Leki pair at outdoorsy.com
- Adventure Buddies, a site with much instruction on poles.
- Consumer Search trekking poles page.
- Wildebeat’s Using All Fours: Part I and Part II.
As I’ve said a time or two here: poles are best for long hikes, tricky terrain (like water crossings), backpacking, and folks whose knees would prefer spreading the weight around a bit. Poles do not perform miracles, all they do is redistribute some of the weight away from your feet, knees and hips. Using them correctly requires substantial extra exertion, which is good from a fitness point of view, but less good from a wear-yourself-out-and-ruin-your-fun point of view. The points of a pair of hiking poles generally will ward off an angry cow and the poles can be handy for hanging a shelter in a pinch.
And they have saved my butt from going down on more than one occasion when I clumsily tripped over this rock or that root sticking out of the ground. And I have also found them useful for leaning over on when I have totally worn myself out. I just lean over with the tops of the pole on my shoulders and gasp for breath. Works great!
🙂
you have GOT to be kidding me! I hope I never see a woman with flowery trekking poles. I love my trekking poles, no flowers or pink frills allowed. heh.
I don’t think the poles have flowers on them, it’s just the name of the product line.
Ok then, but why bother? Perhaps a marketing thing to target certain women. I still find it a bit weird.
Certainly whatever differences from the men’s vs. women’s models would be trivial at best, but sometimes customers are more comfortable with a gender-specific model, even one that’s perhaps 1 percent different from the opposite-gender model.
I’m sure Leki and the rest wouldn’t have gone to the trouble if the market research wasn’t telling them to.
I’ve never quite understood the point of the antishock hiking poles.
On one the primary purposes of using the poles is for stability and balance and the last thing you want when you are off-balance is a pole with a shock absorbing give to it.
OK, I’ve thought of one feature that would make a difference on “women’s” poles, although I haven’t looked into whether the ones availalbe have thought of it.
Women generally have much smaller hands than men. Making poles with a woman-sized grip would be more comfortable, especially over a long trip. If I’m using my poles over several days, I do find it hard on my hands. (For that reason, I often use one pole, and switch sides from time to time.) A better fit might help.
Hmm, this might warrant a post on my own blog. With due reference to you of course ;o)
Noone’s gonna make the obvious “poles for women” suggestion?
Are you suggesting we have pole envy???
Seems like a potentially embarassing situation for men with small hands, or perhaps women with large hands. Maybe they should just have a variety of grip sizing and leave it at that. Unless there’s something everyone’s missing. Marketing? Hmmm. Seems like the manufacturer wouldn’t want to leave people guessing.
An interesting idea would be to mold grips to fit each individuals hands perfectly.
Tom, you didn’t mention what I think is the most important advantage of trekking poles, or any kind of walking stick. That advantage would be that they reduce the amount of anaerobic energy one expends to maintain balance. After an extended period of walking, people are more tired by the effort of maintaining their balance than they are by the effort of locomotion. Poles make it easier to balance.
I was *this* close to being one of the testers on these poles, but managed to find others to do it since I’m not a fan of the anti-shock for the reasons that fedak describes. I do know that when Leki requested testers they said that they wouldn’t be for women over a certain height (5’7″ maybe? – can’t quite remember). Nothing was said about hand size.
I’m usually a big fan of women-specific gear. I kind of match the standard ‘fit model’ in the industry and have a lot of the issues that women’s gear addresses (pack fit, uncomfortable sleeping pads, cold spots), but I can’t figure out what would make a trekking pole more ‘women specific’. I’m happy with the ones I have – seems that they are already adjustable to height needs, and like Randy L says, maybe hand grip sizing would be a better approach.
I hope my comments earlier didn’t offend anyone. I was merely surprised that a trekking pole could be gender specific. And being 5’9″ I suppose that takes me out. I do check out packs, bags, and pads that are for women-that makes more sense to me.
If you are going to do a long distance hike in this country, use leki poles. I love Komperdells but I can not get them serviced unless I can find an REI. Almost all outfitters will fix or exchange leki’s.