Evolution
Today I talk with Dustin from FOGO about evolution and how he and some friends transformed a simple idea for building a flashlight into an innovative outdoor product to keep hikers, bikers and adventure athletes connected and safe in the backcountry.
On Today’s show you’ll discover….
…how a simple idea evolved into a revolutionary new backcountry device
…with a variety of future expansion and integrated features that makes it unlike anything you’ve ever seen before
Also I’ve got a Top Tweet of the Week from Adam Nutting and he helps us figure out what to do with our old outdoor sports gear.
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About FOGO
The Fogo is the only gadget that includes GPS, bluetooth, digital voice messaging, USB backup battery, and a powerful LED flashlight. Whether you’re biking or hiking, fishing or hunting, navigating or camping, the Fogo keeps you safe and lightens your load!
The Fogo was built to get you off the beaten path and keep you safe while exploring. With GPS tracking and waypoint navigation, the Fogo can be your guide as you blaze a new trail. Load points of interest from your smartphone via Bluetooth or USB and see everything the outdoors has to offer you, while the built in pedometer keeps track of every step you take. When you get there, communicate with other Fogo users via text or voice messaging. Don’t worry if the real world comes calling, the Fogo has enough power to recharge your phone and still light the way home with its 1000 lumen flashlight.
Transcript of the Show
Read a Transcript from the Interview
Outside health and fitness podcast episode 113
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the evolution of the FOGO this particular device wasn’t
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spark innovation our spark event that that moment it was sort of like this
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evolution
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have an ever-expanding idea
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welcome to the outside health and fitness podcast we are getting
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outside the box outside our comfort zone and outside in in shape if you’re bored
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with the same
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fitness routine at the gym got something new
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in this is the show for you we’re exploring new and fun ways to get fit
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on the trail on the water on the slopes outside
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3 I this is Steve Stearns from outside help and fitness dot com
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thank you so much for joining me for another episode the as a health and
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fitness podcast
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if you’re new to the show we like to stay fit and active by having fun
1:06
outside
1:07
like to ride slide run walk hike bike golf swim
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and ski if it’s fun outside and it keeps us healthy
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we love it if you’re like us and you want to be healthy active and have fun
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outside
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then you’ve found the right place so evolution means to come forth gradually
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into being to develop and to adapt and today I’m talking with
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Dustin from Fogo about evolution
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and were to talk about how he and some of his friends transformed this simple
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idea for building
1:35
a flashlight into an innovative outdoor product
1:39
they keep hikers bikers and adventure athletes connected
1:43
and safe in the backcountry on Today Show you’re gonna discover how a simple
1:46
idea evolved
1:48
into a revolutionary new backcountry device with a variety of future
1:52
expansion in integrated features
1:54
that make it unlike anything you’ve ever seen before
1:57
I’m also gonna have a top tweeted the week from Adam nothing and he helps us
2:01
figure out
2:02
what do you do when you’ve got that old outdoor
2:05
sports gear that you just not using
2:09
the outside help
2:12
include dot com
2:15
to the last episode was all about transformation and we talked with
2:19
Melissa and how she went from being over 300 pounds
2:23
and fifty thousand dollars in debt to running her first half-marathon becoming
2:28
a two-time
2:29
international bestselling author its a really
2:32
inspirational story if you missed that episode you might also have missed some
2:36
%uh the exclusive articles I send out
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in the newsletter every week you know the newsletter is great every week I
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send you
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and notice and a little brief overview about the later show
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exclusive health and fitness information articles and resources
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and it all comes right into your inbox I also include of three
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morning to botch routine as a special thank you for joining the community
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head on over to out a health and fitness dot com forward slash
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113 sign up for the free newsletter right now
3:14
go-ahead hit pause I’ll be right here when you get back no kidding
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you know it’s easy to have an idea
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and like the late robin williams wants said words and ideas
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can change the world and that’s true but somewhere along the way you need to
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evolve that idea and make it real bring it to life
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and that’s what today’s guest did Dustin
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loved flashlights any found that there was something he had in common
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with others like his friend Tyler and this idea slowly began to develop
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what if they built their own high-tech
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flashlight but then the idea where begin brainstorming about
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and some product idea that we wanted to develop only one do something in Canada
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consumers last person MySpace and we had some ideas
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and we had it some software that we developed a man on a definite and do it
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by
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and where both outdoor easiest and also
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both of us just really like flash site you know I think I
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cats and a flashlight and every time I go to the store I wanna buy another one
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and the
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any last night and how it can it same way so the first idea what just to make
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a program with a flashlight basically a flashlight
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that you can program did you find different things there a microcontroller
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and it with a screen and LCD
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and then just kinda see where it goes from there but an once we kind of
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started making that I have farm we started to realize that
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in addition to a program of ash that we could put in a GPS receiver
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and an additional that we can put an end to a radio annisten that we can put in a
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Bluetooth to connect a heart rate monitor and cadence and tears pretty
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soon we started to realize we have this really
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all-encompassing outdoor to buy that I’m isn’t
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actually just a flashlight at all really it’s more of an adventure tonight
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so that’s Kennedy evolution and how it worked out
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I’m an outdoor the guys and a lot of time in the outdoors
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not make reading in rock climbing this particular device wasn’t
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spark innovation our spark event that moment it was sort of like this
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evolution
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have an ever-expanding idea you cannot describe
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the Fogo to those folks are listening so that they get a sense a
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exactly what this what this thing is yeah absolutely
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so and the photo is a combination the
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really four main features at the flashlight a GPS receiver
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a walkie-talkie any USB backup battery
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so it has the form factor about service small to medium-sized flashlight
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and it looks fairly like a flashlight but it has a pretty decent sized screen
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on it
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and then a 3-band the being used to control the by
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so basically whenever you’re headed outdoors and you wanna take your
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flashlight with you you also have integrated in that
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a GPS receiver to tell you where you’re going live airway points get you to
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get you back on the key get lost you have a digital walkie-talkie the
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can communicate with people left when you’re off the grid and
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you have the USB backup battery in case you wanna charger GoPro camera or a
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light
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get additional I dare not make or if you want to charge your phone if you’re out
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there so
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at cana what the product is and is a very personal thing us
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ice on the video there that you get people there put the rain their back
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pocket
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you’ve got another device that allows you do clip it right onto your mountain
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bike
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yet so that when it was a really neat features a bit to it
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we have an adapter that confront the handle by their mountain bike so
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and access to all the standout make late but also access for bicycle computer
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so because it has the GPS on their you can
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keep track of your distance traveled you can keep track of your elevation your
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etrade
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Rd that rate and also because it has that Bluetooth connectivity
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you can log your heart rate by Ron there are you that the cane
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centimeter and then integrate all those metrics together
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just catalogues all that fire out on a ride and then when you get home
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you download a month your computer and you can look at those metrics and
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see you know our crime in that crime IRA 2955
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and but a little better than I did last time and you can upload that
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f2 active social networking site extra other
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and a lot of people just this is a perfect thing for
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a clearly a mountain biker a hiker maybe a
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someone it’s camping he said you had a plans for an avalanche transceiver
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just right for backcountry skiing where LCC I mean what about like water sports
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and stuff have you
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have you had any ideas around that yeah for sure am is fully waterproof fully
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submersible
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up to I’ll 1 meter for half an hour so
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I’ve works great for water sports one other great applications I think that it
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does in kayaking are
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or even river kayaking for that matter but where people want to be able to
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communicate on a light when it gets dark and also kinda keep track of their
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activity
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so yeah it definitely works well for our sport still nice another nice thing I
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signed the video that I
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they thought was pretty colours UT you have some sort of an impact
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so if you drop it the light will flash is that right yet and that some
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that’s 10 what we call the smart features with it and
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kinda like these features that you get added bonus
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to combining all these devices together obviously there’s some utility to having
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the GPS receiver flashlight to a ready any feedback about around one
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but also because they’re in one device they get it those technologies interact
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in ways that allow you to do you think he can do before
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for rent is likely you’re talking about it 80 but they did a blank the light
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and I can be you know a real a real help for a camper and a dark 10
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you know I know simply having a and I wake up in milan I
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and nature calls you know I’m rummaging around looking for that flashed the
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intake how to find it but
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the Togo the menu pump it plank up your engine roundabout at a plant in Gravette
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case so that’s one example this
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my features another meet my teacher that it can do it because it has that
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accelerometer
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it knows where it’s pointed so the focal can
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be set up so that it adjusts the brightness based on doors pointed
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so when you point the phone but the ground in front view at the flashlight
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you what kind of a Dem MP team so that doesn’t blind you get there really
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powerful 1000 min flashlight
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but then when he played up in your surroundings you want the full power
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flashlight to eliminate everything
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so this is happening happens quite a bit when I a king
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and it’s really nice to not have to manually adjust the ban it just kinda
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justice brightness Faria now that’s very cool and i could see that that would be
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quite an advantage when you’re using it in mountain biking as well
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exactly eso same thing and then am
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on the mountain bike as well as they can adjust the brightness based on your
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speed
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or they can be at Lake so knowing your yeah I just have it on a mountain bike
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and it can you get to that sorta bad Twilight period where you need a little
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bit a light
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the focal give me just a little bit away now they get darker and darker the
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taxi operator and I can help CIBC manager battery power on a long ride
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weather is gonna be some really interesting technology in their
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it sounds yes smart like is that yet
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it just really it’s a relief and the last year really a
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as very cool it sounds like after looking your site that you guys haven’t
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really stopped
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evolving this product even now I mean you’ve got plans for
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even additional things that that you think you can do with it yeah absolutely
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and I was kinda wanna divisions with
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a company in the product is to create a modular platform you know we recognize
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their
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not everybody’s and I wanna want all these features
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so we want to make a configurable for specific activities so
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we created what we call this madcap interface which
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is an end cap that screws on the and Fogo
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and allow that the user by additional encapsulated
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a specific think so France and walkie-talkie
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with the two-way radios actually a smart cap so people can buy with or without
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the two-way radio
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the other idea that we have for Smart Capture satellite modem
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so people can communicate via text or satellite where
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plans to do an avalanche beacon smart cap and also a laser range finder smack
11:05
at
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and and a lot of other ideas like that so based on the particular activity
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seventy they can buy that Mac App
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plug in and go that’s awesome you have a Kickstarter
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program that you’ve launched on the focal can you talk about that a little
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bit yeah absolutely so we just launched a Kickstarter campaign
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at and a or four days into it and but got almost 200 people back in the
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project for really
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really excited that at these people back in it we’re looking to raise a hundred
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and twenty five thousand dollars
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and we raise thirty thousand dollars so far and sewer
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again there they were at work we’re gonna reach a Fandango but
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we definitely need need to help those everybody we can to get out there and
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back this project appear
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an outdoors and is yes then you’re looking for an adventure to buy
11:50
they combine don t think together we’d love to have your support help us get
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this product off the ground
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up a link in the show notes so that people can
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click on it and go right over and check it out on
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Kickstarter fantastic and now the air that anything me
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I’ve been asking everybody to hear that we can get their year
12:09
it’s just that spread the word clearing out the big deal on social media and
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anything out anybody that you know that you think might injured that I
12:16
find it interesting let them know about it no I’m help us get this thing out on
12:20
the trail
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now how much is it gonna go for when planets retailing
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retail price were thinking somewhere around 250 to 300 dollars
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but we’re selling your right now on Kickstarter for 175
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so yeah an Kickstarter I Kickstarter backers get a great deal
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on this product but secondly up a yeah
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yet if you consider all the things that you’re getting in one unit that’s a
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pretty price
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it’s been way more than if you want individually rightly kinda surveyed the
12:47
market and weep looked at it
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and we do you think the Fogo saw the light pain points and
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it combined a lot of devices that like you said people would be spending our
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money on
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I think in the long run it fica can save a lot of money on to buy an individual
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GPS an individual high-powered flashlight
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yet and it’s Julius backup battery cm online
13:06
Ron Pratte then you get more stuff to carry
13:09
and it doesn’t isn’t even smart like this one is doesn’t inter
13:13
you
13:13
interact with each other so well that’s very cool
13:17
yet thanked yelled doesn’t thank you so much going on the show I think this is a
13:21
really interesting product and and definitely
13:24
perfect for outside health and fitness fans people they like to get out there
13:27
and hiking biking do all those things
13:29
wish you guys the best a luck alright thanks so much he thinks having a
13:33
and I so I really appreciate it so each week I’m featuring
13:37
York top health and fitness tweets on the show
13:40
Semir tweet and follow me on twitter at s
13:43
W ass 0926 this week’s top tweets from
13:48
Adam nothing and you can follow him on Twitter at
13:51
hiking the trail and he shared a really great article about what to do with
13:56
somea that used
13:57
outdoor gear when it’s time to retire it and one idea from the article is to use
14:01
a site called gear trade
14:03
and make your item available for others to use he had a lot of really great tips
14:07
in the article and I have a link in the show notes
14:09
so that you can check all other details today we learned that
14:15
taking that sparked my dear lady evolved in
14:18
really turn it into something amazing and the Pogo
14:21
is an incredible example a back it’s a flashlight GPS device communication
14:26
device
14:26
and a USB charger all in one with
14:29
condom additional and future expansion possibilities for the Pogo keep you
14:34
connected
14:35
to keep you safe in the backcountry on a bank doesn’t for coming on the show in
14:39
sharing his
14:39
remarkable and innovative product with you when I today
14:43
if you want to find out more get your own Fargo or support Dustin
14:47
and the Fargo I have a link to the show notes for their Kickstarter campaign
14:52
also wanna thank you for listening to the show and being part of the outside
14:55
help and
14:56
business community if you haven’t yet signed up for
14:59
the free weekly newsletter wire on the site you get exclusive of a health and
15:03
fitness
15:03
articles resources hand my morning 252 routine as a special thank you
15:08
to stop by outside health and fitness da com forward slash
15:11
one 13 for all the links and resources we talked about today
15:15
thanks again for listening to the show and I’ll see you
15:19
outside
Find Out More About the FOGO
Watch the FOGO in action on KickStarter
Follow FOGO on:
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Tweet of the Week
Each week I’m featuring your top health and fitness TWEETS on the show. Send me your tweets and follow me on twitter @sws0926
This week’s Top Tweet is from Adam Nutting…and you can follow him on Twitter @HikingTheTrail
Adam shared a really great article about what to do with your used outdoor gear when it’s time to retire it. One idea from the article is to use a site called Geartrade and make your item available for others to use!
He had a lot of really great tips in the article like these:
It seems silly to just throw it in the trash and move on. Someone else out there could use that right? So what do you do? Where do you offload a bunch of gear that will not just end up in a dumpster a few days later?
Have you ever thought about recycling, up-cycleing, repurposing, donating, or selling? We have put together a list of places or ways you can do all of this.
Curated from What to do with your used outdoor gear! | Hiking The Trail
When you get your FOGO and no longer need that old GPS, Flashlight etc…..sell ‘em or donate ‘em!
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The post The Evolution of the FOGO appeared first on Outside Health & Fitness.