Newport H2′s reviewed in Motor Boat & Yachting

Gareth    Clothing, Gareth, General Outdoor     Gareth, Keen, Motor Boat & Yachting, Newport H2's

We’ve just got a sneak peak from our friends at Motor Boat and Yachting about a review they have done on the Keen Newport H2′s. It’s coming out in next month’s magazine but Dave Marsh their technical editor has kindly sent us across an advance copy.

As a boater, I normally hate sandals. They often feel flimsy and unsupportive, and their soles rarely grip well. Most crucially of all, exposed toes are a liability on a boat. A single clumsy contact with a deck cleat can render you immobile for ages. Designed by an American sailor, Martin Keen, specifically for boating, I bought these Newport H2 sandals from Webtogs for one reason only; because the toe protection looked so sturdy. In practice, they’ve excelled in every area.

Mine are only two months old, so I can’t comment on their longevity yet. You might struggle to get into the Royal Yacht Squadron wearing sandals, but otherwise I can’t recommend these too highly. For day-to-day boating, I’d take these in preference to most deck shoes.

Thanks for the trees guys

Gareth    Gareth     Gareth

We love our customers, particularly when off their own bat they ask us to offset the carbon used in delivering their products. So being the planet friendly people we are, we match their contributions and this week, we got news back from our partners at Carbon Footprint that so far this season we have managed to buy 141 trees from them to offset our deliveries!

So this is just a post really to say to you thanks on behalf of the planet for being some of the coolest customers around. You’ve made Kenya and the planet a nicer place and we’re super chuffed that so many of you elect to do this when buying from us. Cheers!

Back from the Brecons and musings on scripts.

Gareth    Customer Services, Gareth, General Outdoor     Brecons, Customer Services, Gareth, Scripts

Well I’m back and refreshed after a weeks holiday, we had a simply awesome time just west of the Brecons. We stayed in a cottage very reminiscent of the BBC Wales Coal House programme at Bantwen and it really was an experience.

I’ll blog later about some of the days out but what was great was meeting up with Keith & James for a stroll up Pen y Fan, organised to try and get James a little fitter!

It was fantastic to actually have some proper hill days for the first time in absolutely ages and along with a trip up to Llyn Fawr I felt like the hills were not such far out of my reach, even more so as coming back it took us just two hours from the Eastern edge of the Brecons. I’m already planning my next jaunt….

I’ve also been thinking more and more about our Customers experience when phoning Webtogs. I have had plenty of experiences when ringing a company (BT definitely springs to mind!) where I know that they are reading from scripts. On some occasions that’s absolutely fine, take my credit card company for example. If I want to pay bills or change my address, I don’t mind a script but the real issue for me is when you need to solve a customers problem. Recent research in the banking industry shows that 9 out of 10 people hate it when they feel they are having a script read out to them and I am definitely one of those 9! They leave you frustrated as you do not feel you are being listened to, and on some occasions, they give an answer which isn’t relevant to the question or problem you have raised. It also sucks the morale out of teams as they have no input in to a call and may as well be on Valium for all the enthusiasm it garners. So aside from our greeting, it’s one of the reasons why I will never give scripts to our Customer Services team. I actively encourage our guys to listen, chat, bring a part of themselves to the conversation and go at the customers pace.

Kid’s and the Outdoors

Gareth    Gareth, General Outdoor     Gareth, Kids, outdoors

Life for me turned upside down on 24th July 2007 when Ifor was born and the amount of outdoors time that we had before hand changed for the worst. We have tried to keep our outdoors lifestyle up to date since then but through necessity have had to compromise. I’ve blogged before about how the Macpac vamoose has really helped us still go outdoors but this article from Stephen Regenold has some great tips about what to do when your life turns upside down! In particular his tip about slowing down when you have kids is a great one. You may not get as much in as life before chidren, but what’s important is your experience changes and incorporates your kids which for us has added a new dimension to our camping and hiking.

What a lot of boxes!

Gareth    eCommerce, Gareth     Busy Day, Gareth, webtogs

Fairly monumental days are occurring here at Webtogs, we had our busiest ever weekend last weekend, I’m not going to mention numbers but we had to get the Royal Mail & Parcel Force lorry’s to come down and help us out early! All in all it’s been a great start to the year for us and we’re really pleased that we’re getting bigger whilst still delivering what we always set out to do, great products from an easy to use site with fantastic customer service and straightforward returns.

So this is just a little post to say thanks to all of you who have bought from Webtogs, it means a great deal to us all that you shop with us – Cheers!

I love my world

Gareth    Gareth, General Outdoor     Chris Holland, Gareth, Wholeland, Woodcraft

One of the perks of working for an outdoor company is that we get to meet some fairly cool people over the course of a day. While taking an order before Christmas, I got nattering to one of customers, a chap by the name of Chris Holland who runs a business called Wholeland He teaches woodcraft to lots of different folks, school’s business’s etc and I was hugely interested about what he did.

He’s recently released a book called I love my world. The description has it as “a new guidebook to rekindle the naturally playful spirit and develop a deep connection with nature from an early age. Full of bushcraft, environmental art, nature awareness and outdoor play activities, as well as mentoring tips and beautiful images, this book will make you want to pack your bags, step out into, and celebrate our wonderful world. It’s for parents, environmental educators, play rangers, forest school leaders, teachers, aunties, uncles…in fact anyone with a love of our world who spends time outdoors and enjoys sharing it with other people.”

It’s something that having kid’s I think a great deal about. I want Ifor to experience the outdoors, and get as much of a love for it as I do. From all accounts Chris has nailed a great response to the current environmental crisis by getting kid’s involved at an early age. Kudos to him.