Specialist Equipment

OBSESSING OVER STUFF WE DON'T NEED

It seems to be mostly a guy thing, but I'm sure the girls do it too - namely, getting obsessed with the tech. Fixating on equipment add-ons, accessories and gadgets. I have a few mates who are like this.

Tech lovers get most pleasure talking about what the various bits of kit do. Having everything all shiny and clean so they can admire the brilliance of their equipment, also helps them visualise the benefits that these new additions will bring to their performance. Snowboarding, mountain and road biking are especially rife with these tech-nerds. They are usually found fiddling with dials, adjustment knobs and tweaking settings when they should just be riding.

It's the body and the mind that should be focussed on more to get the most out of the equipment we're using, yet these guys are usually lacking in that department and rather than strengthening the body, legs or dropping a few pounds to get more performance, they are relying on the weight gains saved from having the carbon or space-age parts, which they've paid an arm and a leg for instead.

Buying stuff we don't really need is an excuse for covering up our own inadequacies. Compensating with tech, seems to be what this phenomena is all about. If there's a quick fix to be found and providing it's really expensive too, must mean it's gonna work wonders on improving our performance. So why kit the gym?

Bags & Covers
I recently found myself getting a bit caught up in another area of buying stuff we don't really need. I was sucked in to the 'stuff I absolutely must have to complete my already amazing bit of kit' syndrome. 

I needed a way to protect my DJ S2 midi controller for a trip to Spain. I needed a special bag. Did I hell. Because that's when I realised my spending £100+ on a flight case or Traktor branded backpack was crazy. I have little money available to me at the moment and I'm using cash instead of credit cards to try and clear my debt. When you see how much a £20 note can get you if you're being frugal - a couple of alcoholic drinks and decent food for 3-4 days at best, possibly still leaving you with a bit of loose change if you're lucky. So spending over 5 times that amount on a canvas bag, especially when I have some great bags already, where the original packaging for the controller (with polystyrene foam included), fits snugly inside.

I noticed that Traktor also make plastic dust covers which I needed to keep the dust off my amazing kit. But £36 for a bit of plastic. Did I really need it that bad when a light towel did the job just as well? Heck no! So, keeping a reality check on ourselves is needed. Will that £££ spent on kit really make the enjoyment of using it that much better? Probably not. Will it look all shiny and boost confidence initially - probably a bit, but take away that distorted reality field - a piece of moulded plastic costs nothing to produce. And a bag is a bag. It doesn't need a logo on it to justify the price tag.