EliteShield Product Spotlight: Who Brings a Car Cover on a Camping Trip?

At EliteShield, we know our products will stand up to the rigors of real life, but we want to be able to show you proof that what we say is what you can expect from our vehicle and watercraft covers. That's why we are starting a Product Spotlight Series. In this series, we will be sending our products with our employees so that they can be tested in real life conditions. For this spotlight, our wonderful designer took one of our Elite ShieldAll Ultimate car covers with her on a camping trip, and here is what she has to say about how it performed in the real world. 

What’s the most out of place thing you’ve ever brought on a camping trip? Until recently, my answer definitely would have been the little battery-powered rainbow string lights that get used to mark my tent in the darkness. However, I recently went whitewater rafting and stayed at a little campsite just off the Lehigh River - and now my answer is a car cover. Specifically, EliteShield’s Elite ShieldAll Ultimate cover for a Subaru Impreza. It turns out that this car cover is so much better than I thought it would be.

Campgrounds are great places to relax. The peace and quiet of being surrounded by trees and a crackling fire, with a sense of security that knowing a plumbed bathroom is just a short walk from your sleeping area brings is a welcome respite from city life. The side of camping that people forget to talk about is directly related to the mess that outdoor life brings. How ice melts faster when it’s in a cooler with your food for the weekend, pine needles getting stuck under windshield wipers, the ever present threat of bird droppings in places windshield wipers can’t reach… the list goes on and on. Fear not! All these issues, and more, were fixed by using the car cover. Our cooler was kept in the trunk of the car - and because the reflective properties of the ShieldAll® cover kept the interior somewhere between 10 and 20 degrees F cooler than outside - we had a half full cooler of ice at the end of our weekend. All of our burgers were as cold as if they’d been in a proper refrigerator. We didn’t have to deal with bird droppings or pine needles because they didn’t touch the car’s exterior. We didn’t need to worry about campfire ash landing on the car and ruining the finish because we had a cover on it. 

The other really cool thing about this camping trip was the new product testing that happened. EliteShield is partnering with SavvyCraft on a new line of outdoor and marine accessories, from life jacket storage bags that attach to the underside of a T-Top boat to insulated hydrapak hiking backpacks, and I got to test out the prototype backpack to see how well it did in a real life setting. 

I’ve always had issues with backpacks designed for hiking, because they’re either too big, too small, or not designed with enough pockets to keep all the little things you need on a trail easily accessible and separate. This backpack not only has a water bladder with built in straw for ease of staying hydrated, it also has enough space to comfortably fit my sunscreen, bug spray, water bottle, lunch, phone, keys, wallet, and my sunglasses. The straps fit securely over the life jacket provided by the rafting company, and I was able to wear it while rafting because the reflective taping and holographic material would have been easy to spot if I went overboard. Thankfully, I didn’t manage to fall in but if I did, the backpack even has a built-in whistle on the front buckle for safety purposes. The even better news is the bag will be available towards the end of July, for anyone who wants to snag one for themselves and all their outdoor adventures.

 So, long story short: sometimes being a good designer means taking products with you on vacation. I felt ridiculous bringing a car cover to a whitewater camping trip, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions in terms of general quality of life and food safety. And the friends we went with were all jealous of my backpack, because I had the bug spray handy.