ASER selected products from Nike, Calle Republic and adidas for this years Coolest products.  They include a hoodie, a track jacket and footwear.  In the end, the word from the "street" made the difference.

Our two big name nominees represent endorsed products.  Both Nike and adidas can call on their relationships with national teams and players to add panache to an otherwise good product.  In our case, it is the Netherlands National Team and Lampard/Messi for Nike and adidas respectively.  Each of these, and the Calle Rilo, is worth our money.

In a distant third, Nike's Holland Anthem Track Jacket.  This is a wonderful garment in both quality, style and value.  It is very traditional and works both as a practice and street jacket.  Unfortunately, it is not an official product, it is a throw-back.  That might be enough if it represented a significant period in the team's history or demonstrated a unique style.  Neither are present here.

Second place goes to the other jacket.  In this case, it is the adidas Hero Hoodie.  The hero is unique and earned serious interest by our team when it arrived for testing.  This nostalgia done right.  Both the Messi's (our choice as the more attractive) and Lampard's jacket are in team colors.  They have player's name and number embroidered on the front surrounded by a worn graphic.  The kangaroo pocket has a small patch with player details making this almost like a [baseball] card.

Unlike our other nominees, Calle Republic must rely on innovation and ties to the street for inspiration.  This year, we debated between two products for inclusion.  The Calle Herrin is a light weight jacket that one a NSCAA Soccer Product of the Year award.  Instead, we selected the Rilo street shoe.  Our testers absolutely raved about the feel and style of the shoe.  The Rilo has good grip on a variety of surfaces.  Both our readers and our testers selected the Rilo as their favorite off-the-pitch product.

The 2009 AVID Soccer Coolest Lifestyle Product is the Calle Republic Rilo street shoe.