do they walk the walk?

INSULATIONS ARE THE THING FOR ALL GARMENTS

According to a glove company Seirus they are introducing for the fall and winter of 2017/8 a new line of gloves using Heatwave technology. I quote what the Heatwave technology is; “The Heatwave technology is designed with a duel stage heat system, both kinetic (kinetic-producing or causing motion. How does this apply?) And reflective (reflecting heat back to its source or so they think), that utilizes one’s own heat creation. The kinetic “stage” amplifies temperature 4-5 degrees F while the reflective stage radiates 20% additional heat back to the gloves by utilizing the reflective printed later. A proprietary layer between the fabrics converts emitted energy inti increased heat”. I know that what I have just quoted is as bogus as waterproof-breathable, they also state they use a material calling the insert “DryHand”.

Reading further their published material they say they use 100g HeatLock insulation which is 3mm Foam. In their line of gloves the HeatLock Foam changes to as much as 340g of Foam. Foam absorbs moisture, something they obviously do not know.

All of these gloves are basically ski gloves. In my opinion they will work quite well if you are water skiing. Snow skiing with these gloves on will acquaint you with cold hands.

Just another case of a company that is showing attractive gloves but they in my opinion of having skied for 40 years will not keep your hands warm unless you chose to spring ski only.

OUTERWEAR ON THE FLY

That is the title of an article also from SBG as was the glove article. What the companies who market outerwear are doing is appealing to urban dwellers with a garment that can be worn as the say and I quote; “consumers need apparel that they can wear hiking or biking up the mountain, then go down to the coffee shop or bar later that day.”

I think they are catering to the urban dweller who happens not to hike or bike because if that were the case they would never be able to hit the bar scene the same day. They are more interested in the person who likes to look the part because the garments that are being made for these people would never function in the mountains.

The outdoor industry has it appears to me left the field for the cities because that is where the bulk of the population lives.

They like to refer to the insulation used as “active insulation” to go along with their non-performing waterproof-breathable materials. Maybe the active insulation moves around to keep you warm, do you think? The companies that get these garments made for them are striving for less and less insulation so the garments are lighter and of course they claim warmer than you could possibly imagine and of course they will get people who do not ever go into the outdoors beyond the streets where they live so they will never know what is good for the rugged outdoors.

When I came into the outdoor industry in the mid 1960’s ALL of the young men who started companies were very competitive working at making the best products they could. All of them were active outdoorsmen personally using what they made before they marketed the products. Unfortunately the individualist personalities of these men no longer exists in the industry. There is no individualism practiced any longer, you can go into any retail store selling these items and if you remove the labels they all look the same.

Today what you have are people “who talk the talk but do not walk the walk.”