IndependentGearTest.com

The original shower test. I took the suits to the local spa, the idea to get water into the suit somehow. Obviously the suits claim to be water proof, but is it true?  The suits were all less than 3 days skied in at this point, aside from the saga which was about 2 weeks old.

THE TEST

I showered under cold water for 1 minute. 30 seconds of the minute i spend sitting on the bottom of the shower, i changed my under layers after each go. I made little pieces of paper with various inks on them hoping that when and if they got wet it would be easy to see. I attached the paper to places i thought were most likely to get abused by elements SHOULDERS, HOOD, BUTT, THIGHS. I started with one minute test, but in the future plan to do this again and do it longer.

The first suit i tested was the TREW, it let in no water and repelled every ounce off of the fabric. The butt did not even saturate.

Second suit was the SAGA anomie, i noticed after about 30 seconds, water saturated the fabric on the shoulders of the jacket, then by the end most of the jacket was saturated, water did not seep through the fabric after one minute. The pants repelled all water off of them aside from the butt which saturated from the 30 seconds sitting in water. My butt did feel damp afterwords, but no leaking of any ink.

Third LDC, the suit was brand new, LDC repelled most water off of it. butt got saturated and just a few spots of the jacket were saturated fabric. The factory DWR coating did its job. My butt also felt damp after this.

The fourth suit is my previous personal favorite set up. Its a burton idiom jacket 2.5L (20k/20k) and eider goretex proshell mountaineering pants. The fabrics completely soaked through, (the jacket is 3 years old and the pants about 50 days) both untreated. The jacket though soaked, water did not penetrate. The goretex proshell pants were soaked, but nothing felt wet.

THE CONCLUSION:

TREW owned the shower test, i literally shook off the coat and pants and they were dry again. LDC #2 though these set ups were new.

your DWR coating is a large factor of staying dry. unfortunately how long it lasts is a big deal, i think once the fabric is saturated it has a much better chance of getting through.

THINGS I AM GOING TO DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

Film to make it more appealing. LONGER shower time. Test when dwr’s have completely worn off at the end of the season.

Jon F.

TESTER

JON 5′10” 160 LBS

SAGA : Saga sent size medium anomie suit. The coat and pants are clearly “saga” tagged outlining proper care and notable features. Customer Service was on point. The suit is real comfortable, easily maintains a cozy temperature even on more aggressive days. SAGA suit has no damage on it after about 30 days. Saga suit (M) weighs 2.35 kilograms (5.2 pounds)

+Awesome fit & low bulk , full range of movement,  great breathability, fleece lined on butt, cross flow venting on pant, always comfy temps aside from constant (45 plus minutes) hiking

- pants pocket zippers not h20 proof, not the best collar for storm skiing tested, its real low (unless the hood is up)

www.sagaouterwear.com

TREW: TREW Sent size large pow funk / trewth bib. Trew tag outlines all notable features. The company was  easy to get ahold of, listing all kinds of contact information on their website. At first glance the suit reminded me of  carhart meets arcteryx. Then reminded me of saga eggnog top with scuba accent and shitake pant.  Great temperature regulation. The TREW suit has no damage with about 20 days on it so far. The suit has no liner (like most 3L) but has a soft fleece-ish coating to the inner fabric, also has fleeced knees. TREW suit weighs 2.63 kilograms (5.8 pounds)

+Bad-ass construction, great fit, use of top of the line materials and construction is VERY obivious, nearly indestructable pant cuffs, stiff high collar, superior resistance to water, great breathability, full range of movement

- i cant wear the bibs down or they fall off , there is no waist adjustment.  The indestructable pant cuff makes a real loud swooshing when ski touring, fly is not long enough on bib

www.trewgear.com

LDC: Great customer service. My emails were responded to within days. Even around the holidays. The tags are lacking, the only information is size and color. Jacket says color black, but its brown. Suit fits well for how large it is. LDC suit weighs 2.90 kilograms (6.4 pounds)

+ Great water resistance, suit is the warmest tested, giant waist but adjusted to my 32″ waist with velcro straps, lots of storage,

- too baggy for me,  warmest tested (too hot to hike or sidestep even 15 minutes in) fleece liner seems to miss crucial areas (butt) but it is on upper leg, have had problems with jacket zipper    a. its on the ladies side (left)    b. it comes undone easily from the bottom

www.lethaldescent.com

You can go out and spend tons of money on your outer layer, because its the most recognized layer of any outdoor enthusiast, and lets be honest, steeze (how you look) is pretty important right now (even if you dress in all black to keep it low key, that is still your steeze.) But if what is under your expensive outerwear is an accident, then your expensive gear might as well be from walmart. Layering clothes is super important to being comfortable on the mountain and sometimes surviving a nasty night in the winter.

During an average ski day you partake in a ton of different events. You get out of your hot house, to a cold car. Your car warms up, then you get out of it at a cold mountain covered in snow. You sit on a cold lift for 10 minutes then ski your brains out through bumps, airs, carves, jibs and hand drags. Your heart rate increases, you get warmer. You might sweat. Then you get on the chairlift again sitting there and your heart slows down and you cool off. The cycle continues for your whole ski day.

The only way to stay comfortable is to layer up. Here is how I (and lots of other people who know whats up) do it.

BASE LAYER: Touches my skin, it must be made from something that will help regulate the temperature of my core and insulate when i sweat. Typically i wear a lycra spandex on my top and polyester spandex bottoms. I have lighter base layers like a polypro or a steezy golf shirt for warmer days.

THERMAL LAYER(S): A thermal layer is designed to trap air (body heat) thermal layer should be loose. There are a few styles of thermal layers, long john style underwear (with the mini squares) is cotton a time tested thermal layer. Natural fibers tend to be more comfortable (think Seinfeld and Yankees uniforms) . There are wool thermals, fleece, down and polypropylene. Depending on my activity for the day i must choose what layers I will need. If I go out at 4am and hike for 8 hours I am probably going to need 2 thermal layers. I cam shed one when the sun comes up and open my jacket if i get too hot, then put it on when I get to the summit and start to get really cold.  I wear gym shorts on my legs, I find that does the trick.

OUTSIDE LAYER: Waterproof, windproof, breathable.  The only time I want to take off my jacket is if I am getting my bronze on or totally dying of heat exhaustion. I find that if my outer layer has good vents and the fabric has good breath-ability I can even keep it on often in the most strenuous southerly exposed hikes. I don’t want any insulation on my outside layer if I am going to be moving around that day, because that’s what my under layers are for.  If I am going outside to do nothing but sit around in the cold (winter camping) I am going to want a packable down jacket.

AND REMEMBER that when your tall tee is hanging out of your jacket and dragging through the snow, that will get your whole body wet, so if you have a tall tee on over your other layers, tuck it in while you are shreading, take it out apres!

From here we embark. I proposed a gear test starting with four companies, SAGA OUTERWEAR, LETHAL DESCENT, FIRST DROP, AND TREW OUTERWEAR. Then I looked to expand to other companies, the sad truth is I recieved responses from these four independent companies but anyone else whom was bigger and more established didnt even respond to my emails requesting a gear – off. I sent letters to OAKLEY, ARMADA, SESSIONS, and others, with out recieving even a response.

FIRST DROP opted out of the gear test. That left me with SAGA, LD, and TREW, each company sent me one jacket and one pant. I sent them my body’s dimensions and they sent (according to them) the get up that fit me the best . SAGA and LD to me seem to be competing for the same customer base, while TREW seems to be competing for an uber technical crowd of goretex lovers.

From here we will explore the fashion, function, price, durability of this gear through various forms of expert calculated testing.