The Lightheart Gear Grid Fleece Hoodie is an expensive grid fleece sweater with a entrance kangaroo pocket, a drawstring hood, further thick wrists, and thumb loops which are nice for mountaineering in cool climate or sporting in camp. It’s reduce further lengthy within the torso, so it received’t journey up when sporting a hip belt, and it runs a bit massive for simple layering. The dimensions massive reviewed right here weighs 12.3 oz. The Lightheart Gear web site is fairly sparse on particulars about this hoody, so I’ll attempt to fill within the gaps.
Grid Fleece
Grid fleece is a polyester fleece cloth characterised by its distinctive grid-like sample. This sample is created by various the thickness and density of the fleece fibers, leading to a material with wonderful moisture-wicking properties and enhanced breathability. The grid construction additionally helps to entice air, offering insulation and heat, whereas the density of the weave gives a average diploma of wind safety.
This differentiates grid fleece from hoodies made with Polartec Alpha Direct, one other in style type of fleece, which is way lighter, thinner, lacks any wind resistance, and is way much less sturdy. Polartec Alpha is sweet once you need most breathability in hotter or drier circumstances since you’re perspiring quite a bit. If selecting between them, think about their function in your general clothes system somewhat than viewing them as standalone clothes.
Lightheart’s Stock Mannequin
Lightheart Gear makes grid fleece hoodies for women and men. They make them in a variety of fastened coloration combos somewhat than making customized one-off coloration combos for every buyer. This retains their value down and ensures fixed availability, which is an actual drawback with smaller producers who make a unique garment for every buyer. It additionally retains the price of Lightheart’s grid fleece hoodies fairly cheap, at simply $99, which is a unbelievable worth for a garment that’s more likely to final a long time. They actually make dozens of single and two coloration combos, so you’ll be able to in all probability discover one thing you want.
Hoodie Building
Lightheart’s Hoodies are made with microgrid grid fleece which is extra breathable than an everyday grid fleece as a result of it has extra air channels to wick and vent perspiration. The design of their hoodies additionally emphasizes heat and warmth retention, with an adjustable drawstring hood and thick wrist gauntlets. The drawstring hood features a wire lock, so that you’ll by no means lose the wire contained in the hood which is one thing I at all times add to hoodies that don’t include one. The wrist gauntlets are made with two layers of fleece cloth and run properly previous your knuckles, offering further heat on these chilly mornings once you’d in any other case need gloves.
The kanagroo pocket is one other heat enhancing function though it’s too low to entry when sporting a hip belt and greatest used once you’re standing round in camp. The hoodie can be fairly lengthy within the torso, which might be nice as a result of it received’t journey up when sporting a hip belt. Sadly, it does run longer than a number of rain jackets and can absorb moisture if mountaineering in rain, which isn’t so good. That’s one thing to think about in the event you backpack in a moist local weather. I want shorter jacket-length fleece hoodies for that reason.
Advice
If you happen to’ve bought the itch to put on a colourful grid fleece hoodie, Lightheart’s microgrid fleece hoodies are simply the ticket. Heat and comfy, they’re ideally suited for sporting in camp or on chilly and dry mornings once you need a breathable insulation layer that has a average diploma of wind resistance. Moderately priced and at all times in inventory, they’re a flexible mid-layer garment for year-round mountaineering and backpacking.
Likes
- All the time in inventory
- Nice coloration combos
- Very heat
- Adjustable drawstring hood
- Double wrist cuffs for further heat
Dislikes
- Additional lengthy torso rides beneath many rain jackets
Disclosure: Lightheart gear donated a hoodie for evaluation.
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