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 climbing in cool climate or sporting in camp. It’s minimize further lengthy within the torso, so it received’t journey up when sporting a hip belt, and it runs a bit massive for straightforward layering. The scale 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 material characterised by its distinctive grid-like sample. This sample is created by various the thickness and density of the fleece fibers, leading to a cloth 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 reasonable diploma of wind safety.
This differentiates grid fleece from hoodies made with Polartec Alpha Direct, one other widespread type of fleece, which is way lighter, thinner, lacks any wind resistance, and is much much less sturdy. Polartec Alpha is sweet once you need most breathability in hotter or drier circumstances since you’re perspiring so much. If selecting between them, take into account their function in your general clothes system slightly 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 mounted coloration combos slightly 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 distinct garment for every buyer. It additionally retains the price of Lightheart’s grid fleece hoodies fairly affordable, at simply $99, which is a incredible value 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 Development
Lightheart’s Hoodies are made with microgrid grid fleece which is extra breathable than a daily 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 twine lock, so that you’ll by no means lose the twine contained in the hood which is one thing I all the time add to hoodies that don’t include one. The wrist gauntlets are made with two layers of fleece material and run nicely 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 finest used once you’re standing round in camp. The hoodie can also be fairly lengthy within the torso, which may be nice as a result of it received’t journey up when sporting a hip belt. Sadly, it does run longer than a variety of rain jackets and can take in moisture if climbing in rain, which isn’t so good. That’s one thing to contemplate for those who backpack in a moist local weather. I choose shorter jacket-length fleece hoodies for that reason.
Advice
In the event you’ve obtained the itch to put on a colourful grid fleece hoodie, Lightheart’s microgrid fleece hoodies are simply the ticket. Heat and comfortable, they’re very best for sporting in camp or on chilly and dry mornings once you desire a breathable insulation layer that has a reasonable diploma of wind resistance. Fairly priced and all the time in inventory, they’re a flexible mid-layer garment for year-round climbing and backpacking.
Likes
- All the time in inventory
- Nice coloration combos
- Very heat
- Adjustable drawstring hood
- Double wrist cuffs for further heat
Dislikes
- Further lengthy torso rides under many rain jackets
Disclosure: Lightheart gear donated a hoodie for evaluation.
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