The Lightheart Gear Grid Fleece Hoodie is an expensive grid fleece sweater with a entrance kangaroo pocket, a drawstring hood, additional thick wrists, and thumb loops which are nice for mountain climbing in cool climate or sporting in camp. It’s minimize additional lengthy within the torso, so it gained’t trip up when sporting a hip belt, and it runs a bit giant for straightforward layering. The scale giant 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 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 supplies 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 far lighter, thinner, lacks any wind resistance, and is way much less sturdy. Polartec Alpha is sweet while you need most breathability in hotter or drier circumstances since you’re perspiring loads. If selecting between them, contemplate their function in your general clothes system fairly 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 mixtures fairly than making customized one-off coloration mixtures for every buyer. This retains their price 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 affordable, at simply $99, which is a unbelievable value for a garment that’s more likely to final a long time. They actually make dozens of single and two coloration mixtures, so you may most likely 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 wire lock, so that you’ll by no means lose the wire 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 effectively previous your knuckles, offering additional heat on these chilly mornings while you’d in any other case need gloves.
The kanagroo pocket is one other heat enhancing characteristic though it’s too low to entry when sporting a hip belt and greatest used while you’re standing round in camp. The hoodie can be fairly lengthy within the torso, which may be nice as a result of it gained’t trip up when sporting a hip belt. Sadly, it does run longer than lots of rain jackets and can take in moisture if mountain climbing 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 choose shorter jacket-length fleece hoodies because of this.
Advice
For those who’ve bought the itch to put on a colourful grid fleece hoodie, Lightheart’s microgrid fleece hoodies are simply the ticket. Heat and comfortable, they’re supreme for sporting in camp or on chilly and dry mornings while you need a breathable insulation layer that has a average diploma of wind resistance. Moderately priced and all the time in inventory, they’re a flexible mid-layer garment for year-round mountain climbing and backpacking.
Likes
- At all times in inventory
- Nice coloration mixtures
- Very heat
- Adjustable drawstring hood
- Double wrist cuffs for additional heat
Dislikes
- Additional lengthy torso rides under many rain jackets
Disclosure: Lightheart gear donated a hoodie for assessment.
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