Does anyone have a Trespass Fleece Jacket? I'm just wondering if they're any good and how you can tell what weight they are? They're certainly as cheap as chips. I ordered a Kazan one at the beginning of the year as I spotted a good deal on Amazon for only £9 or something ridiculous like that. Unfortunately they ran out as a bunch of other people beat me to it and they had difficultly sourcing any more. Looks like they have a decent range on their official site and price still pretty low. Is this a case of you get what you pay for, or is it really good value? http://www.trespass.co.uk/section/mens-clothing-1/mens-shirts-and-fleece-2/fleece-7 It seems they have ratings in gsm but I wouldn't have a clue what that means for a fleece jacket for how much that jacket weights in that size and whether its equivalent to 100 weight 200 etc?
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 AFAIK 100wt/200wt refers to the weight in grams/square meter (gsm) As far as Trespass go I'm sure they'll be fine, I use fleece pullovers from Primark at £4 and they do the job of providing insulation but I use Trespass Trestex over trousers and haven't had a problem so far.
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 Our kids have Trespass microfleece tops. They seem pretty well made, they work and the sprogs really, really like them. They were cheap as chips too, a lot of why I bought them! A simple fleece jacket is pretty much a basic commodity these days. For a general purpose keep-you-warm-and-comfy thing they're long proven and you can't really go too far wrong, especially at the sort of prices we're talking about here. Super-duper technical ones can be worth it if you're in envelope-pushing situations but I think a lot of the "need" for them is people who must have the best, rather than the "merely" perfectly adequate. Thinking back, I must have done a lot of my hardest mountaineering in a (now vintage) ME Thermafleece jacket I bought in the mid 80s, technically about equivalent of what the checkout staff wear these days in Asda/Tescos etc. It was good enough then, the mountains heavn't changed much... Pete.
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Agreed, paying a bit more (than a £4 Primark) gets you some nicer features, better pocket placement and so on and there's always the feel good factor of knowing that you've bought something from a company with a known pedigree. As Pete says though a fleece is pretty much a fleece so if you can save £30-40 why not, there are things that can't easily be replaced by cheaper alternatives and any money saved on basic stuff can be spent where it'll make a bigger difference. I try to take the view that how something performs is vastly more important than swing tag technical specifications and brand name but I do still have a soft spot for anything with Mountain Equipment on it, Sad but true 
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 "you've bought something from a company with a known pedigree" that's why i buy from primark & m&s. trespass make good, basic, functional stuff and you wait until it's on sale, as it always is.
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I think Trespass gear is good value for money for what you get. For general walking in all but the most extreme conditions it should be more than adequate. Its worth looking in the outdoor section of your local TK Maxx if you have one as along with Regatta and Craghoppers they usually seem seem to be available at discounts of circa 50% on the RRP.
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 I was fortunate enough to get on of those Trespass Kazan Fleece JAckets off Amazon for £9 and i think they do the Job just fine! I've had a couple of light hill walks in it and done Snowdon (coupled with an excellent waterproof shell) and i havent found a problem with it. Its well made and seems to do the job, I am how ever considering buying a more expensive fleece for my attempt at Kilimanjaro in June, i just think when your up on a mountain theres no shops for you to buy a better fleece if its not doing it's job so for that reason and to add to my collection i will be taking a different one to Tanzania with me! But again i would happily use it for general British walking. 
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why buy a more expensive fleece? swap a known fleece whose properties you know well for an untried one? a fleece is a fleece. it keeps you warm or it doesn't. the difference is bells and whistles which, mainly, you just don't need e.g. a fleece with thumb loops when you carry gloves anyway.
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 I wear fleeces every day. They are Craghoppers and Berghaus and from experience, they don't stand up well to washing - you can feel them getting thinner. I use cheap ones for general use and then have a couple that I only wear when I'm walking and so don't have to wash it as much. I'm wondering if a more expensive fleece might wash better of if it's just the nature of the pile to thin.
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and brand name but I do still have a soft spot for anything with Mountain Equipment on it, My old Thermafleece jacket hangs in the shed these days and I use it for gardening, but as a Genuine Piece of Mountain Equipment vintage mountainwear nostalgia I'll sell it to you for only £100! (actually, not the original zip or cuffs so we'll make it £95...)  Pete.
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 Well I guess it'd be a slight surprise if polartec's various microfleeces (they seem to have a few!) didn't do something a little better than cheap ones It'll probably vary what though, and I don't know if anyone has done destruction tests to find out. I'd have though that the biggest thing a 'technical' fleece should give is a rather more agressive cut than a casual fleece. Like those Patagonia R2 fleeces say. You'll be wearing it over a thin base layer after all and the stuff does mostly stretch at least a little bit. That sort of cut would of course be mildly useless for a casual one
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and brand name but I do still have a soft spot for anything with Mountain Equipment on it, My old Thermafleece jacket hangs in the shed these days and I use it for gardening, but as a Genuine Piece of Mountain Equipment vintage mountainwear nostalgia I'll sell it to you for only £100! (actually, not the original zip or cuffs so we'll make it £95...) Pete.
Well it would have to be just the right era Peter,
does it have this label and hanging loop?
Or this?
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 I have gear from many of the big names, including fleeces from TNF and Marmot, but favourite fleece (apart from the colour) is a pea green 1/4 zip pullover from Trespass. The stretchy material doesn't have as soft a hand as polartec, but it drapes really well and importantly it seems to be thinner than polartec 100 (it's about half as thick as powerstretch) and hence it packs really well and seems to be just the right amount of mid layer insulation for hill climbing in cool conditions. The cut is very basic (non technical) but the stretch helps to make up for this, although no one is going to mistake it for a high end garment. The outer side (pile side) still looks like new except at the edges (cuffs/hem) plus there are loose threads now and then. On the inner side it has 'pilled' up quite a lot, but no one can see that anyway. In conclusion, it doesn't look as good as patagucci etc, but it is probably more useful than the majority of its competitors (as most are too warm anyway), and after 2+ years it is still the first midlayer that I grab when heading to the hills. If I could find another like it here in Japan I would definitely buy again - maybe even a couple. Absolutely top value!
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polartec and its many incarnations is good for if you think you want a "technical" fleece and i would suggest that very few of us actually do. (neeed!!!! who said anything about need?) even polartec offerings get "thinner" after many washings. in my experience 4 x £5 fleeces are far superior to 1 x £20 fleece in both longevity and performance over time - for a start they are only washed a quarter of the times (or four times less in modern media meaninglessness) and you can get a change of colour and always have one to wear. a few years ago cheap fleeces weren't very good at all. i think they have improved immeasurably since then.
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Richard, I got it in 1985, long before they'd started tallying Everset expeditions on their labels. If it has a hang label it would be like the top one (that is, now invisible after many years! Pete.
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Now that is old, beats mine by about 4 years, and my wife's (with fancy label) by a bit more. And you still use your's? you should have it framed
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 What did lowe alpine use for their fleece jackets about 10 years ago? my wifes had one for about that long that's had a huge amount of wear and washing but it's not noticably thinned at all (a few splots of paint & cuprinol mind) I don't see any brand on it apart from lowe.
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From the 2001 F&T catalogue. Lowe Alpine Aleutian Eclispe Developed in partnership with Malden Mills (the manufacturer of Polartec) Lowe Alpine's Aleutian Eclipse fabric now incorporates Polartec thermal Pro. This uses an innovative interior construction that traps more warm air without a weight penaltywhilst offering higher breathability Lowe Alpine Aleutian 375 A very warm fabric, Aleutian 375 is woven so that the face and inner of the fabric possesses a different performance characteristics. The outer face is closely cropped for increased abrasion resistance while the high pile inner traps more air for greater warmth So there you go, sounds good to me
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Ah yes, Aleutian...now I think about it it has that embroidered on the sleeve. Sounds like it could be the 375, very heavy, very tough, very warm.
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| Edited: 22/02/10 17:30 |
