Last week we snuck off to a windy Lake District for an inside view of merino specialist Smartwool, here's what we found.
As hail lashed into my bare legs and water ran down into my handily waterproof boots, I wandered what on earth had happened to last week's summer. It was proper kit-testing weather, which was just as well...
In The Lakes With Smartwool
We'd popped up to the Lakes last week to spend a day and half with Smartwool learning a little more about the brand and what it's up to, the properties of merino wool and, hell yeah, to go use some of the Smartwool stuff on the hill.
It would be nice to report that we roughed it in bivvy tents and ate lightweight cardboard, but the horrible truth is that Smartwool put us up in a very pleasant hotel near Bassenthwaite and fed us nice food and wine.
But you don't really want to know about that. What you probably do want to know, is that while Smartwool is best known in the UK for its excellent merino wool walking socks, it's also bigging up its growing range of merino clothing including some really interesting stuff for next winter and even cycling kit.
Merino In A Nutshell
A quick refresher: merino wool, from merino sheep, has much finer fibres than normal wool, which means that it's not scratchy against the skin. Many people think they're allergic to wool, when in fact they're just sensitive to the coarse, scratchy fibres.
When made into garments, merino has quite a few desirable qualities. It's comfortable against the skin in hot or cold conditions, it has natural anti-odour qualities that mean it can be worn day after day without stinking – that makes it ideal trekking wear, for example.
Then there's the moisture handing. Merino wool absorbs moisture in vapour form and holds it away from the skin, so you feel comfortable. Merino can absorb up to 35% of its own weight in moisture and still feel dry to the touch, which is quite impressive.
Smartwool also says that although merino has a reputation for drying more slowly than synthetics, with finer grades of merino, it will dry just as fast.
All good stuff and it's also flame retardent and naturally dirt repellent.
So Smartwool's Merino?
Well, the brand, although based in the Colorado Rockies, sources its merino from the southern hemisphere and predominately New Zealand because the variable conditions produces better wool that works in hot or cold climates.
Smartwool works closerly with its 'growers' and also supports an accreditation programme called ZQUE, which is ' designed to ensure environmental, social and economic sustainability for growers, improve animal welfare and provide a means to trace end products back to the source..'
The brand also does clever things with its wool. On the sock front, the 4 Degree Fit System used for its PhD socks is a four-point sport supportive system to give a really secure fit around ankle, heel, arch and instep. We're wearing PhD socks right now, watch the site for a review soon, and they fit brilliantly.
They also use something called WOW – wool on wool – to put extra layers of merino on the heel and forefoot for added comfort.
And on the clothing front, Smartwool's done a lot of research into cut so it fits right and looks good across a range of bodyshapes. We really noticed the neat, tapered cut of the last Smartwool baselayer we reviewed, so it's not just hype.
Getting Outside
All that's great on paper, but the proof of the pudding is up there on the tops, so next morning the whole party, the cream of the UK's outdoor press together with the Smartwool team kitted up and set off to traverse Robinson before dropping down into Buttermere for a well-earned pub lunch.
In a moment of optimism, I'd pulled on a pair of Haglöfs Lizard Soft Shell Shorts – try saying that in a hurry – along with one of Smartwool's lightest 150g/m2 microweight merino tees and some PhD socks inside my lightweight adidas mids.
I say optimism because it started raining pretty much from the off and as we got higher, albeit in quite beautiful surroundings, it also got windier and wetter. Well, I say 'wetter', in fact as we meandered upwards, the rain turned into driven hail and suddenly shorts didn't seem like such a good idea after all.
A soft shell top was replaced by a waterproof jacket and a micro-fleece, the gloves went on. As did the hat. As did the cloud.
Proper spring Lakes conditions. And just when it seemed things couldn't get gnarlier, someone pulled out a GPS and pointed out that we were, in fact, headed in the wrong direction. Ooops...
Quick, Hide McNeish
Cue much shuffling of feet and maps. Then, right on cue, a local carrying a bag-full of marker wands jogged out of the murk. We quickly hid Cameron McNeish behind a handy cairn and asked the immortal question – 'Er, I don't suppose you know exactly where we are?'
Yes, I know, we had a GPS, but hey. So anyway, the end result was a steep drop down to the Honsiter Slate Mines for hot chocolate and an emergency lift down to Buttermere....
Pathetic really. Anyway, what I can tell you is that the Smartwool PhD socks coped very well, padded in the right places, no bagging or slipping, though they ended up soaked and sorry for themselves thanks to water running down my bare lower legs and into my boots.
And the baselayer? Mostly I just didn't notice it. With the help of a light fleece and Gore's new Active Shell fabric, it stayed dry feeling and comfortable throughout.
Even better, I didn't even bother changing out of it afterwards. No smell, no odour. I ended up wearing it under another baselayer throughout the weekend and over the two days of the PlanetFear Lakes Epic mountain bike challenge event – see our report.
And even after that little ordeal, it still barely smelled of anything bar a bit of mild damp. Just brilliant and a timely reminder of just how good merino wool is for multi-day use. ideal for multi-day treks, for example, where hot showers are just a distant memory...
What Else...
Over an a rather nice dinner on the Thursday night, Smartwool filled us in on their phiosophy and their future direction. Socks are big for them, think 70% of the specialist outdoors market in the US, but that's all the more reason for them to develop their clothing.
We've already mentioned the neat cut, but they're also going for more interesting colours – stripes even – and some interesting new developments. One new product we really do like the look of is the HiFi 'sort of soft shell' fabric that's due to appear later this year.
It's a mid-layer which uses merino wool on the inside, but has an outside face made from a hard-wearing, smooth polyamide. It looks great in a technical way, but more importantly, tackles head on, merino wool's lack of abrasion resistance.
You wouldn't, as Molly, Smartwool's marketing supremo pointed out, want to rub merino wool against a rough rock face, HiFi, you think, will just shrug in a hybrid fabric sort of way and carry on regardless. It's out this autumn 2011 if you like the sound of that.
Smartwool does cycling kit too, although it's hard to find. Again they've mixed and match fabrics to make merino more suitable. Innovations include the first ever merino-covered padded chamois sewn into a stretch short that's 45% merino, 39% Nylon and 16% Lycra – it feels lush, sort of luxuriously thick, strong and stretchy.
And then there were the stripey ski socks that would have made nice arm warmers, but we promised not to...
And finally, the Smartwool folk we met, both the UK and American arms were genuinely passionate and enthusiastic outdoor people. While the UK arm languishes in sunny Slough for practical reasons, HQ is up in the Colorado Rockies in the mountain town of Steamboat Springs, a place you wouldn't live if you didn't eat, sleep and breathe mountain sports. A good thing in our book.
So...
Interesting stuff. Ask about top-end specialist merino clothing brands in the UK and you'll probably think of Icebreaker, but judging from what we've seen, Smartwool is also right up there in terms of quality and innovation.
