Nike may not be the most credible name in outdoors clothing, but they sure as heck have a lot of resources, so we were interested to see what's on the ACG clothes rail for this autumn. Flowers?
Nike ACG has just launched its Autumn 2006 range, which will be hitting the shops later this summer. The centre piece of the collection is the new Exotherm Parka - a gore-tex jacket that uses Air Vantage technology to insulate against the cold. When the temperature drops, you blow into the valve on the chest to inflate the jacket, and when it warms up you can deflate it again so that you don't feel like Mr Blobby all day.
Nike aren't the only company using Air Vantage technology, but the new take here is the body-mapping, which distributes the air to fit the contours of your body, rather than spreading it evenly. So, when it's inflated it looks like this:
When the jacket's fully inflated, it's supposed to be as warm as an 800 fill down jacket, although at £400 a time, it doesn't come cheap. The other down side (no pun intended) is the weight. It isn't stated in the catalogue but, judging by the good old technique of lifting it up, it didn't feel too light to us. Hence the jacket's more one for the snowboarders than for the average hiker.
Of more interest is the range of more 'standard' hiking equipment, from base layers, to fleeces, to waterproof shells. There is some footwear as well, but this tends to be more of the trail running and approach shoe variety, rather than including hiking boots. A lot of the emphasis in the clothing range is on alternative fabrics. For example, here's the new ACG women's down jacket with an outer made of - wait for it - suede. It contains 550g down fill and it's both waterproof and very soft. Again, it's been designed primarily with skiers and boarders in mind, as features like the lift pass pocket in the arm and the internal goggle pocket show. There's also a detachable snow skirt and a fixed hood. It's not the lightest down jacket on the market, nor the cheapest, but it's an interesting fabric choice. There's also a men's version, with a detachable gilet on the outside.
One advantage of the emphasis on ski-wear in the ACG range is the extensive body-mapping on most of the garments. Although this is sometimes taken to the point of overkill - you don't want to be too deep in seam-zone when you're on the hill - it does mean that Nike have grasped the concept of a woman's fit. While some manufacturers seem to think that if you take a male cut of a jacket and make it a bit shorter then it will fit women, Nike have at least built jackets with curves. Better fit equals greater warmth for the weight you're carrying, so we aren't complaining.
On the other hand, some of the detail on the garments is more cosmetic than functional. We can't help being a little sceptical about a range that's laid out according to colour, rather than according to function. In this case we wandered around the new range from the yellow shelf, to the red one, to the blue one. Frankly, when we're getting cold on a hill we tend to be more concerned with wicking ability, waterproofing and breathability, not how well our jacket would go down in the local pub. Nike emphasised the latter quite heavily and we were shown the detailed graphics on the arms of jackets, the flowers on hoods, and the logos on base layers. We don't pretend to know too much about graphic design, so here are a couple of alluring images for you to look at and decide for yourselves:-)
The range won't be out in the shops until later this year, but Nike have launched a new website to give you more details of their range. See their website.
