New Sprayway Kit For 2004...

More from the Freidrichshafen outdoors show where Sprayway were showing some very interesting and distinctive new kit for 2004 after a couple of relatively low-key years for them.

Their 100-quid Powershield softshell jacket in particular was causing ructions among other exhibitors who were shocked at the price - to put it in perspective, an Arc'teryx Powershield jacket would set you back around £250... Powershield is the 'almost windproof' fabric from Polartech, that sacrifices total windproofing for better breathability. A good move if your main concern is dissipating heat rather than conserving it...

Anyway, here's a few snippets from Sprayway's 2004 range including packs, erm, Sprayway packs?

This is an neat development of the exisiting Venom jacket and will actually be available in limited numbers next month - September if you're reading this in the future. It uses Gore's latest impressively breathable and light Paclite fabric, weighs 405 grammes and looks and feels lovely.

There's no minimalist tailoring here and you get articulated sleeves combined with a neat, ergonomic fit, full storm hood with stiffened peak and all the mod cons you'd expect. The real stand-out feature are the lazer cut pocket openings with YKK water-resistant zips - one chest pocket and two, venting cargo pockets.

Those pockets just look really nice, thin slits with the water-resistant urethane zip peaking through. One for the style concious we reckon.

We were also quite taken with the new Lightspeed jacket. It uses a lightweight Polartec Powershield fabric which is exclusive to Sprayway among European manufacturers, but also used by GoLite in the States. It's reckoned to be 50 per-cent of the weight of normal Powershield.

More info about the fabric on the Polartec website, but all you really need to know is that it's around 98 per-cent windproof and the extra air movement makes it more breathable than 100 per-cent windproof membranes.

The jacket itself is simple and lightweight - just 400 grammes - with adjustable cuff and hems, twin cargo pockets, chest pocket and close, ergonomic cut. We like the look of it and the £100 price is blinding for a Powershield top, so blinding that it caused quite a lot of muttering around the show stands...

And it's also available in blue and silver, which makes a change for soft shell.

Sprayway also has a range of packs for 2004 which it's launching in a quiet, subdued sort of way. Apparently the pack range is the result of an 18-month development programme in conjunction with a specialist pack-designer who has also done a lot of work with Karrimor.

There are urban day sacs and travel packs in the range, but most OMers will be most interested in the three Ascent packs which are aimed squarely at mountain walkers and come in 30, 40, and 50-litre versions.

The specification certainly looks good with all the feautures you'd expect from a modern mountain pack, including rip-stop body fabric, reinforcement at wear points, breathable reticulated foam back padding, YKK water-resistant zips, alloy-stay braced back system, hydro-pocket, front expandable pockets and a narrow, mountain scrambling friendly cut.

They look good too, but it's a fierce market, so it's hard to know how they'll be received. Prices are £50, £70 and £80 according to size.

Last but not least, we were entertained by this comedy smock with fold-down marsupial-style stash pouch complete with pockets for mobile phones, personal organisers, toothbrush, stash etc, etc, etc.

It's waterproof, has a hood and costs 100 quid. Whether it has any practical use outside Soho bars or off the catwalk is hard to know, but what the heck.