TNF Heated Jacket Scoops Innovation Award

The North Face's electrically-heated jacket the MET5, has been given the European Outdoor Award for Innovation of the Year.

TNF's distinctively-named General Manager, Europe, Topher Gaylord picked up the award at the recent Outdoor tradeshow in Friedrichshafen, Germany commenting: 'We are especially proud of this award because it comes from an independent panel of Europe's leading outdoor magazines who freely chose to acknowledge the innovative value of our Met5 Jacket incorporating Intelligent Garment Technology.'

The jacket combines Polartec® Heat Technology panels with windproof breathable Polartec® WindBloc-ACT® fabric. Think electric blankets but a tad more sophisticated - microscopic heating fibre, which are thinner than a human hair, are laminated between the shell and the liner and controlled by a unit in the jacket pocket. More details in previous articles from the site, see below.

To be honest, the MET5 is a bit of a showpiece garment for TNF and you don't see many of them on the hills, but it's joined in the Winter 2002 range by a new MET5 Vest. You won't be surprised to learn that the Vest is a close-fitting, sleeveless version of the jacket with heating panels on the back and front and the facility to set temperatures at either medium or high (45 degrees C) or even off.

If you want to know more about TNF's 'Intelligent Garment Technology' or the rest of their autumn/winter 2002 range, have a look at the clothing section of their web site. And since you ask, yes, the MET5 garments are reassuringly expensive. A shame really as it's an interesting development for stop / start winter use like pitched snow and ice climbing.