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outdoorsdesigns Taku Stretch
Gloves Tested
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Price:
£20.00
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Weight: 55 grammes (men's
mediun)
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Features: Polartec
Windpro Stretch with Hardface Technology fabric, box finger
construction, silicone print grip palm, low bulk lycra cuff.
Any colour as long as it's black, sizes S-XL.
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Wind resistant, well-fitting and sticky.
Get damp in heavy rain.
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The Concept The catchily named
Polartec Windpro Stretch with Hardface
Technology fabric is a new version of Polartec's unsung
Windpro fabric. Windpro's a closely woven fleece a bit like the old
Ultrafleece and is more wind resistant than nornal fleece, though not
windproof like a membrane fabric.
The Taku Stretch also gets sticky palms making it an all round
mountain glove suitable for walking and scrambling, but thanks to the
stickiness, also suitable for technical use with axes and other
slippy metal hardware.
Features Aside from the fabric, which has a nice, soft fleece
inner teamed with a harder wearing, smooth outer - the 'Hardface' bit
- the gloves also get silicone print dots in the shape of an
outdoordesigns logo plus slim lycra cuffs and box-sectin fingers for
a good fit.
In Action The Taku Stretch is great on those days when its not
cold enough for full winter mountain gloves, but nippy enough to
chill your digits on the hill in other words, warm, but not too warm.
Fit is close and excellent for dexterity, something that's helped
along by the grippy silicone dots.
Sticky gloves we've used in the past have been marginal at best
when it comes to tackiness, but the Takus handled poles, axes and ice
screws without problems, only meeting their match on a super-polished
wet handrail in the Swiss Alps. We reckon they'd make good inner
gloves for technical winter use, if you favour a removable over-glove
system.
You could also happily use them for scrambling, though we don't
know how long they'd last being rubbed against rougher rock
types.
The fabric itself is a great compromise between weather protection
and breathability. The gloves aren't windproof, but they're far more
wind resistant than normal fleece and we rarely felt the need for a
completely windproof alternative. They cope with light rain okay,
when things get damper, they do wet out, but the pay-off is that they
dry much quicker than membrane alternatives like Windstopper, which
tend to end up feeling damp and cold.
Our first pair burst a seam in the cuff area, apparently where
stitching hadn't quite penetrated both fabric panels, but since then
outdoordesigns has shifted production to a specialist glove factory
and the replacements, so far, have been fine.
The Taku Stretch won a Polartec Apex award for innovation
earlier this year, but that would mean diddly squat if they didn't
work where it matters out on the hilll. Fortunately they do and are
excellent all-round, wind-resistant and reasonably warm mountain
gloves that also double as sticky technical liners for winter
mountaineering use - let your overmitts dangle and feel the
stickiness.
We've been disappointed with other lightweight fleece gloves in
the past, but the combination of fit, insulation, weather protection
and grippiness makes the Taku Stretch a winner in our book and, at 20
quid, a decent buy too. Give them a dousing with an aftermarket
water-repellant treatment and we reckon they'd be damn near
perfect.
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Performance
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Value
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Pushed for time
Award winning lightweight fleece glove that combines great
fit, weather protection, dexterity and stickiness thanks to
a new version of Polartec's Windpro fabric. Fantastic
allround glove when it's not too cold and an effective liner
option for winter mountaineering and ice climbing use too.
We like them.
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Know more or want to?
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product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
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