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Price:
£45.00
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Weight: 382 grammes
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Features: Reverse zip, repairable and re-proofable, uses Paramo Analogy system, front fitting.
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What's It For?
Keeping your lower leg dry and protecting your trouser legs.
The Techy Bits
Being Paramo gaiters these are made from a closely woven Polyester fabric with a Nikwax TX water-resistant treatment that you'll need to renew from time to time to keep water resistance up. The zip runs from bottom to top, making it easier to put on over boots.
How It Performs
On average I go through a pair of gaiters a year, with broken zips and rips the chief causes of replacement. One of the big selling points of Paramo's gaiters is that rips are easy to repair - something I wasn't used to with exclusively Gore-Tex gaiters.
The gaiter follows the standard design, with a zip opening protected by a flap, a lace-hook and a stirrup to go under the boot. The YKK zip is quite narrow for gaiters, but benefits from the increased flexibility of smaller, more frequent, teeth. The zip pull is metal and narrow, so to make it possible to operate with cold hands a neoprene puller has been threaded through the metal puller.
Neoprene is also used for the foot stirrups, which thread through plastic locking loops. An elasticated band runs around the gaiter just over a third of the way up, and an elastic and toggle tightener is fitted inside the top rim. The zip is protected from water by a full thickness flap secured by five solid press studs.
The most important feature of any gaiters, no matter what frills and features they boast, is how well they keep the water out. To keep the water out, your gaiters have to be fitted properly to make a seal around your boot and leg and you have to be able to fit them "on demand" no matter what the conditions.
In practise, on a cold wet day on Kinder Scout, the gaiters were simple to fit. With the zip joining from the top it's much easier to fasten with cold hands than the traditional system.
Because these gaiters use a locking loop system as opposed to a buckle and belt system adjustment in the field can be a bit fiddly, and messy, so it's probably best to fit them for your boots before setting off.
The advantage of being neoprene is that, once fitted, the stirrups have a degree of stretch that keeps them tightly attached. The push studs for the zip flap, lace grip and toggle fastening top all presented no problems and the gaiters sealed well around the boots thanks to a tight elastic band on the bottom rim.
Once fitted the gaiters were subjected to a mix of wet vegetation, peat groughs and running water in various degrees. The important factor is that the water didn't get through!
The fabric Paramo use seems to have more flexibility than Gore-Tex, and this was reflected in a less restricted feel when walking.
These gaiters are apparently easy to repair, just sew it up and re-proof, but in reality they don't feel as though they'll need any more repair than their competition - scrambling on Kinder Downfall had no impact on them. It is nice to know, though, that a loose crampon step doesn't mean another trip to the shops for replacements.
Since the Kinder Scout test these gaiters have seen action in a mix of rain and river, with no problems to report. As with any gaiters they've taken a battering from mud, and picked up the odd stain here and there. After half a dozen uses there was still no loss of performance but following a cleaning they were re-proofed using the recommended NikWax treatments.
The reverse zip makes fitting much easier than traditional methods, particularly the fiddly job of joining the two sides. Overall the gaiters have a very smooth line with no cords or loops dangling from them waiting to snag on a crampon or a rock.
So far the zip itself hasn't given any problems, but the neoprene puller is starting to show signs of wear and obviously has a limited lifespan. A good option could be to replace this puller with accessory cord.
As with the zip puller, the stirrups have a finite lifespan, and constant stretching and rubbing will take its toll. At the moment they're still proving grippy and not showing signs of breaking, but when they do, fitting a replacement - or alternative, should be simple enough.
At £45 these aren't the cheapest gaiters on the market, with "breathable" alternatives available from about £25, but if they last more than a year they've repaid the investment.
Paramo's biggest selling point is its famed breathability, but this is one area where it's almost impossible to judge how well it works. With waterproof, breathable, layers below it's impossible to make a judgement beyong them not "feeling" excessively warm and there being no detectable condensation inside.
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Performance
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Value
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Oli Cowan
