Ski Wear ?

[DVDWotcha]

Where's best to buy ski wear ? Any good websites or shops in NE London ?

Or reviews of good ski wear ?

I've had a look about but can't find any sites that say much about the product/quality. How am I supposed to know what is good ? Is a £20 pair of ski gloves way better than a £10 pair ?

:help:

[deanos]

Cant help much but Aldi have Ski Wear in this week http://uk.aldi.com/ not sure on quality

[adhun]

I went through this over the last few weeks..... there is such an immense choice! It isnt set in stone, but typically you do get what you pay for (or more like what the msrp is). The glitch in that generalisation is that typically the manufacturers completely renew their range every year, hence last years range (if you can find it) will often be at half price (hence bargain!). Beyond that, I just kept searching and looking up the equipment on its manufacturers website until I got a bit of a handle on what sort of thing I wanted.

A reasonable UK site for equipment is www.snowandrock.co.uk

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[Hasselhoffia]

Yes, the two biggies are Snow and Rock (http://www.snowandrock.co.uk) and Ellis Brigham (http://www.ellisbrigham.com/).

These two have a mix of skiing, snowboarding and other outdoor gear, a reasonable range of kit but always at full RRP it seems. Sales start late January usually, but I wouldn't expect too much of a discount.

Another to check out might be 47 Degrees (http://www.47degrees.com), which have a few stores around south London, but a small one in the city as well. Was in there today, more ski wear then snowboard gear. Also don't go past TK Maxx (http://www.tkmaxx.com) as they quite often have okay low budget kit at about £25 or so.

But you do get what you pay for. You're looking for the level of waterproofness since it's no fun getting wet and cold. The more expensive jackets will use Goretex (tm) which has the waterproofing impregnated in to the material, as well as 'welded' seams which means water can't seep in the seams of your zip or the fabric joins. Very flash. Other things I'd watch for is a soft cover flap over the zipper at the neck line, because the metal zipper can get very cold on your chin when you've got your jacket done up! It's far better to layer up with a thermal shirt (polyprop), fleece and light waterproof technical jacket then just one bulky jacket and a cotton t-shirt.

Ski wear has borrowed heavily from snowboarding in the last few years and they've done away with the one pieces, fluro colours and tight pants, and nowadays a relaxed fit with lots of movement in neutral colours is the norm. Avoid jester hats and the like. Googles are very VERY worth having, different colour lenses are for different lighting conditions, they keep you much much warmer then a pair of sunglasses (plus your eyes don't water like crazy and they are difficult to lose and break.).

Inexpenisve gloves will do the job but will tend to get wet (and cold) after a morning out on the snow. More expensive ones, again, use more exotic waterproofing materials and so last longer before getting saturated. They'll also have removable inner linings so that you can dry them out easily overnight (and give 'em a wash when they get stinky) and usually come with little extra's such as a built-in google wipe (basically a hard bit of plastic to clear the ice off your eyewear), a soft area on one of the thumbs for wiping your nose, and cords to fasten around your wrist so you don't accidently leave them somewhere.

I still think that Burton (http://www.burton.com) make the best snow gear in the world (though it's for snowboarding really), pricey but their stuff works, it works very well, and it looks the part. Have a sqizz at some of the features of their products to get an idea what the extra money will get you.

Hope that helps.

[adhun]

Another brand doing nice stuff (like burton) is bonfire..... worth looking at if you want something costing a bit more

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