Speaker 1: Also media. Hi have once James, future James, and I'm
Speaker 1: coming to you to add a little message to this
Speaker 1: podcast that was recorded by past James last week. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to know that I have included a record
Speaker 1: setting podcast description with links to lots of the products
Speaker 1: we spoke about a little bit more information and on
Speaker 1: all the different metrics that I included for choosing things.
Speaker 1: And so you should be able to find that whatever
Speaker 1: podcast downloader that you're using, if you just look at
Speaker 1: the description of this podcast. It is very long, but
Speaker 1: you should be able to find links to lots of
Speaker 1: the things I spoke about there and a few other
Speaker 1: products which I think are good value if you are
Speaker 1: interested in getting yourself some clothing. All right, enjoy, Hi everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to it could Happen here podcast that I'm enthusiastically
Speaker 1: introducing for the third time because I've just sounded so
Speaker 1: half fast the first two times that I've made myself
Speaker 1: do it again. I'm joined by my friend and your friend,
Speaker 1: Lanny Unis. Hi, Serene, Hi.
Speaker 2: That was lovely to witness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't it great? That's I really put on
Speaker 1: my podcasting boots and you know, went back to the
Speaker 1: podcasting face to do another day in the podcast minds,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, beautiful, Thank you for having me, happy to be here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's all I have to say.
Speaker 1: As you can tell, it's too content creators. You're excited
Speaker 1: to create content. I'm glad we're not on Twitch. We
Speaker 1: would we would be uh, we'd be in the poorhouse.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's like eight hour streams can't do it
Speaker 1: all right, So when I here to to talk about
Speaker 1: how how have we been in the podcast minds for
Speaker 1: too long? Today we are here to talk about clothing
Speaker 1: in the cold. Why are we talking about this? Because
Speaker 1: right now it's it's record cold all across the US.
Speaker 1: It's very, very cold. Because I've been spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time outside both helping drop water for migrants crossing
Speaker 1: the border, helping out in cucumber, and a lot of
Speaker 1: days just like doing my recreation stuff in the mountains.
Speaker 1: So I like to do and I think that, like
Speaker 1: I guess education, I guess a lot of people have
Speaker 1: been aggressively marketed at about what to wear when their outdoors,
Speaker 1: be that people who are working or people who are recreating.
Speaker 1: And I think it's good to have a little bit
Speaker 1: of clarity around it, especially as we're entering like this
Speaker 1: might be the worst winter of our lives, it might
Speaker 1: also be the best winter of the rest of our lives. Right.
Speaker 1: Climate change is making more and more people exposed to
Speaker 1: more and more extreme weather all over the world. So
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about the stuff
Speaker 1: I've learned in thirty something years of playing outside about
Speaker 1: how to stay warm in the cold. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm going to do. I've got it's broken down. Like
Speaker 1: I think, the really important thing to think about when
Speaker 1: you are picking your outfit is obviously having all your
Speaker 1: colors match. It's very important. But more than that, it's
Speaker 1: like thinking about thinking about outfit as a system rather
Speaker 1: than as a series of individual things. And I think
Speaker 1: this is where like the way outdoor companies market is
Speaker 1: really bad. They'll be like, oh, yeah, this jacket is badass,
Speaker 1: and it's warm, and it's waterproof and it's wind proof
Speaker 1: and it's also breathable, and like that's you probably would
Speaker 1: be much better off with three cheaper jackets and one
Speaker 1: very very expensive jacket. Interesting, specifically, I guess I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of people come a cropper when their very
Speaker 1: single jacket gets wet, right, and then you're either got
Speaker 1: one layer or you commit to wearing a wet jacket.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about the different parts of
Speaker 1: your clothing system, what you should look for and why
Speaker 1: you should pick certain things. I'll try and recommend things
Speaker 1: that are cheap as well, because I know that money
Speaker 1: is hard to come by and the world seems to
Speaker 1: be constantly trying to extract money from us. So this
Speaker 1: system's based on Do you know who Mark Twite is, Serene.
Speaker 2: No, I don't know who Mark Twite is. But I'm
Speaker 2: looking at the same document you are, and I read
Speaker 2: his name maybe six times, and every time it was
Speaker 2: Mark Twain and I was so confused.
Speaker 1: But it's marked legendary mountaineer. Mark Twain is equally good
Speaker 1: for you know, if you're going on a boat down
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River or climbing a mountain exactly.
Speaker 2: But no, I don't know who mister Twight is.
Speaker 1: Mister Twitt's a famous mountaineer. He's good at climbing mountains.
Speaker 2: Oh that's cool, that's cool to be famous for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. Yeah, A boy can dream, like maybe
Speaker 1: maybe in another life I'll not have to podcast. I'll
Speaker 1: just be able to raise fluffy animals and climb climbing
Speaker 1: the mountain sheep. Yeah, that is the dream, you know,
Speaker 1: every year, every time I don't want to sit down
Speaker 1: and write my book and think about the amount of
Speaker 1: livestock I could possibly purchase it. But lots of lots
Speaker 1: of books dream. Yeah, Well, one day talking me sheep, Actually,
Speaker 1: let's talk about basse layers because one of the things
Speaker 1: they could be made out of, showing is wool from sheep.
Speaker 2: Nice, that was good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. Ye I am a professional podcast guy.
Speaker 1: So you basically there's the thing unx your skin right,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people I think this is where
Speaker 1: like people say, have you heard the phrase cotton kills? No? No,
Speaker 1: yeah you've not heard that. Okay, I have not heard that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm glad you're making an episode about this,
Speaker 2: cause like most of the things I've learned about keeping
Speaker 2: warm have just been like things I've heard, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I've never like researched what actually will
Speaker 2: help me or what will help other people, because I
Speaker 2: think like even like when you provide, when you are
Speaker 2: going to provide or like cheaper options, that's a good
Speaker 2: thing to like donate to people too, now you know
Speaker 2: what will actually help them versus like something else.
Speaker 1: But yeah, totally, Like I know, like for a lot
Speaker 1: of un housed people for instance, like you'll get donated
Speaker 1: a lot of crappy cotton t shirts, but those are terrible,
Speaker 1: right that the little gaps in the cotton, they get
Speaker 1: wet and they stay wet, and it's much worse to
Speaker 1: be cold and wet than it is just to be cold, right,
Speaker 1: And these the whole system of clothing designed by Mark Twite,
Speaker 1: Mark Twain's brother Mark White. The idea is not to
Speaker 1: keep you dry. The idea is to let you dry
Speaker 1: off quickly. Right, So you can get wet, you can sweat,
Speaker 1: but it's much more preferential to be able to dry
Speaker 1: off quickly. And that's all cotton doesn't do. And so
Speaker 1: that's why cotton is considered to be like your worst
Speaker 1: choice here. So if your base layer, you want to
Speaker 1: go with the two options, I guess well, it's it's
Speaker 1: like many things, it's a continuum, not a binary. And
Speaker 1: so you've got wool on one end and you've got
Speaker 1: synthetic on the other end. Wool is really nice because
Speaker 1: it doesn't smell right, Like if you have like athletic clothing,
Speaker 1: that synthetic can get really stinky. If you wear it
Speaker 1: for a few days, it only gets stinkier. Wool tends
Speaker 1: to be much better for that. It also doesn't catch
Speaker 1: fire and melt to you, which if that's important in
Speaker 1: your line of work, then then that's useful. Wool is
Speaker 1: naturally fire retardant. Really where it's like, yeah, yeah, does
Speaker 1: everyone know this? Clearly? No, charene, but.
Speaker 2: Sheep are sheep fire proof? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I think obviously high enough temperature would still
Speaker 1: be fatal for them. But yeah, take yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: when we don't respect the sheep enough.
Speaker 2: Very powerful ability.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, there's not even a sheep Pokemon that could
Speaker 1: like Pokemon. As you said that, I was like, what
Speaker 1: a good defense? Well yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone send me
Speaker 1: a picture of a sheep Pokemon that you've designed, and
Speaker 1: I will describe it on the podcast. It's unfortunately not
Speaker 1: a visual medium, but I'd still like to see your
Speaker 1: sheep yours, all right, so will it's flame retarding. It's
Speaker 1: very useful in certain lines of work. It's not so
Speaker 1: important for other people. But I will say that, like
Speaker 1: even sitting around the campfire. It is actually really shitty
Speaker 1: if your clothes melt to you. I've had gloves melt
Speaker 1: on my hands and it was unpleasant. Wow, that was
Speaker 1: only like a little bit. But again I can I
Speaker 1: can assure you that people sitting around campfires do have
Speaker 1: their clothing catch on fire. This is not like a thing.
Speaker 1: It's why all your tents have to be treated with
Speaker 1: a flame retardant treatment. It's that stuff that makes when
Speaker 1: you're tent. You know, if you put a tent away
Speaker 1: where it's wet and hot, you leave it at the
Speaker 1: back of your truck, it gets really sticky when you
Speaker 1: when you get out. That's a frame retardant treatment on
Speaker 1: your tent. Oh, then lot about fire today. So the
Speaker 1: the problem with will though, is that you have to
Speaker 1: treat it with care, like you don't want to be
Speaker 1: tumble drying wool right, and it can kind of get misshapen.
Speaker 1: There are like hybrids, the thing called new yarn, which
Speaker 1: I like a lot, which is like a wall synthetic hybrid.
Speaker 1: I have lots of clus stuff made of that, and
Speaker 1: then there are full synthetic things like have a little
Speaker 1: base layer here. Again this being mainly a podcast. Scharene
Speaker 1: can see this.
Speaker 2: Describing a piece of clothing. It looks like cloth.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to be fucked for the next
Speaker 1: hour or so.
Speaker 2: But what am I looking at it? It's like it
Speaker 2: look kind of like textured or something.
Speaker 1: So it's like this, yes, yes, it's ribbed. I'll try
Speaker 1: to sleeve. We've just move right past that. It's it's ribbed,
Speaker 1: and that's to allow like the little bits that touch
Speaker 1: your skin keep you warm, but then the channels allow
Speaker 1: for it to breathe right from monaster, to move away
Speaker 1: and wik away from your body.
Speaker 2: So that's that's the synthetic hybrid or.
Speaker 1: This is synthetic. It's spandex and polyester. It's got this
Speaker 1: like it's very thin, you can see through it, but
Speaker 1: it's also very warm by company called Beyond Clothing. I
Speaker 1: would caution people against having too thick if you're planning
Speaker 1: on actually hiking or being active or like, you know,
Speaker 1: let's say you work in construction, you work in agriculture,
Speaker 1: maybe just have a job you have to go to
Speaker 1: remote places. You're a doctor who has to treat people
Speaker 1: at remote places, or you win turbine engineer, or you
Speaker 1: work on the railway lines or something. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're going to be active, having too thick of a
Speaker 1: base layer could be really annoying because if it heats up,
Speaker 1: that's kind of your last option. And if it's really
Speaker 1: thick and you try to rely on that for most
Speaker 1: of your warmth, then you're going to overheat. And then
Speaker 1: when you overheat, you're going to sweat a lot. Or
Speaker 1: when you sweat a lot, that sweat is saying going
Speaker 1: to soak your layer right, and then when it gets cold,
Speaker 1: you're going to be wet and cold, and that is bad.
Speaker 1: So consider if your base layer like a lightweight or
Speaker 1: a midlight thing, and try and get your warmth from
Speaker 1: something else. It's whatever suggest. I really like the new
Speaker 1: yarm ones. Like I said, there's one made by Black
Speaker 1: Diamond called a Rhythm T shirt, which I really like.
Speaker 1: I've loaded those. They are often on sale. You can
Speaker 1: get them really cheap. If you're looking for something really cheap,
Speaker 1: I would say to just avoid cotton, so you can
Speaker 1: look for things which are polyester or nylon, and those
Speaker 1: are going to be a lot better than just your
Speaker 1: T shirt. They are going to smell, they're going to
Speaker 1: get pretty stinky. But you can often find them for
Speaker 1: around the same price. Right, and if it's very cold,
Speaker 1: you may want basic layers your legs as well. Good
Speaker 1: ones for those are hard to get cheap. I like
Speaker 1: ones that zip all the way off, like like like
Speaker 1: you know, like like Chipendale style. Yeah, but you want
Speaker 1: zips all the way down the side, Oh, zippers, so
Speaker 1: they're up pull on no, yeah, but because then you
Speaker 1: have to take your boots off.
Speaker 2: Right, So if you're well, I think of everything.
Speaker 1: Drop your trousers, put those on, because taking your boots
Speaker 1: off in the snow and then hopping around, no.
Speaker 2: I mean it sounds very impractical. So that's cool they
Speaker 2: thought of that. That's very smart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a nice it's a nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Technology has to give less many things. There's a company
Speaker 1: called cou who's chiefly hunting company, but they make a
Speaker 1: really nice like side zip leg bas layer, which I
Speaker 1: think I would recommend for a lot of people if
Speaker 1: it's really cold where you are with I guess trousers generally,
Speaker 1: it's they're a lot less complicated than upper layers. But
Speaker 1: the things you want in the cold really are again
Speaker 1: something that's not going to like cause you to sweat
Speaker 1: a lot, so I wouldn't suggest everyone like going around
Speaker 1: in waterproof trailers. I really like ones that have vents,
Speaker 1: like mechanical vents, so you can open up so you
Speaker 1: can cool off these guys. Right, Like, the pockets are mesh,
Speaker 1: so if you open the pocket, not only can you
Speaker 1: get your accessories out, but you can also like vent
Speaker 1: off the heat that way, and so that way you
Speaker 1: don't soak them out with sweat. Right. There's a company
Speaker 1: called Beyond who makes every possible weight and size of trouser.
Speaker 1: I really like their stuff. I use this stuff a lot.
Speaker 1: You can get kneepad pockets as well, which are super useful,
Speaker 1: not only if you're like like you see them in
Speaker 1: military gear a lot, but if you're working, saying, construction
Speaker 1: or carpentry or something that you have to kneel a lot.
Speaker 1: It's a really nice table on kneepad, So those get
Speaker 1: a recommendation for that. For a cheap one, the Proana
Speaker 1: make a parent called the stretch Zion, which I think
Speaker 1: is really nice. Climb in them all the time. They
Speaker 1: can often be found really cheap. Your next thing is
Speaker 1: your active insulation, so that's you need to warm yourself
Speaker 1: when you're active, right, So there's two types of insulation.
Speaker 1: The system is active and static. One is for when
Speaker 1: you're moving and the other is for where you're stationary,
Speaker 1: and your active insulation is People used to call this
Speaker 1: a mid layer, but that was back when people wore
Speaker 1: like wool jumpers and you kind of had to keep
Speaker 1: it covered from the world or it will get wet
Speaker 1: and stretched out and very very heavy. But sometimes this
Speaker 1: will actually be outer layer, So I don't think mid
Speaker 1: layer is a great term. That's what they used to
Speaker 1: call it. People used to use fleeces a lot. Fleeces
Speaker 1: are fine, but again they can get very very heavy
Speaker 1: if they get wet. Some of them don't breathe very well,
Speaker 1: and they can sort of very quickly become too hot
Speaker 1: of your exercising, and they're not very wind proof. They
Speaker 1: don't block the wind at all, so much better choice
Speaker 1: is something called a grid fleece. So like the base
Speaker 1: layer was talking to you about, it has like a
Speaker 1: little grid pattern that allows for moisture and air to
Speaker 1: move away from your body, so like you're less likely
Speaker 1: to overheat. There's a really cool fabric called Polo Tech Alpha,
Speaker 1: which you should look for rather than like looking for
Speaker 1: a specific item. If you look for Polartech Alpha or
Speaker 1: Polotech Alpha direct, then you can scat around for stuff
Speaker 1: that's some sale and find something that's really nice. It
Speaker 1: kind of looks a bit fleecy, but it's also a
Speaker 1: grid pattern. It's really warm and it's very small. I
Speaker 1: have a few things that are like made of that.
Speaker 1: I have one from a moot called the Alpha sixty.
Speaker 1: So there are different weights, right, sixty ninety one twenty
Speaker 1: sixty is the least. I think ninety it's grams for
Speaker 1: square meter, but ninety grams for square meter is pretty
Speaker 1: much a good mid zone for almost everyone. So that's
Speaker 1: what to look for in those if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a cheap midless or a cheap way to stay warm
Speaker 1: while you're moving around. The US military has this thing
Speaker 1: called a waffle top because inside of it looks like
Speaker 1: a waffle right, I guess grid was. They like to
Speaker 1: give things baby names in the US Army. Oh LUKX,
Speaker 1: suren's got one. Yeah like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love waffle top. I'm always pulled all the time, so.
Speaker 1: I'm also a cold person. Yeah, I do love a waffletop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, those waffletops. You can get them super cheap
Speaker 1: everywhere online. I would caution people against getting it can
Speaker 1: be easy to find, like a thing where it's got
Speaker 1: like a waffle back ere and a soft shell front
Speaker 1: and it's like your windshll your rain shell. But those
Speaker 1: are really warm, and they're really big and bulky, and
Speaker 1: it's quite hard to wear them if you're actually moving
Speaker 1: with any sort of intention. So that's where you want
Speaker 1: to keep your things separate, so you can choose choose what,
Speaker 1: like exactly how warm you are where then being forced
Speaker 1: to be like a certain level of warm. Talking of
Speaker 1: forcing people to do things, Charene, Wow, it's time for
Speaker 1: us to force them to listen to some adverts.
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: We're back, so Charene's voice, and we are talking now
Speaker 1: about the other part of keeping yourself warm, which is
Speaker 1: static insulation. This is the big warm jacket. Everyone likes,
Speaker 1: your happy jacket, the one that makes the cold go away. Right.
Speaker 1: The deal here is that like a big puffy jacket
Speaker 1: is pretty crappy to war again, if you're moving with
Speaker 1: any intention, right, like, unless it's seriously like arctic cold,
Speaker 1: then it's hard to hike or climb in a big
Speaker 1: puffy jacket. So what this guy is for is for
Speaker 1: when you stop moving. So if you're hiking, that would
Speaker 1: mean when you stop to regrow, you stop to have
Speaker 1: a snack or to put your camp together or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's good to have like a really big jacket that
Speaker 1: is warm that you can toss on immediately. Putting clothes
Speaker 1: on once you are cold is generally not the deal.
Speaker 1: The deal that is putting them on so you don't
Speaker 1: get cold, because all you're doing with all these layers, right,
Speaker 1: is trapping air against your body that is warm. That's
Speaker 1: what the little the grid parts and the grid fleece do,
Speaker 1: and that's what all the little feathers in the down
Speaker 1: jacket do, right. They're just trapping pockets of air that
Speaker 1: you heat up. So if you wait till you're really cold,
Speaker 1: it's going to take you a lot longer to get
Speaker 1: to get warm. The thing to do is once when
Speaker 1: you're moving you're nice and warm, you stop, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get cold. So if you toss on that jacket then
Speaker 1: you can stay cold. I say warm down jackets are
Speaker 1: really complicated. If there are a couple of issues with
Speaker 1: like cheap down jackets that make them probably best avoided.
Speaker 1: One is the but if you're not using ethically sourced down,
Speaker 1: that the industry can be pretty abusive, right. That down
Speaker 1: is comprised of feathers that come from ducks and geese.
Speaker 1: It's not very nice to ducks and geese to kill
Speaker 1: them and steal their feathers. And if you're going to
Speaker 1: do it at all, if that's something that you choose
Speaker 1: to do, you should at least try and find ethically
Speaker 1: sourced down, in my opinion. The other thing is that
Speaker 1: down natural down, when it gets wet, it clumps up
Speaker 1: and it doesn't work anymore. It doesn't insulate you, right,
Speaker 1: no like nicer downs modern more like modern downs are
Speaker 1: treated with water repellent coating, so they don't tend to
Speaker 1: do that as much. But the other thing was down
Speaker 1: is that like a lot of numbers get thrown at
Speaker 1: you when you're looking at a down jacket, Like if
Speaker 1: you look at the money Internet, it's all kinds of information.
Speaker 1: Some of that stuff is bullshit. The things that are
Speaker 1: important are the fill power and the fill weight. The
Speaker 1: fill power is it tells you how many cubic inches
Speaker 1: of loft one ounce of that down will fill, So
Speaker 1: a higher number is better, right, a higher number is
Speaker 1: more puffy, And then your feel weight tells you how
Speaker 1: much of that down is used in a jacket. So
Speaker 1: a higher fill power jacket with a lower let's say,
Speaker 1: a four hundred four power jacket with sixty grams of
Speaker 1: feel weight would be as warm as an eight hundred
Speaker 1: fold power jacket with thirty grams of feel weight. So
Speaker 1: once you get your phil power and your feel weight,
Speaker 1: then you get a pretty good idea of how warm
Speaker 1: a jacket is going to be. So the other alternative
Speaker 1: to natural down is synthetic down. Right. Where that stands
Speaker 1: out is like it can get wet, and you can
Speaker 1: generally like baby it a bit less, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: pack down as well, and it is tends to be heavier,
Speaker 1: and you don't get feel power, but you do get
Speaker 1: feel weight. So if you're the jacket I use is
Speaker 1: synthetic because like I like to shovel in my bag
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's wet, or like sometimes it gets a
Speaker 1: bit wet, right, I just I don't like to have
Speaker 1: to like try and baby it so much. I also,
Speaker 1: for ethical reasons, prefer that. There's a company called Prima
Speaker 1: Loft p R. I m A. They make synthetic insulation
Speaker 1: sort of very good, and they say make some from
Speaker 1: post consume recycled plastics and they have something that to
Speaker 1: buy degradable as well, so I really like cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's cool, right, Like I saw something a while ago
Speaker 1: and how ducks and geese are treated pelic down and
Speaker 1: it may be very I was like, I.
Speaker 2: Didn't really want to ask because I don't really need
Speaker 2: to know more than I already do because I don't
Speaker 2: buy that stuff anyway. But do they are there birds
Speaker 2: that die exclusively for their feathers or at least do
Speaker 2: they die for meat and their feathers?
Speaker 1: I think they die exclusively. I'm sure they are eaten,
Speaker 1: but they are raise like the commercial product is the
Speaker 1: feathers basically because they kill them much younger. Yeah, it's shitty.
Speaker 1: There are like ethically sourced downs, which I think if
Speaker 1: you know, if if you're a consumer of animal products.
Speaker 1: For the most part, I avoid than most of my
Speaker 1: wall stuff I got before I was vegan. But I
Speaker 1: think if you're picking between wall and down, I think
Speaker 1: the down industry is it's hard to be mean to
Speaker 1: sheep in a way that people are mean to a
Speaker 1: poultry because sheep just aren't having it. They'll die.
Speaker 2: Also, you're not like shearing wools different than plucking feathers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well yeah then killing an animal to Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a distinct thing going on there. So yeah, I prefer
Speaker 1: not to have. I have a few down jackets that
Speaker 1: you know, but I keep them baby and look after,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, I use the generally, these
Speaker 1: are called ballet parkers, the sort of static insulation layer
Speaker 1: because when you're balleting, when you're climbing, right, you don't
Speaker 1: put them all for climbing, but then when you're on blet,
Speaker 1: you're stationary, so you put them on. And it's nice
Speaker 1: to have a hood on these two, right, because you
Speaker 1: don't want to be like, oh, I've got to get
Speaker 1: my beanie out, get my jacket on. You want to
Speaker 1: just be able to put your one big warm jacket
Speaker 1: on and then you're warm.
Speaker 2: So is it true that you can lose like heat
Speaker 2: from your head and you're or like I've always heard
Speaker 2: that like if you wear a beanie you can stay
Speaker 2: warm better. Is that not true?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you can lose heat from your head,
Speaker 1: and so it's a part of your body.
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, I know technically that makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's like you lose a mom thing to
Speaker 2: say to their kids where it's just like cover your head,
Speaker 2: don't go out when your hairs wor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can lose heat from any sort of exposed
Speaker 1: surface area right and insulated part of your body. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes people overestimate their role played by your head.
Speaker 1: Like you know, people say you lose ninety percent of
Speaker 1: your heat from your head. This isn't true, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is why we don't climb mountain into like fur
Speaker 1: hats and speedos. Like you you do want to cover
Speaker 1: your head when it's cold, and it can make a
Speaker 1: big difference, especially like your ears. You know, where the
Speaker 1: circulation is close to the skin, they can get cold
Speaker 1: your nose, right, you can get frost nip your nose
Speaker 1: and your ears. So like you do want to cover
Speaker 1: those things, having like a kafa or snowed is that
Speaker 1: what it's called.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Okay, but that's enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, a buff is a trade name a buffoble thunder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a caf is a great suggestion.
Speaker 2: Good job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I have a kafa that I've worn up
Speaker 1: and down many mountains. It's really nice because if you
Speaker 1: tuck it into the neck of your jacket kind of
Speaker 1: blocks or the wind gaps, and then it's already warm
Speaker 1: because it's it's been inside there. So when you go
Speaker 1: from jacket to sleeping bag, you just wrap that guy
Speaker 1: around your shoulders and then it's you're warm. Multi purpose
Speaker 1: I love. And also if you have a kafa, you
Speaker 1: can use it to prefilter water, right because you want
Speaker 1: to get rid of the turbidity. So like if you
Speaker 1: if you're filtering from buddy water, you can put your
Speaker 1: kafa over the lid of your bottom and then rub
Speaker 1: a band down scoop. Yeah. Yeah, many used to make
Speaker 1: a sling out of it. I won't use it to
Speaker 1: hold gauze on a leg wound that I had. Well,
Speaker 1: people lived a wife, Yeah, many of mycrofias lived a life.
Speaker 1: Just I'm just here for the ride. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: your your down jack if you do want like a
Speaker 1: down animal down duck down jacket. The cataline ones are
Speaker 1: really good for the money. The cathline is a French
Speaker 1: sports It's like French ARII or European ari It's huge
Speaker 1: in Europe, not so big in America, but there's stuffs
Speaker 1: excellent value. Also, if you want to get really dorky
Speaker 1: about down jackets and warm jackets, the ultra light subreddit
Speaker 1: a place where I definitely go sometimes more time than
Speaker 1: I should, is you you can find like someone has
Speaker 1: made a spread cheet ranking like the fill power, fill weight,
Speaker 1: and price of different down jackets. So if you want
Speaker 1: to get into it, you can get really into it there.
Speaker 1: You can spend a lot of your life on that
Speaker 1: subreddit if you want to. So the next layer, and
Speaker 1: it kind of plays into the the two insulation things.
Speaker 1: It's your wind layer. So a lot of the way
Speaker 1: we experience cold as humans is through wind, right because
Speaker 1: of the way, that's why we have the concept of
Speaker 1: wind chill right, or the air rushing past you, cause
Speaker 1: you a lot more than that same temperature without the
Speaker 1: air rushing past you. And this is often how we
Speaker 1: experience cold and the outdoors especially right. So having something
Speaker 1: like active insulation is great, but often like that alpha
Speaker 1: fabric for instance, it's you can see through it. It
Speaker 1: can be very warm, but it doesn't do anything to
Speaker 1: bluck the wind, and that's sort of by design, right,
Speaker 1: because it's allowing vapor to move out, which is what
Speaker 1: you want, but you do sometimes, especially in windy conditions,
Speaker 1: need a layer to block the wind. That's your wind layer.
Speaker 1: It also helps a lot in not trashing your expensive
Speaker 1: insulation layers, like a very nice down jacket will sometimes
Speaker 1: have a very low the Denny account is like the
Speaker 1: thickness of the fabric, So a nice down jacket will
Speaker 1: still can often have a low Denny account. It's not
Speaker 1: really designed to be like it's not like recently, I've
Speaker 1: been out in cucumber building shelters for people, right, so
Speaker 1: I'm constantly carrying lumber and you know, using tools and
Speaker 1: cutting stuff. And if you wear your fancy, expensive, super
Speaker 1: light down jacket, you're going to shred it and then
Speaker 1: you're going to end up with little patches of duct
Speaker 1: tape all over it. And now you're expensive down jacket's
Speaker 1: not as warm as it used to be. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: sad time for you. So you can avoid this by
Speaker 1: either just not wearing it for that or covering it
Speaker 1: with a wind layer, which also helps because even those
Speaker 1: down jackets often like the wind can get right through them.
Speaker 1: A wind layer is is a really nice option for
Speaker 1: a number of those reasons. Also, you can often just
Speaker 1: worry about your base lay and even down to pretty
Speaker 1: cold when you're moving trail running, like people trail run,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll have have already know this, but if
Speaker 1: you're hiking, your trail running, if you're climbing, a wind
Speaker 1: layer can really like increase the range of temperatures which
Speaker 1: you can work in without getting too cold. And like
Speaker 1: a very small mind is like the size of maybe
Speaker 1: a tennis ball when I pack it down, but it
Speaker 1: makes you a lot warmer. And you don't want one
Speaker 1: that blocks all of the wind because then you won't
Speaker 1: be able to it won't be breathable. Right, Oh, you
Speaker 1: want something that's a little bit breathable. The one I have,
Speaker 1: I looked up the one I like. It's called a
Speaker 1: mouth in hardware core air shell, but core is spelled
Speaker 1: with a K. How you know it's cool? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: got to you got to get it in, got to
Speaker 1: get it in this and where, and then wear is
Speaker 1: spelled like you know, like like wearing clothes, so double
Speaker 1: puns on their spellings. It's made of the stuff called
Speaker 1: pertext quantum air, which is really cool. It feels like
Speaker 1: silky but it's a synthetic fabric and it's really nice
Speaker 1: and it's very small, and it's very light, and you
Speaker 1: could put it in and if you had, like if
Speaker 1: you're wearing like cargo trousers, you know you can put
Speaker 1: it in the side pocket or cargo short if you're
Speaker 1: that kind of person. So those If you're looking for
Speaker 1: a cheaper thing to block the wind, like you can
Speaker 1: find pretty cheap wind cheaters right out there. You don't
Speaker 1: want something that's very plastic key and then kind of
Speaker 1: clammy you're going to sweat up in. You can get
Speaker 1: surplus British wind proof smocks that are really nice. I
Speaker 1: use those all the time when I'm working outside because
Speaker 1: I uploads of pockets. They're nylon cotton blends, so they're
Speaker 1: not all cotton, and they they're very like robust. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not going to wear wear down or like get destroyed.
Speaker 1: If you're carrying lumber or rock climbing, right, if you're
Speaker 1: into clam like a lot of this stuff, will you
Speaker 1: need something with a thicker face fabric otherwise you're going
Speaker 1: to destroy it when you're climbing, especially if you're climbing
Speaker 1: somewhere like Joshua Tree where like the rock is like
Speaker 1: sandpaper and it eats your clothing. The final layer is
Speaker 1: your waterproof, right, It's a final one because like you
Speaker 1: want to avoid wearing your waterproof really, Like I think
Speaker 1: far too many people where like they rely on waterproof
Speaker 1: coats when it's not raining enough to need one. The
Speaker 1: problem with waterproofs is if rain can't come in, moisture
Speaker 1: can't really come out. Even fabrics like gortex per text
Speaker 1: and that they say that they're breathable, but I think
Speaker 1: anybody who's tried to exercise hard in a gortex jacket
Speaker 1: will tell you that they're not. Like, if you're hiking
Speaker 1: with a group and you'll put on your gortex, then
Speaker 1: you need to move slower because you're going to overheat,
Speaker 1: and then you're going to get wet from the inside
Speaker 1: because you're sweating, and that's not what you want. So
Speaker 1: waterproof is important because when it's really wet and you're outside,
Speaker 1: you don't want to get soaked, right, But it's also
Speaker 1: not something you should be wearing most of the time.
Speaker 1: What you want to look for in a waterproof again,
Speaker 1: there are like statistics numbers. One of them is the
Speaker 1: it's the pressure resistance of the fabric. Like it's expressed
Speaker 1: in the as the height of a water column in
Speaker 1: millimeters until it can push through the water resistance of
Speaker 1: the fabric. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: Thank you for beet honesty. That's good if you imagine
Speaker 1: like that, Like I have a tube, right, it's a
Speaker 1: linear tube like a cylinder, and then I put it
Speaker 1: on my waterproof fabric. Right, I put my waterproof fabric
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the tube, and then I put
Speaker 1: one milimeters of water. It doesn't do anything. Two mil
Speaker 1: three meals for keep adding until until it pushes through
Speaker 1: the fabric.
Speaker 2: So that's that's called like a pressure.
Speaker 1: What do you get, Yeah, that's a pressure. It's sometimes
Speaker 1: expressed in pounds per square inch as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
Speaker 1: It's useful if you're like skiing or snowboarding, like sifety
Speaker 1: of your skiing or snowboarding badly and you're going to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time like sat in your ass
Speaker 1: then or you know, otherwise working in snow, like kneeling
Speaker 1: in snow. That's very handy. There's also a statistic which
Speaker 1: is probably more useful. It's the millimeters of rain in
Speaker 1: twenty four hours before it like wets out and becomes permeable.
Speaker 1: So if you live somewhere really wet, like Belgium or
Speaker 1: the UK, Belgium just sticks out in my head as
Speaker 1: a place where it rained all the time, but maybe
Speaker 1: that's just my bitterness. You're looking for, like something in
Speaker 1: the twenty thousand range. That's a jacket that you can
Speaker 1: pretty much wear all day in the wet and be fine.
Speaker 1: Gortex Pro Fabric, I know it's twenty eight thousand, so
Speaker 1: that's kind of your gold standard, but anything over twenty
Speaker 1: thousand it is fine. And then breatheability is the last one.
Speaker 1: Moisture vapor transfer rate, and again anything over twenty thousand
Speaker 1: is good. The other thing to look for in a
Speaker 1: waterproof is taped seams, like you know, the bits where
Speaker 1: it stitch together. If there isn't tape behind those seams,
Speaker 1: then water can get in through that stitching. And like
Speaker 1: I've seen people get very expensive jackets which in explicably
Speaker 1: don't have tape seams. I think it's like maybe a
Speaker 1: fashion jacket or something, but I have like wet like
Speaker 1: down every seam, Like they take off their jacket.
Speaker 2: With a group of like people just that are wearing
Speaker 2: these kinds of clothing and just like you judging them.
Speaker 1: Quietly, that's me every day, serene every day when you
Speaker 1: see me, I'm judging people for their outdoor clothing. It
Speaker 1: just it just happens inside my head. It's my inside ways.
Speaker 1: I'm happy that people are outside and I just want
Speaker 1: them to have a comfortable and enjoyable experience.
Speaker 2: That's a good like thing to focus on if you
Speaker 2: want to, like make sure it's like not a fashion
Speaker 2: jacket versus like utilitary and whatever. You know, like is
Speaker 2: it going to actually be helpful or are you just
Speaker 2: going to look cool or is it.
Speaker 1: Going to do Yeah, you can do both, Like you
Speaker 1: should feel good in what you're wearing and wear things
Speaker 1: that make you feel happy about yourself and your body.
Speaker 1: And however you want to appear is fine. Like I
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck, just want you to be comfortable
Speaker 1: and safe.
Speaker 2: But he will judge you.
Speaker 1: That won't judge you. I would judge you if you're
Speaker 1: doing something that might put you in danger or someone
Speaker 1: more accually, like you can put yourself in danger in it,
Speaker 1: and I don't care. Like, if you want a free solo,
Speaker 1: fucking have it, but don't put other people in danger
Speaker 1: without their consent. I guess which you're doing if you
Speaker 1: go outside, because someone has to come get you if
Speaker 1: you get in trouble out there, and that's not at
Speaker 1: risk free endeavor. Right, returning from my judgmental character to
Speaker 1: waterproof jackets, you know, te you know what else, I
Speaker 1: am judging how my voice out. I'm remaining a loop
Speaker 1: from judgment. I would never but but I am judging
Speaker 1: your products and services and support this show, and I'm
Speaker 1: judging them or because gold is not a good way
Speaker 1: to spend your money.
Speaker 2: But we still love our jobs.
Speaker 1: We do love our jobs, Yeah we do. I do
Speaker 1: enjoy my job. I like my job. I just I
Speaker 1: want you to have nice jackets and not Runald Reagan
Speaker 1: commemorative coins. So here's some adverts. We're back, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk a little bit more about waterprop jackets.
Speaker 1: I think it's important. The other thing you want to
Speaker 1: look for, right, So your your tape seems are good.
Speaker 1: And then I like to have mechanical venting, which.
Speaker 2: Is yeah you mentioned that earlier.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? So this is these events that
Speaker 1: I can open, where as opposed to venting through the fabric,
Speaker 1: I want to vent through a zip that I can
Speaker 1: open up, right, So, like I'm wearing a puffy jacket
Speaker 1: right now, that's a mechanical vent right. Why am I
Speaker 1: saying that jacket? Yeah, Charene can see me. No one
Speaker 1: else can. It's like the sixth sense. I'm a dead
Speaker 1: person and Scharen is the only person who can see
Speaker 1: me that is.
Speaker 2: Can I just get that straight? So just unzipping your
Speaker 2: jacket counts as mechanical venting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So like if you have a nice waterproof jacket,
Speaker 1: it will have pit zips.
Speaker 2: Okay, got it? Just want a spot a fancy waight,
Speaker 2: just to say unzipping some.
Speaker 1: Well yeah yeah, okay, well because you but you want
Speaker 1: like this, This is not right. If I unzip and
Speaker 1: it's a pocket inside, that's not mechanical venting because zipped.
Speaker 2: A chest pocket. For those listening, everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to the podcast. But I do stuff, and
Speaker 1: Charene tells you what I do. Yes, pockets are not
Speaker 1: mechanical events, right, but you went away. So you've got
Speaker 1: pit zips. Some of them will have chest zips. Okay,
Speaker 1: waves to force that hot air out and allow breathe
Speaker 1: ability to happen. Right, So I like that in in
Speaker 1: Raine jackets. And then I also like a hood right
Speaker 1: because it's having a wet head isn't fun. And so
Speaker 1: this is this one. I liked to have a hood,
Speaker 1: and the Bellot Parker, I like to have ahood sometimes
Speaker 1: the wind jacket. I like toberhood if you're doing climbing
Speaker 1: and you're doing I never really wear a hood when
Speaker 1: I'm cycling, but other helmet actively if you're caving or canyoneering,
Speaker 1: might be a good idea to check the hood situation
Speaker 1: with the helmet that you wear for that activity. So
Speaker 1: like for climbing, you know, you lots of people will
Speaker 1: say they have a helmet compatible hood, but I don't
Speaker 1: know what helmet those people are wearing because they don't
Speaker 1: fell over like even a pretty low profile climbing helmet.
Speaker 1: So if you know, if you can go to your
Speaker 1: loco outdoor shop, take take your helmet, you know, don't
Speaker 1: don't be afraid of trying on with a helmet on.
Speaker 1: And you want these all really to be cut to
Speaker 1: allow you to move right. A lot of modern outdoor
Speaker 1: gear it looks really nice like when you're going about town,
Speaker 1: but it's cut kind of too tight in there. It
Speaker 1: looks very trendy. It can inhibit your movement, right, and
Speaker 1: so you want to be aware of that. You may
Speaker 1: have to size up. And it's not because you've got bigger,
Speaker 1: it's because close I've got smaller.
Speaker 2: Also, if you're layering, that would make sense anyway, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. And you want to have your water proof
Speaker 1: cut so it can go over your stuff, right, because
Speaker 1: if it rains, you just want to chuck that thing on.
Speaker 1: And likewise, you want to have that big ballet Parker
Speaker 1: cut so that it can fit over your other layers, right,
Speaker 1: because again you want to be able to chuck it
Speaker 1: on as soon as you stop. And your windproof jacket too,
Speaker 1: so you can use it to protect your more expensive
Speaker 1: you can even I know people who do the windproof
Speaker 1: jacket over the gortex just to protect it. Right. I
Speaker 1: have two gortexs that like, I have one that's very
Speaker 1: small and very thin, and that I like keep as
Speaker 1: an emergency, like if I don't expect it to rain
Speaker 1: or expect for it, but I'm going on a week
Speaker 1: long trip, I'm not gonna you know, want to be
Speaker 1: completely fucked if it rains, So I bring a little one.
Speaker 1: It's called the Mountain Hardware minimizer. Kind of the name
Speaker 1: gives away, but it's just very small. It's made of
Speaker 1: gortex pack light, which is like the lower tier of
Speaker 1: acceptable gortex. It's fine, you know, like a go outside
Speaker 1: a lot and I use it and it's fine. It
Speaker 1: doesn't breathe quite as well, but you can again overcome
Speaker 1: that rete with some with them zips that don't zip.
Speaker 1: And then if it's going to be red all day,
Speaker 1: I have a jacket that's a bit heavier, thicker, packs bigger,
Speaker 1: but the one I have is from a hunting company
Speaker 1: called four Low lo h. It's really nice. Often, for
Speaker 1: some reason, hunting stuff in recent years has got a
Speaker 1: lot better, and outdoor stuff kind of has used to.
Speaker 1: Hunting stuff used to be shitty, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: overtaken it for some reason. And sometimes it's also nice
Speaker 1: to have stuff that isn't bright orange and it isn't
Speaker 1: like you have a theory of why that is because
Speaker 1: people have a metrics shit ton of money and wealthy
Speaker 1: people have got into backgoundry hunting because they were I
Speaker 1: have a big dead thing, but these are not people
Speaker 1: who maybe some people, some people are sending it really
Speaker 1: fucking hard doing hunting and doing like ten twelve day hunts.
Speaker 1: And they're hardcore out doors people as well, and they're
Speaker 1: very wealthy people. They like to be uncomfortable and they
Speaker 1: will spend a lot of money on expensive jackets. That's
Speaker 1: my theory. Yeah, thanks for coming to my ted talk.
Speaker 1: Those are the two things that you really want with
Speaker 1: any waterproof you do need to take care of them.
Speaker 1: I think with gor Tex that everyone should be aware of.
Speaker 1: It has what are called forever plastics in it, and
Speaker 1: they are really not good for the environment. And not
Speaker 1: only are they not good for the environment when it's made.
Speaker 1: And this isn't just Gortex, right, I'm not. Gortex is
Speaker 1: a brand. They make fabrics, and I'm not just saying
Speaker 1: it's with all those like those those kinds of multi
Speaker 1: layer laminate waterproofs. And it's not just when they're made,
Speaker 1: it's also when water sloughs off them. Right, So when
Speaker 1: it rains on you and then that the rain you know,
Speaker 1: the rain drop goes into the three and the stream
Speaker 1: goes into the river, and the river goes into the ocean,
Speaker 1: that little forever plastics are still there, and that's not good.
Speaker 1: I would imagine as with many things, it's more not
Speaker 1: good than we know right now. So some brands like
Speaker 1: fiol Ravan won't use gortex and this stuff for that reason,
Speaker 1: they don't have any forever plastics. Instead they use waxes.
Speaker 1: I think people are kind of maybe have forgotten or
Speaker 1: like you don't see as much of it as you
Speaker 1: used to. But wax jackets are really good if it's
Speaker 1: going to rain all day, if you're not so concerned
Speaker 1: about weight, you can get like a waxed cotton jacket
Speaker 1: or waxed canvas jacket like car Heart makes some right
Speaker 1: or Filson have a nice Filson jacket that they were
Speaker 1: a lot and it's way less fragile, but it is
Speaker 1: much heavier, but it's also better for the planet. So
Speaker 1: that's something If you do have a goratex jacket, like
Speaker 1: it's not something that I feel good like having five
Speaker 1: gortex jackets, you know, and like buying new ones every year,
Speaker 1: like you should try and take care of them. And
Speaker 1: there's a product called nick Wax which is really good.
Speaker 1: You should use nick waxsuff when you're watching any of
Speaker 1: your outdoor. If you're washing down, you should use nick
Speaker 1: Wax down wash or you're really fuck up your expensive
Speaker 1: down jacket. So I think that's a good thing. And
Speaker 1: then yeah, wax, Like, consider how often you're really out
Speaker 1: in an absolute downpour and if that's not very often,
Speaker 1: like maybe you're okay with a wind layer or like
Speaker 1: just waxing the shoulders of of your like have a
Speaker 1: cotton jacket behind me that I just wax the shoulders off,
Speaker 1: but like it's like a smock with lots of pockets
Speaker 1: and I just put wax. I bought some Greenland wax,
Speaker 1: which is which is a fear ratheran thing, and wax
Speaker 1: the shoulders so the shoulders are impermeable to water.
Speaker 2: Does it look different like the does it look like shiny?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks a little bit shiny, but like it's
Speaker 1: not bad and if you do it like better than me,
Speaker 1: then then it won't look as shiny. But can you
Speaker 1: can see that? No, it's not that bad. It's not.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun And maybe other people do other
Speaker 1: things for fun, but I kind of like it. You
Speaker 1: get a head and you grab the wax on and
Speaker 1: then you melt it in with the head ryer. That's
Speaker 1: what I do on Saturday nights. Insight into my life.
Speaker 1: So the last thing that I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: was extremities. Right, I have rainos where like to really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Really rainos at hand?
Speaker 2: Someone else that has it? No, Yeah, like yellow right now,
Speaker 2: I mean not yellow if I press them yellow, but
Speaker 2: like it's well, my feet and hands are always cold
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, same, and it's miserable. I hate having
Speaker 1: cold hands.
Speaker 2: Literally look at this. Wait, I just bought these recently.
Speaker 2: These are electric hand warmers. Oh wow, trouble and I
Speaker 2: keep them now. I just walk around with these all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: It's great. Yeah, it is nice to have warm hands.
Speaker 1: And if you too, if you're a fellow hands colder,
Speaker 1: there are some things you can do. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: people wear really thick gloves that that stop the hands moving,
Speaker 1: that doesn't really increase circulation, or they'll have cold wrists
Speaker 1: and then it's kind of there's like a temperature. You
Speaker 1: know that blood's getting cold or it's in your hands.
Speaker 1: So I found like having a base layer or a midle,
Speaker 1: a active insulation lare with thumb loops really helps because
Speaker 1: then thumb loops make sure that the sleeve goes all
Speaker 1: the way into the glove, and I would encourage you,
Speaker 1: rather than wearing one big ass pair of gloves, to
Speaker 1: have like a glove. I know this sounds really dorky,
Speaker 1: but like a glove system. So like a thin lacy
Speaker 1: glove and then a shell glove which is either waterproof
Speaker 1: or wind proof, and then if you want to, you
Speaker 1: can then stack that with a mitten on top of that. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love emittletons are so cute. Yeah, get your person
Speaker 1: who sews in your life to so your par emittans.
Speaker 1: Have them join with a little string so you can
Speaker 1: run that through the sleeves of your jacket. You don't
Speaker 1: lose them. I used to have those.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. I feel like or maybe I just
Speaker 2: imagined having one. Can't figure out what our memories and
Speaker 2: what are memories anymore, but I love those kinds of mittens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe I'll make gum that you so shreen James. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't believe you have.
Speaker 2: How did you say in British boys mittens no renown
Speaker 2: rains rainers.
Speaker 1: How you're saying so reino they're French? Ye guessing? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think mine. Maybe I don't know, maybe it's just
Speaker 1: from being naturally cold, but holding onto the handlebars of
Speaker 1: a bicycle. Racing over cobbles has really fucked the circulation
Speaker 1: and sensation in my hands. Yeah, the same thing that
Speaker 1: happens if you work a jackhammer. Wow, hands get cold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's good, not good, not good for the human and
Speaker 1: body to do anything that much out of research. Make
Speaker 1: a good glove system, but they only make it for
Speaker 1: the military and they won't sell it to you, which
Speaker 1: is lame. Yeah, there's a lot of like so one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that some of this surtplus clothing comes
Speaker 1: up is because it's designed as a system, which is good. Right,
Speaker 1: it's one piece designed to work with another piece. And like,
Speaker 1: for instance, Patagonia makes a protective combat uniform for the army.
Speaker 1: As much as it would like to not talk about it,
Speaker 1: it's still true and I've written about it before. But
Speaker 1: they make a really good system and it's great and
Speaker 1: scuffs got like. They actually have like this little graphic
Speaker 1: that's like if it's this cold, where this, If it's
Speaker 1: this cold and wet, where this, If it's this cold
Speaker 1: and windy, where this. And it's very handy for people,
Speaker 1: especially people who may not have grown up or had
Speaker 1: that kind of experience or just had the chance to
Speaker 1: try different products because they're very expensive. Right, It's very
Speaker 1: handy to be like, Okay, this is and this, and
Speaker 1: then you only need these five or six pieces that way,
Speaker 1: as opposed to having dozens of jackets and dozens of
Speaker 1: different things for different weathers. So like it. It works
Speaker 1: very well, and it frustrates me that they don't do
Speaker 1: the same thing when selling to people who are not
Speaker 1: in the military. So the other things I wanted to
Speaker 1: do with extremity is real quick socks, socks. It goes
Speaker 1: the same way as gloves that you don't want to
Speaker 1: a sock system. Yeah, I'm glad that you're picking up
Speaker 1: when I'm picking down a Serene.
Speaker 2: I have a sock system, but it's not you're It's
Speaker 2: not anything about this. Yeah, well, my feet are always
Speaker 2: called this is not a sock. But I do wear
Speaker 2: this in my house.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, Charene is showing me. Uh it looks like uh,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a moon boot but made a fluff.
Speaker 1: It looks like a yetty's foot.
Speaker 2: It's very warm. I don't wear shoes in my house,
Speaker 2: so I either always have those slippers on or socks.
Speaker 2: But my sock system is these socks can never mingle.
Speaker 2: I have outside socks, I have house socks, and I
Speaker 2: have bed socks, and those socks remain in their sections.
Speaker 2: An outdoor sock cannot come in my bed. Does that
Speaker 2: make sense? It does.
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated to learn more about this when we start recording.
Speaker 1: I'm going to inquire more about charines sock collection. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very interesting to be anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's eroticism. But I think so the same thing
Speaker 2: with gloves. You're saying like they should be layered.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean with socks, I think the big thing
Speaker 1: is to like not always be trying to I think
Speaker 1: people want to wear like a big thick wall sock
Speaker 1: because it's cold, and then if you're kind of crammed
Speaker 1: that into your same boot, you're going to restrict circulation.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be able to move your feet right.
Speaker 1: So what I would do instead is either have a
Speaker 1: couple of pairs of thin socks or use a warmer
Speaker 1: fabric so like our paka wool is very warm for
Speaker 1: its weight. The other nice thing about woll socks is
Speaker 1: again the insulate when they're wet, right, so your feet
Speaker 1: are going to sweat you're moving and so you want
Speaker 1: something that's not going to get your feet cold, especially
Speaker 1: your person who already gets cold feet. So Marina wool
Speaker 1: is good, our packer wool is very good. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want to restrict with like one big fluffy sock.
Speaker 1: You can get insulated boots if it's really cold, I
Speaker 1: right down until below freezing. I don't like insulated boots
Speaker 1: because again I don't like my feet to get sweaty.
Speaker 2: And well, you wear on your feet for that kind
Speaker 2: of weather.
Speaker 1: They get really cold. Just gortex boots, and I wear
Speaker 1: the same boots for almost everything unless it's like jungle.
Speaker 1: If you're going to get wet, like goratex boots suck,
Speaker 1: right because I take forever to dry. So like, if
Speaker 1: you're in the jungle and the water is going to
Speaker 1: come over your boots, then you shouldn't wear gortex boots.
Speaker 1: If you're not, I have some. You like to know
Speaker 1: exactly what boots I have? Sure?
Speaker 2: I mean we're not sponsored though, maybe no?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did get some of this shit
Speaker 1: for free when I was working in the outdoor industry,
Speaker 1: but no one's paying us to say this. I have
Speaker 1: Solomon Quest four D. I think I have of.
Speaker 2: Wait, I have those?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Which ones do I have? I did like a bunch
Speaker 2: of research a couple years ago when I got my
Speaker 2: new hiking boots. I feel like I have the Solomons
Speaker 2: or are those were the ones? I? No, no, no,
Speaker 2: I do have the Solomons because I returned the other
Speaker 2: one that everyone likes, the witches. What's it called hokahs
Speaker 2: the whole focus.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, hogas make lovely running shoes. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I don't have a preference for that.
Speaker 2: I think there were. I mean, I just didn't understand
Speaker 2: the hype. So I remember switching over to or returning
Speaker 2: those and getting the Solomons. Wow, look at us.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Team Solomon over here. They're vegan too.
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fun. If you have leather boots, you can
Speaker 1: snow seal them around this time of year, but then
Speaker 1: there'll be a bit less breathe will with a bit
Speaker 1: more waterproof. But yeah, consider not overcramming, like thick socks
Speaker 1: into boots are the same size. If you if you're
Speaker 1: going to get a specific pair of winter boots, get
Speaker 1: the massage bigger, and then you could wear a thicker
Speaker 1: sock I would probably do that before I went to
Speaker 1: an insulated boot until it was really cold, like arctic stuff,
Speaker 1: you don't need an insulated boot. Maask makes some nice
Speaker 1: insulated boots that I've used. And then hats is the
Speaker 1: last one. Hats again, like it depends a little bit
Speaker 1: on the temperature. But I have a couple of wool
Speaker 1: beanies that I got years and years and years ago,
Speaker 1: and they're very good and they're very warm, and the
Speaker 1: only thing is when they get wet, they kind of
Speaker 1: stretch out a bit, so they don't love getting wet.
Speaker 1: You might want to put a hood over yourself. Otherwise.
Speaker 1: A flee speanie is really good. People are sleeping on
Speaker 1: the flea speanie, but like a micro flee stretchy beanie,
Speaker 1: it's very nice. I tend to take them when I
Speaker 1: travel because I'm a cold person and planes are cold.
Speaker 1: So if I have that and my little Kafa in
Speaker 1: my bag, then I can kind of wrap myself up
Speaker 1: on the plane and I probably look a bit weird
Speaker 1: to everyone else, but I don't care because I am
Speaker 1: warm and planes are cold. I think that it's the
Speaker 1: end of my ted talk on warm clothing. I talked
Speaker 1: for an hour about cold Cusherine, I didn't think we
Speaker 1: keep it under an hour? Really yeah, No, I've been
Speaker 1: draining my whole life for this shit. Like I love,
Speaker 1: I used to like my whole job used to be
Speaker 1: to tell people what to wear and take with them
Speaker 1: when they go outside. Wait really so yeah? Outdoor industry
Speaker 1: journalists who are years That was how I started my
Speaker 1: little when I was little baby journals. The expert here,
Speaker 1: a little baby journalist, I wrote, I don't think I'm
Speaker 1: an expert, but I will say, well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: There's my other little soapbox. You will read a lot
Speaker 1: of reviews, and sometimes, like the reviews for Boots, did
Speaker 1: they did Sharen in a good direction. Not everyone who's
Speaker 1: writing those reviews is going outside very much, is what
Speaker 1: I will say, or sending it very hard. Some of
Speaker 1: them are, doubtedly are, but a lot of them are
Speaker 1: trying to get you to click a link which will
Speaker 1: return a certain percentage to the website that you're clicking
Speaker 1: the link from, so four or five percent back right,
Speaker 1: And you may, for instance, some of the brands I
Speaker 1: mentioned here don't have that. It's called affiliate marketing. And
Speaker 1: if brands don't have affiliate marketing, you generally can't put
Speaker 1: it in articles for lots of magazines about the outdoors.
Speaker 1: This is something that I fucking loathe, and you can't
Speaker 1: be honest and say this is my favorite thing. Everything's
Speaker 1: designed to be seoed and to get you to click
Speaker 1: something and to return some affiliate revenue to the website.
Speaker 1: So it would take a lot of those reviews with
Speaker 1: a pinch of salt. And also just small brands struggle
Speaker 1: to get into a lot of into a lot of
Speaker 1: magazines because they don't have the marketing money to send
Speaker 1: piles and piles of free stuff. So yeah, be cautious
Speaker 1: about what you read. And if you look around, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're looking at this shit like like I absolutely
Speaker 1: have jackets that got several hundred dollars that I got
Speaker 1: for free or I made some employer pay for because
Speaker 1: I was going somewhere horrifically in hospitable as a human
Speaker 1: life like Alaska, or Alaska's actually lovely. I'd like to
Speaker 1: live there, That's the dream. Right, one day, I'll podcast
Speaker 1: my way to a million dollars raise sheep in Alaska.
Speaker 2: I was looking for tickets to Alaska yesterday.
Speaker 1: Actually show we're talking about Alaska. Yeah yeah, those lights,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, go get after it. But I
Speaker 1: don't really support moving to Alaska and colonizing people's land
Speaker 1: because you shouldn't do that. Don't do extra colonizing. I'm
Speaker 1: already doing enough. I feel bad about it, but so yeah,
Speaker 1: I would suggest people take those reviews with a pinch
Speaker 1: of salt. There are websites like gear Trade where you
Speaker 1: can find new stuff. eBay offer up a lot of
Speaker 1: people buy outdoor stuff, go camping, wants, get cold, get wet,
Speaker 1: get sad, slap it on the internet and sell it
Speaker 1: for pennies versus what it's worth, so you don't have
Speaker 1: to buy any of this stuff new. Most of these
Speaker 1: companies also have bomber warranties, and I'm just going to
Speaker 1: leave that there as to the combination of second hand
Speaker 1: purchasing a warranties. But you can probably join the dots.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, thanks for having me for this. I learned
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining Michriine and sharing with me your sock system.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, that was really intimate. No, I think
Speaker 2: this stuff is like underrated how important it is I
Speaker 2: feel like, I mean, like, unless you're always outdoors and
Speaker 2: you're like, you're an outdoorsy person, I think you wouldn't
Speaker 2: know exactly the best way to keep warm, And it's
Speaker 2: good to know, Like what will actually help someone if
Speaker 2: you want to, I don't know, donate stuff to them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we have been plagued with donations of really
Speaker 1: shitty blankets for instance. It's no one's fault. I generally
Speaker 1: understand that people care and like it. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: that people want to help and it makes me so
Speaker 1: happy to see people taking the money that I know
Speaker 1: none of us have enough of and buying stuff. But like,
Speaker 1: for instance, a thick wall blanket is going to do
Speaker 1: so much more than two or three very thin micro
Speaker 1: flease blankets. You know, if you're looking towards your local
Speaker 1: unhoused community, right again, like think about things that are
Speaker 1: durable and that will still insulate when they're wet. Well
Speaker 1: if you if you do well, then then that's a
Speaker 1: great choice for a lot of those things. And perhaps
Speaker 1: we can have one of my own house friends on
Speaker 1: to talk about like effective donations. The best way to
Speaker 1: help people who are unhoused is to give them money
Speaker 1: and that they can buy the things that they need.
Speaker 1: Because they know about the things that a good point
Speaker 1: and so yeah, yeah, that's my last thing for today.
Speaker 1: Give people who need things money so they can buy them.
Speaker 1: All right, bye, every one Bye. It could Happen here
Speaker 1: as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: and cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com,
Speaker 1: or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever.
Speaker 2: You listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It
Speaker 2: could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com
Speaker 2: slash sources. Thanks for listening.