UKH

Just for fun. What's your favourite fleece of all time?

I'm sat in mine. A Sprayway polartec 200, 21 yrs old, been worn for best and for work (yard work), then back for best. The right pocket has a hole my first dog chewed to get a pasty, the cuffs are thread bare but it's still as warm as toast, still loved.

In reply to flopsicle:

Hairy Patagonia body rug pullover. I had two, lived in the red one but it went missing a few years ago. I still have the yellow one but it is a bit manky.

In reply to flopsicle:

Does the original rab vapour rise smock count? Worn for everything, work, rock, winter, cycling, walking and casual.

In reply to flopsicle:

Also, hairy pile Helly Hansen pullover from looong ago. Light, soft, comfy, ugly as sin, had a long bumflap and thumb-loops and you could put it on straight out of the washing machine.

In reply to flopsicle:

North Face polartec fleece purchased on impulse at good exchange rate from Barabas in Benasque, Spain in approximately 1997. I am wearing it right now. All zips still work, it even still has some pile on it. Not exactly the most stylish garment, the cut has not aged well. However, it's still in almost daily use for feeding the hens, doing the recycling, putting out the bins and wearing over the top of other clothes when I'm too stingy to put the heating on.

In reply to flopsicle:

A Mountain Equipment ultrafleece alpine (or something like that) jacket. Well over twenty years old, first thing I reach for when I'm off out, lots of life left yet.

Part of me wishes they still made them. Another part of me looks at how long the one I have has lasted and stops wondering; they are a business, after all. You aren't going to make money from selling someone one reasonably priced product that will last them a lifetime.

T.

In reply to flopsicle:

I've got a 25 year old Patagonia snap T that I still use regularly. It's black so I can fix my bikes, crawl under the car etc wearing it and it doesn't even look dirty. It has turned out to be exceptionally good value for the 45 quid it cost me in 1990!

In reply to flopsicle:
A fleece of unknown make or age which I bought from a charity shop around six years ago, it's dark blue and can be best described as being like the Mountain Hardware Monkey Man fleece in being deep pile and not at all wind proof.

It's warm and cosy and I cut the heavy windproof lining out of it to make it lighter, and put it under a light pertex windproof if I need to or just wear it to slouch around the house in before it's heated up. It's cosy with a capital C.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:
The zip only failed on my Mountain Equipment ultra fleece fleece around six years ago, and it had lasted for about 10 to 15 before that happened.

In reply to flopsicle:

I have a North Cape Gasherbrum jacket in perfect condition.

Kept for best.

Veedon

In reply to flopsicle:

A chunky cream coloured with a black nylon liner, bought at motor cycle shop for about a tenner.
Best jacket I've ever had, lasted for years, forget all this overpriced technical garbage.

In reply to flopsicle:

Not sure if this /quite/ counts as a fleece but an old North Cape piece with red Polartec fleece lining and purple Pertex outer. Far too big for me, but really warm and still in use! Circa 1990s, given to my dad by my mums dad, mum hated it on him, so I nicked it from the attic and now it's with me in uni!

In reply to flopsicle:
Golden ones, preferably made from the fleece of a winged ram.
Used to have one until that bastard Jason found it at the foot of this route http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=125796 and claimed it as crag swag.

In reply to TobyA:


I still pine for my (very distinctive) sea creatures pattern Patagonia I left in the bar at the St David's campsite a decade ago. I went back for it but it had vanished.

If anyone has any helpful information about this, it's not too late for an amnesty!

In reply to flopsicle:

A Weird Fish casual fleece I got from Southampton Boat Show a few years ago. Lovely and warm after surfing, even if the sleeves are a tad short and the pocket design is rubbish.

Otherwise, I loved my Ultrafleece jacket and still have it in the garage. Current favourite for lounging around is my North Face Glacier 1/4 zip, or my Glacier Delta 1/4 zip when I'm outside.

In reply to flopsicle:

Yet another vote for the Mountain Equipment ultra fleece. Mine is 15 years old and still going strong. Pull tab on the zip broke last year, replaced it with a metal ring from a key fob - good to go for another 15 years. A mate of mine bought one at the same time, wore it outside as a jacket and indoors as a cardigan, pretty much lived in it. It developed a small hole in one elbow last year. These things are ridiculously well made and very, very breathable. Not to mention comfortable and rather stylish. Awesome piece of kit.

In reply to flopsicle:

I have a NF Zermatt which gets abused this time of year, plus a schofell fleece gilet. Both are excellent.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:


would agree, I keep looking for them and aquafleeces on ebay, very hard wearing etc.. built to last as they say.

In reply to flopsicle:
Another North Cape fan here, I have a lovely burgundy pullover with a colourful pertex-a-like trim on the stud down neck. I probably bought it in the late 1980s and it is still going strong. Alongside that is my equally lovely Berghaus jacket in navy blue with pink and violet pertex rings around the arms, 1992 vintage. Worn with a pair of similarly old bright purple tracksters it is the height of outdoors style. Nothing I have bought since then has lasted long enough to be a favourite.

In reply to flopsicle:

I'm amazed this post has reached this far without mention of the king of fleeces: The Patagonia R1. Warm as toast, ethical and bombproof. What's not to like?

A close second is the cheap Craghoppers microfleece that's often in SportsDirect. I don't know what they make them out of, but I swear they are the fluffiest, softest thing ever produced.

In reply to flopsicle:
Yet another vote for my Mountain Equipment Ultrafleece. I have a dark blue and bright red one and hope they go on forever. Someone told me ME only stopped making them because they were under commercial pressure from Gore to use their products for fleece as well as waterproofs. I don't know if that's true but Windstopper is inferior in almost every way. I also think ME was ahead of the time making a fleece which was well-cut, long in the body and included a tightly fitted hood.

In reply to flopsicle:

Ultra fleece circa 1985/6 for me. One in grey and one in magenta that was on special offer at £16

In reply to joe.wahab:

The best outdoor kit is that which is 'borrowed' from the family home.

In reply to Timmd:

That puts me in mind of the pre polartec era. At 16 I had my first job outdoors for 10-12 hrs a day all weathers. Most of us had no proper outdoor kit and we wore acrylic jumpers with cheap leaky rubbery jackets. One groom came from posh stock and had a Puffa AND a Barbour! I wore the farmer's son's old wax coat - he was a 6ft 3 body builder, I was not.

Anyway, on to borrowed stuff. It turned out, before he married, my father had a life and while the old skis were of no use to me, the thick double knit pure wool ski jumper - now that was different, that I wore. It had 'thickened' from being washed and was heavy as hell but compared to shed loads of acrylic, it was heaven! I wore it (without a wash! E|eep!) for about 2 winters till I won on the horses at a point to point (we were stewarding) and bought my first fleece, made by Puffa with a water resistant shell in purple, polartec fleece inards. Few things have made such a huge difference to my life as that first fleece.

But yeah - the borrowed ski jumper tided me over nicely....

In reply to flopsicle:
My 28 yr old Helly Hansen double fibre pile jacket. Warmest jacket I've had with long back and thumb loops. The pullers just broken but I will mend it as I can't find a suitable replacement zip.
Instant warmth even when wet. Put a pertex windshirt over it and it's a buffalo.

In reply to flopsicle:

My £5 bright orange one. It means that my mates can spot me from afar when they arrive at the crag

In reply to flopsicle:

Icelandic jumper, made with me own bare hands