UKH

I bought a pair of Rab Vapour Rise Gloves (the previous, charcoal version with red lettering and light grey palm) in Scotland a couple of years ago and loved it. Kept my hands warm in terrible autumn conditions in the Cairngorms, and when I moved to Munich they still proved warm enough in -5°C. Unfortunately I lost them on the subway shortly after.

A couple of weeks ago I got the new version of them for Christmas in M, which turned out too small for me despite me recalling M to be fitting perfectly back then. I exchanged them for L, which arrived today and are too large. I still took them for a walk to the supermarket just now and returned pretty disappointed. The last pair I remember as warmer than their official rating, with a cozy soft lining, and windproof. In this pair I got cold hands immediately despite it being above freezing, what little wind there was went right through them, and the lining felt thinner than in the last version.

Needless to say, I am pretty unhappy with them and will probably send them back. Now I wonder if Rab has actually changed more about the gloves than just the colours, or whether I am just imagining it (except for the sizing, that I  am sure about and another reviewer has commented the same on Rab's website) and playing the old version up in my head for nostalgic reasons?

Has anyone experienced the same with this model?

I've got a couple of pair of VR gloves and they have been my go to glove for years as my hands just get too hot.

Father Christmas did bring me a pair of Alpkit Vulcan lobster gloves which during my brief testing between lockdowns has definitely been positive so far.

The old charcoal ones are indeed cracking gloves. They've changed the fabric from pertex equilibrium to their own brand 'matrix' fabric which might account for the difference in windproofing.

Rab's glove sizing has also gone a bit rogue in the last year or so. My Baltoro XL is tighter on me than my mates L...

I'm a total Rab tart as I seem to be the exact same size as their average large man.

I had some and loved them...lost them on the hill! A sad day. 

If you look up the word 'Progress' in the dictionary is is defined as the following:

"When something is redesigned to the point where it is no longer fit for purpose"

Well, I got the personal impression that these seem to perform worse than the ones I've had, but that's from a 20 min. walk in the city, and except for the different sizing I am not completely sure. 

Please don't take this as a "Stay off these gloves, I have determined with absolute certainty that the new version is terrible!" thread, but rather a hesitant "Am I the only one?" thread. I don't want to bash them just for it to turn out that it was all in my head ;)

Although given TechnoJim's reply, I tend to assume I'm not the only one.

Exactly, there's nothing worse than a great product that's redesgned to the point where it doesn't work anymore. That's pretty much what I was saying.

I have the newer ones and they are normally fine for me. With that said, I have really warm hands normally so probably would feel the cold less than most.