REVIEW: Alpkit Apogee Jacket

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 UKC/UKH Gear 20 Mar 2018
Welcome insulation on a wintry Buachaille Etive Mor , 4 kbOffering plenty of warmth for its modest size, the Apogee is a decent lightweight synthetic belay jacket at a fair price, says Dave Saunders

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 dbarmbs 20 Mar 2018
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Montane Prism, better and lighter and cheaper, my always in the bottom of my rucksack jacket.

 

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In reply to dbarmbs:

That's a good jacket too, but a very different one. Better? In what sense? It's lighter and cheaper because it's got a lot less insulation in it (and it's less top-of-the-range insulation too): 40gsm as opposed to 100/80gsm. So it's clearly nowhere near as warm. However the face fabric looks better on paper. It's also designed to be worn on the move and can function as a midlayer, two things the Apogee definitely isn't.

So you've got a lightly insulated jacket/midlayer for moderate conditions versus a midweight winter climbing belay jacket. They're not really comparable...

 MonkeyPuzzle 20 Mar 2018
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

I'm in the market for exactly this kind of jacket, but the hood puts me off here, as I'd mainly be using without a helmet. Also, The problem with comparing RRPs in reviews is online discounting. The ME Prophet can be found for around or even just under the same price as the Apogee, but Alpkit is almost never significantly reduced from the ticket price. Not sure how you get around that, but just thought worthy of comment.

Replacing my Rab Generator with the same used to be a no-brainer, but now it's discontinued I think I'll wait til the end of season sales start properly hitting and look for bargain.

 Ramon Marin 20 Mar 2018
In reply to dbarmbs:

40grs of Primaloft as a winter belay jacket??? You must be superhuman

 Ramon Marin 20 Mar 2018
In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

I don't think I've ever seen the prophet for less than £230, even when not in my size, but maybe I'm not looking in the right places??? It's the same grams of Primaloft as the Alpkit. So still a way to go to the £160 of the Apogee. Not trying to do the hard sale here but Alpkit does do regular clearance like the one they have now, some items down 50%. 

I've used the prototype of the Apogee lots in Scotland and whilst I agree that the outer fabric is thin and it's easily damaged by spiky things, I do prefer that is lighter and more packable using a lighter outer as I have to carry it with me up a climb. Plus, is not that my other brands' belay jackets fair any better to damage with thicker fabrics. The one thing I gotta say is that the cuff sock is annoying with wet belay gloves, I cut mine one off so I can put and take off the jacket without taking my gloves off.

In my view, this jacket, like most Alpkit gear, whilst not having all the signing and dancing fancy bits, it does the job really well at a good price and you still get Gold Primaloft insulation like any other manufacturer. Plus you get an amazing after-sale care and repair, something that other brands can't or won't do (£70 to repair a busted Rab zip anyone ???)

 planetmarshall 20 Mar 2018
In reply to Ramon Marin:

> In my view, this jacket, like most Alpkit gear, whilst not having all the signing and dancing fancy bits, it does the job really well at a good price and you still get Gold Primaloft insulation like any other manufacturer. Plus you get an amazing after-sale care and repair, something that other brands can't or won't do (£70 to repair a busted Rab zip anyone ???)

Not necessarily disagreeing, but maybe in the interests of transparency Ramon should disclose who his sponsors are

I'm currently on the lookout for a lighter synthetic jacket - at 535g this is a bit too close to my Jottnar Fjorm (at 666g in the stuffsack) - which I'm finding to be overkill in many situations. Something like the Arcteryx Nuclei AR at a claimed 460g might suit, but buggered if I can find it in the size/colour combination I want.

 

In reply to dbarmbs:

I raise your Montane Prism with my Flux. Think I'm on Flux number 3 - great jacket.

 gethin_allen 20 Mar 2018
In reply to planetmarshall:

> Not necessarily disagreeing, but maybe in the interests of transparency Ramon should disclose who his sponsors are

 

Total agree it's amazing how good products are when you are being sponsored by the manufacturer.

Ramon has a habit of this on these fora. Eclimb ice tools anyone?

 Ramon Marin 20 Mar 2018
In reply to gethin_allen:

You all know I'm sponsored by them, I don't need to keep repeating on every post, do I? I think give a balanced and honest opinion and don't shove product down people's throat.  I gave my opinion on testing this jacket, I'm not telling you to buy it, I trust you can make your own judgement. Being sponsored by them doesn't bar me from commenting here. And for the cynical people just to let you know I do pay for a lot of the Alpkit gear myself because I like the gear and I like what the brand stands for, supporting local UK manufacturing and not ripping people off, they are a small company with good ethics, so if I can help them out I will, you can choose to ignore my comments in here.

Post edited at 13:46
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pasbury 20 Mar 2018
In reply to planetmarshall:

The Katabatic is very good indeed but maybe a bit underinsulated for your needs - basically it's toasty if you're active.

pasbury (not sponsored by anyone)

Post edited at 13:46
In reply to dbarmbs:

Montane Prism is great for it's intended use, never a belay jacket in winter. Thought mine is an original 25g prism fill one, really needs to have shell on top for max warmth.

This Apogee's a cheaper ME Fitzroy in comparison, which seems to be the go to jacket for many! How does it compare against this, pack size being top of the list?

Currently I use an ME Compressor, less fill than both above, cheaper, lighter, stuffs into 2L stuff sack to hang from harness. Seconding in any belay jacket will rip any fabric they're typically made from!!

Stuart

 

 Sean_J 20 Mar 2018
In reply to Ramon Marin:

> You all know I'm sponsored by them

I didn't know... and it doesn't even say so on your profile page either. Not having a go, but maybe it's worth adding that to your profile page. In fact, that might go for anybody sponsored. Just avoids anyone claiming that you're not being upfront when these sorts of topics arise.

 

 Martin Hore 22 Mar 2018
In reply to Sean_J:

> I didn't know... and it doesn't even say so on your profile page either. Not having a go, but maybe it's worth adding that to your profile page. In fact, that might go for anybody sponsored. Just avoids anyone claiming that you're not being upfront when these sorts of topics arise.


Absolutely agree. It should be a condition of posting by anyone sponsored by or employed by a company on any topic that relates to the commercial interests of that company. I'm surprised this isn't insisted on by the UKC mods already. Not saying we don't want to hear your opinion, just that commercial interests should be declared.

Martin


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