Friday, 02 May 2014 14:50

Berghaus Elements Softshell Gloves Reviewed

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Overall View
For winter walking or skiing you'll find it hard to find a better value for money, entry level, glove. Surprisingly warm and flexible with all the style of softshell the Berghaus Elements offers a lot for your £30
Real World Test
Now don't get us us wrong, we like softshell in general - some of our favourite kit is softshell, but the idea of softshell in a glove was a little off-putting initially. To our minds there's essentially two types of gloves; waterproof ones (like Gore-Tex or Sealskin) and insulating gloves (your budget synthetic ones or nice expensive down ones), and while softshell has some big features it's not exactly waterproof or insulating that it's best known for. How wrong could we be?

To cut a long story short the Berghaus Elements now have a permanent home in the drivers side door of the Land Rover and they'll stay there till the day they eventually wear out as an essential item - except when they're in use of course. We didn't know the price when Berghaus sent the Elements through to us so had no preconceived ideas or expectations, although the look of them screamed £60 ish. The neat Berghaus logo and name print is well executed with black on black giving a classy and discreet look, and you'd think nothing of wearing them in a January high street.

The Elements glove is an "Anatomical fit", which in reality means it's pre-shaped the way a hand naturally curves from the knuckles to the finger tips, and with the 14% elastene content and brushed polyester lining you get both a soft touch and a good fit. The double elasticated wrist seals out any draughts and in use the Elements glove gives a surprisingly good level of insulation considering it's not got a dedicated down or synthetic fill. The DWR coating works as you'd expect - beading water and snow quickly and effectively and the wind resistance was excellent even clearing snow from windscreens in sub-zero temperatures.

Although it was the warmth of the Elements that massively exceeded expectations there was plenty more to like about the glove. The palm print was a pleasant surprise, being grippy without being sticky and still working as effectively on a frozen rock as a warm mug. With the warmth of the Elements relying on a micro fleece backer rather than a bulky insulating filling you get better than normal flexibility in the fingers and if the temperature really drops the brushed lining makes it easy to fit a pair of liner gloves on first and slide them inside.

 

Price: £30.00

Colour: Black

Features:

  • Micro fleece thermal backer (315 g/sq m)
  • 86% nylon, 14% elastane stretch woven face
  • Brushed polyester lining
  • 2 way stretch . Wind resistant (less than 20 cfm)
  • Durable water repellent finish
  • Palm print for improved grip
  • Anatomical fit
  • Double elasticated wrist

 

Pros: Everything! Great grip, warm yet still remarkably flexible

Cons: None yet



Note: This article was restored from the archives. It's published creation date is inaccurate.

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