I copied this off my site
www.independentgeartest.com
For those of you just joining, I got the opportunity to test out a few pieces of new ski gear for the 09-10 ski season. Back in the archives of the site I have old tests and observations. Since you could ski park in a trash bag, we kept the testing to real cliffs, on real mountains. Here is lists of how they performed against the others in certain areas of skiing.
I had alot more photograhps I wanted to add, but the computer I was managing them on crashed.
WEIGHT….. usually translates to pack-ability, in my opinion less weight the better, because i dont have a closet full of shoes. My Eider gore tex pro shell pant and Burton idiom jacket weighed in at 2.6 pounds. Saga a full 3 pounds heavier, LDC in the 6.8 pound range. This is important when I am in the backcountry and need to take off my jacket because its too hot. The jacket can not take up my whole backpack. Or flying back to Vermont, literally i could not bring anything but my saga jacket or idiom jacket and eider pants because i didn’t have an ounce to spare without paying for overweight baggage.
1. SAGA
2. TREW
3. LDC
STORM PROOF….. Yea so its snowing 3 inches an hour, the wind is blowing every direction, and its 10 degrees. OR its raining from the cirque down… The TREW GEAR is beyond bomber. High “neck” bibs mean u don’t need a powder skirt as much. Also the stuff is burly with a waterproof zipper and flap on the jacket. Storms have no effect on this suit. Massive cuffs are easy to get over gloves to keep snow out. I’m skiing all day, you are in the lodge drinking hot chocolate. LDC’s fabric was thicker than SAGA, so there was more separating me from the elements. I dislike hand gaiters so luckily none of the suits had them.
1. TREW
2. LDC
3. SAGA
DURABILITY…. Our TREW suit had minor damage on the cuffs of the pants, a few punctures and that was all. No damage on the jacket, none above the knee. This suit skis like Kevlar in the woods. SAGA had some of the fabric fray (which i took care of with a lighter) and normal cuts on the pant legs. The LDC had some damage on the upper shin from something I cant identify or wasn’t written about in the journals, and the zipper sometimes came undone from the bottom.
1. TREW
2. LDC
2. SAGA
BREATHE….. I recorded inside temperatures of the jackets between my jacket and outermost layer. Temperatures were recorded when i felt hot, felt cold etc. I usually measured these with vents closed. the saga coat liked to keep 35-45 degrees, TREW about the same, but the high bib trapped alot of hot air while hiking. LDC was warmer, and would get real warm even at the beginning of a high heart rate so I concluded it wasn’t as breathable. Also SAGA has the best vents of all three for when u need them.
1. SAGA
2. TREW
3. LDC
WORMTH :) the opposite of breathability. LDC let out less body heat so was warmer. TREW maintains good temperatures, SAGA was the coldest of the 3 suits.
1. LDC
2. TREW
3. SAGA
STYLE….. SAGA has offered great colors for a few seasons, and next years look just as unique, the fit of the medium was great for me and my friends in fact someone said to me “I didn’t know SAGA made clothes that fit!” its more like “I didn’t know people got SAGA that fit”. LDC hits their gangster audience on the head. And the TREW really reminded me of the SAGA EGGNOG with the blue accents from the model year prior, but I still felt ridiculously baller. DISCLAIMER…….STYLE is obviously a personal preference.
1. SAGA
2. TREW
3. LDC
VALUE….. Though TREW costs twice as much as these other suits, I give it the win for value. The suit will last you many years and it comes with lifetime warranty. The SAGA got me alot of style points and has never let me down so second place it goes. LDC also makes great stylish outerwear for a comparable price.
1. TREW
2. SAGA
3. LDC
ATTENTION TO DETAIL……. Stitching, color patterns, pocket placement, can i use coat with mittens? SAGA had smaller pockets, not all h20 proof zippers but with a beautiful liner and even little “saga” zipper pulls and down to saga tape on the package. The SAGA tags even told me not just what fabric but also how to really care for it with enjoyably sarcastic comments. TREW has massive pockets that are all h20 proof zippers and the stitching is great (the TREW set up holds easily a 12 pack of your favorite beverage without anyone really noticing) . LDC uses an overwhelming variety of closures. Velcro,zippers, h20 proof zippers, magnets, real buttons. And it had one small tag with the color and size, even the color was wrong it said black but it was a nice dark brown.
1. SAGA
2. TREW
3. LDC
WEAR-A-BILITY…. Where I’m at you end up spending nearly all day all night in your ski gear. So wear ability for me doesn’t end at the end of the ski day. In the bar, or on the hike home its nice to be comfortable in what you skied in all day. My gore tex pro shell pants and suspenders were my favorite piece of ski gear I could take anywhere, but the fit of the SAGA on and off slope took the cake out of the 2 other companies. LDC was too big (for me), and the TREW swooshed around really loud and unless i put my tall tee over the bibs they were too high to wear in public, and there was no way to wear the TREW bibs with the bibs down because the waist was massive with no belt loops and fell right off.
1. SAGA
2. LDC
3. TREW
SERVICE…. I have read horror stories of customer service on various skiing websites. I will say that even emailing these guys around Xmas I got responses within a reasonable time frame, from each company. Trews website lists numerous ways to get ahold of someone, same with saga. LDC only listed 2 email addresses, but replied within days.
1. TREW
1. SAGA
2. LDC
QUARKS
SAGA – fabric got got frayed from Velcro, not the best year for saga fabric (i owned a saga set up in the past). No pockets safe from saturation on wet days
TREW – SWOOSHING when walking without ski boots on its almost unbearable. Bibs not able to be worn down. Fly not big enough. Storm skirt is see through, wind and snow come up through it.
LDC – Mixture of closures and I can’t rock XL anymore. Fleece is not in the right spots on the pants. No pockets safe from saturation on wet days
