This Season’s Last Shipment of Chugach

Hi Everyone,

I know a lot of you have been waiting on the Chugach Gear to be back in stock.  Before we make this announcement publicly I wanted to give blog subscribers the 1st opportunity to buy from this shipment as we will not be receiving another shipment until November.  

Toray’s waterproof/breathable technology is simply unmatched; 4-way stretch, 20,000/20,000 waterproof to breathability rating, KUDOS DWR and Primeflex 4-way stretch face fabric. The Chugach Jacket weighs just 17oz and the pant just 13oz, which is light as 2-layer packable shells with all the durability advantages of a true 3-layer hard-shell.  

I have included a report from Brendan Burns who put it to the test this last month on Kodiak that may answer any questions you have with the actual performance level of this product.  It certainly is the best rain gear I have ever tested.  

Jason

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There were so many gear questions that came in about the Chugach Rain System performance on Kodiak, Jason asked me to do a small write up on my experience using it.

I will gladly give my stamp of approval on the Chugach, as this trip was the first time I can say I was totally dry bell to bell for an entire Alaskan trip.  The entire KUIU system works so well together that it’s hard to say one piece is better than the rest.  All the pieces in the line excel at what they are designed for, including the Chugach.

Over the last 12 years I have spent around 700 days hunting and fishing in Alaska. No matter how prepared I am for a trip to the 49^th state, the amount of rain always catches me by surprise.   Living in the lower 48 we simply forget how unforgiving and wet Alaska can be on gear.

Over the years I have used and owned nearly every piece of rain gear out there.  Very few have been able to keep me dry during extended exposure to rain, and most have totally failed.  Trips where I used the latter generally stick out in my mind as being miserable.  I’ve learned over the years that a hard shell is the only way to go.

I only ask two things of my rain gear:

1. It has to be waterproof.  This is non negotiable.  Absolutely and totally waterproof for extended periods of rain over multiple days. “ Water resistant” is not enough.
2. It has to breath.  If and when I am forced to hunt in the rain my rain gear has to keep me dry on the inside also.  Being active in rain gear is where the great pieces shine.  If your rain gear does not move moisture created by your body, you may as well be wearing rubber. The term “waterproof breathable” is way overused describing rain gear in my opinion.  Many waterproof membranes will keep you dry, but they simply do not breath.

The Chugach system is totally waterproof.   On Kodiak we got pounded with rain for 2 days straight, and were hit with intermittent rain daily for the rest of the trip. Not once did I have a drop of water get through.  Every night I was able to snap dry the jacket and pants. No need to hang them up and dry them out- they absorbed nothing during extended exposure to rain.   My system beaded water as well on the last day as the first.

Aside from being totally waterproof there are several important features that set the Chugach apart from every other piece of rain gear I have hunted in the past: Comfort, Breathability, and Weight.

The simple clean design, when combined with the stretch of the Toray Fabric/membrane makes this the most comfortable rain gear I have ever worn.  It moves without the restrictive feel of most rain gear and is most noticeable in the pants (no plastic bag feel).

The Chugach Jacket is everything you need in a rain jacket and nothing more.  Good pocket placement, easy to use pit zips and the best fitting hood I’ve used.

Dual full zip side zips on the Chugach rain pants allow you to get in and out of them quickly without taking your boots off.  This is critical.   If your rain pants don’t have full zips to the hip- they are not rain pants. End of story. You should not have to take your boots off to get them on or off.   The Dual zippers also allow me to dump heat out the top of the pants during steep climbs or while wearing them during warmer periods when it is not raining.

The Chugach actually breathes.   Having worn many other pieces there is a noticeable performance advantage in the Chugach.  I don’t build up internal moisture/ humidity while hiking. No more clammy sticky feeling normally associated with rain gear. I cant give you the stats on how much better it breathes than other rain gear( im sure Jason can), but it is noticeable.

I love the fact that the Chugach System weighs the same as 2-layer packable rain gear that I consider “emergency” rain gear because is simply will not stand up over time while being more durable than any others I’ve used (it is).  It makes it a no brainer to throw the set in my pack all them time. For the first time I never have to think about whether or not I have my rain gear, it’s always there.

If you are going hunting where rain could potentially dictate the success of your hunt I would highly suggest getting a set.  Being able to hunt comfortably in all conditions will certainly give you more of a chance to get the most out of your experience.

Brendan Burns
KUIU Guides & Outfitters Program
Professional Guide

Climbing Belt

The 3.5 ounce Climbing Belt is quiet, durable, lightweight and functional.  Designed and made by Bison Designs in Longmont Colorado, the Climbing belt uses CWH 38mm 100% nylon webbing double bar-tacked to the KUIU engraved Bison Designs cast aluminum buckle.  This buckle is functionally designed to secure the webbing in place so you can safely clip into the buckle for emergencies.

SALES INFORMATION

The Climbing belt is $19.99 at kuiu.com and is available in Major Brown, size M/L & L/XL.

Please let me know your thoughts and comments of the Climbing belt, I am a big fan of this new design.

Jason

Vias Camouflage

Last spring on the blog we discussed camouflage for KUIU.  We all agreed it would be best for KUIU to create a new pattern. The pattern requirements you suggested were earthtones, non-blobbing, visual confusion, high-contrast, distinctive and attractive. After reviewing the final version of the pattern this week in the field, we made the right decision, thank you.

Vias is a macro-camouflage pattern designed with light, medium & dark earth-tones to create visual confusion that breakups up the human outline at distance.  Vias is made up of 5 colors, a dusty tan, grey, dark grey, brown and black.  I designed the pattern to break up the human form on the horizontal axis in three place for the lower body and three places on the upper body with the light-tan color. You will see this when you look at the back of a jacket in the distinctive tan sections that run across the entire panel.  This is important for consistency of breaking up the body when the pattern is cut into small panels and sewn into a garment.  I did not want Vias become less effective when it is made into a pack or pants because of how the panels are aligned and sewn.

We shot Vias this week in as many situations as we could find so you could get a feel for this pattern.  The Sierra Nevadas have been pounded with snow lately which limited us to high desert environments east of Reno.  I can confidently tell you, Vias in dark timber past 10 yards will be almost invisible. Most of the photos enclosed are shot between 10 and 15 yards.  We did shoot further distances but you could not find Chris in the photos so I did not include these in this post.

I am very excited about this pattern and how effective it is at any distance and any environment.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions.

Jason

The Chugach Pant

The 13.2 ounce Chugach Pant is made with Toray’s Primeflex 3-layer Dermizax waterproof breathable, 4-way stretch fabric.  Toray’s patented & industry leading Kudos DWR treated at the yarn level for superior performance.  The Chugach Pant is designed with YKK weatherproof full side leg zippers with three sliders for zipping down for ventilation, a YKK zippered fly, Prym snap closure and CWH webbing with a Duraflex low profile belt closure.  Bemis seam tape, articulated knees, double reinforced and bonded cuffs and skuff-guard with Prym snap cuff closures make this pant comfortable and very reliable in the worst conditions.

The Chugach is a packable hardshell designed to shed the worst weather in the world.  It is not a fuzzy, soft quiet fleece type fabric such as MTO50, however it is the softest and quietest hardshell I have tested and will not hold moisture.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Primeflex Spiral Yarn

Primeflex fabrics utilize a patented spiral yarn technology, which allows for stretch & recovery without elastic.  Elastic is heavy, hydrophillic and wears out over time.  This fabric allow the Chugach Jacket to be as light as a 2-layer jacket with all the durability and reliability of a 3-layer product.  

I strongly recommend 3-layer rain gear, I have tested many 2-layer fabrics, all have failed and some in the first hour of testing.  The exposed membrane on 2-layer rain gear is too fragile to withstand the abuse of hard mountain hunting.

Waterproof Breathable

Toray’s patented Dermizax has a 20,000 mm waterproof rating & 20,000 MTPR breathability rating (the maximum amount of moisture that will pass through the membrane in a 24 hour period), which is the highest waterproof to breathability rating available with a stretch fabric. Dermizax is quieter and more durable than expanded PTFE laminates, which is the perfect combination for mountain hunting.

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WATERPROOFING IN MM Overview

• 0mm: obviously not waterproof in any way. Sieves, screen doors, basketball nets.
• 0mm-1000mm: rain resistant, but not rainproof. Most stretch-woven softshells fall here.
• 1000mm-5000mm: rainproof but not waterproof under pressure (sitting on or leaning against wet surfaces). Engineered (laminated) softshells, inexpensive rain shells, low-end ski and snowboard wear.
• 5000mm-15,000mm: totally rainproof and generally waterproof unless under serious pressure (extended sitting, submersion, heavy people sitting). Most proprietary coatings (generally, liquid polyurethane coatings that become porous when applied to fabrics and cured) fall in this range.
• 15,000mm-30,000mm: totally waterproof, even under serious pressure. High-end proprietary PU laminates, PTFE membranes. Can withstand shallow-depth submersion without leaking (fishing waders, drysuits for sailing).
• 35,000mm and up: Solid vessels and non-porous materials. Will deform or fail catastrophically before leaking. Plastic bottles, rubber galoshes, aircraft carriers.

TESTING

We have tested this rain gear in some of the harshest conditions in the world, including wet and high air humidity that typically makes waterproof & breathable’s useless.  The Chugach Gear performed flawlessly because of the incredible breathability of Toray’s laminate.

SALES INFORMATION
The Chugach Pant is $249.99 at kuiu.com and would retail for $499.99. It is available in Vias Camouflage and Frost Grey in sizes M-XXL.

Please let me know your thoughts, comments and any questions, I love to hear your feedback.

Jason

KUIU Attack Pant Review

The KUIU Attack pant is made with a 225 g/m2 Double Weave Toray Primeflex fabric that allows this pant to weigh a mere 18.75 ounces, 40% less than comparable pants using a same weight non-Toray fabric.  Primeflex fabrics utilize a patented spiral yarn technology allowing the fabric to stretch and recover without elastic.  Most stretch fabrics use elastic which is heavy, hydrophilic (attracts and holds moisture) and wears out over time. Besides weighing less, the Attack Pant fabric is quiet, very durable and abrasion resistant, 4-way stretch, does not collect burrs, breaths and has a soft, lightly brushed back for next to skin comfort.  This fabric comes with Toray’s industry leading DWR with an 80/20 minimum spray rating.  I have researched hundreds and hundreds of stretch woven fabrics over the years and this is by far the best fabric in thickness, weight and performance I have ever tested for a mountain hunting pant.

The development team and I spent a lot of time on fit. This pant is designed with articulated knees, boot cut lower leg, a rise that allows you to climb without binding and a full gusset in the crotch for additional range of motion, comfort and durability.  We added two well located pleated and zippered cargo pockets, two zippered rear pockets and oversized hand pockets.  The hand pocket bags are made with a brushed tricot, mesh fabric that is light weight, durable and comfortable.

Lots of small details in this pant including the web and bar-tacked button, and the care, country of origin and sizing label easily tears out leaving just the KUIU hanger label. No big bulky uncomfortable tags to cut out.  To insure the quality and craftsmanship, all KUIU apparel is developed and made in one of the finest technical cut and sew houses in the world located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I believe in clean functional design and not adding features for the sake of design which only add weight and potential failure points.

The Attack Pant is available in KUIU’s Vias Camouflage and Charcoal Grey at the wholesale price of only $139.99 at kuiu.com.  This pant would retail for $249.99.  The Attack Pant is available in 32, 34, 36, 38 & 40″ waist sizes with a 35″ inseam and a 1″ cuff you may let out if you need to extend the pant to a 35 3/4″” inseam.

KUIU’s Vias Camouflage Preview

I am very excited to enclose the above photos of KUIU’s Vias camouflage in the correct color pallet. I know many of you have been waiting a long time to see this pattern in the correct colors, thank you for your patience. Vias is a macro camouflage pattern designed to break up the human profile at longer distances for mountain hunting. We will be shooting in the field soon to give you very clear understanding of how well this pattern works in different mountain environments.  I will also cover the design and development of the pattern in this up coming post

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments regarding the new Attack Pant.  I look forward to hearing your feed back.

Jason

Bemis-Heat Sealed Adhesives

There are many important decisions that go into making a KUIU product. The factory, fabrics, zippers, thread, and seam tape. The brand of seam tape and fabric adhesive, a seemingly (no pun intended) small decision, is critical in rain gear manufacturing. Bemis is the industry leader in seam tape and the only supplier I will work with at KUIU.  Other leading manufactures such as Arcteryx, Mountain Hardware and Patagonia exclusively use Bemis as well because of the quality and reliability of this seam tape and fabric adhesive.

Seam tape (heat sealing tape) is a thermoplastic adhesive film applied to sewn seams of fabrics to prevent water from leaking through the seams. It can be applied by using any of the commercially available hot air taping machines, laser or ultrasonic machinery.

Bemis, located in Massachusetts, is a major manufacturer of thermoplastic adhesives, coatings, tapes and specialty film products that serve various markets throughout the world. Bemis products are specified in a number of industries for use in many different applications. From textile to industrial and apparel to building panels, they provide effective solutions that often solve complex technical challenges within a manufacturing process.  Bemis products utilize thermoplastics and involve an in-depth knowledge about how they behave when manufactured, as well their performance in the final application.

Bemis has perfected the extrusion process to provide the most advanced multi-layered films and tapes as well as single-layer adhesive coatings. Single-layer adhesive coatings are used for glueing in zippers and cuffs of garments for a cleaner and lighter weight design.  They are the strongest and most reliable fabric adhesives available.

You will find Bemis seam tape and adhesives on the Chugach and Guide series products.  I hope you find this information of interest and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments as always.

Jason

Inventory Report

The response to KUIU has been simply overwhelming.  When I started the Building KUIU blog I hoped to have a few followers interested in the process of building this brand.  These followers I hoped would think enough of KUIU to order some product when we launched and spread the word to their friends and KUIU would begin to grow.  This has not gone quite according to plan.  I want to thank you for this.

Building KUIU as an online only hunting gear brand, I was not sure how long it would take for people to find KUIU. I knew cutting out the middle man and making product made with the best materials and factories in the world, over time KUIU would be successful.

I built a very detailed business and financial plan including a monthly inventory sales report so I would not order too little or too much inventory.  I am an optimist and believe in this market and consumer and set what I felt were very successful sales numbers for our first year and ordered inventory to exceed these numbers.

Inventory management is one of the many challenges with a new brand.  Order too much and you can go out of business. Order too little and have upset customers.  I financially set up KUIU to take a risk and order more inventory than I would recommend for a new brand. I took a risk on inventory to remain in stock year round to give better service and create a better experience doing business with KUIU.  However, as much as I tried to plan, I have totally underestimated the power of social media and how quickly the word would spread about KUIU globally.

I tell you this to give some background to the inventory challenges we are facing.  This was not by design.  At the current subscription rate we will sell out all of KUIU’s first years inventory before it arrives.  This includes inventory I was planning on selling in December.

I have contacted all of my suppliers and factories to up date them on KUIU’s inventory demand.  I met with Toray and The Merino Company and placed additional purchase orders. Due to the resurgence of the economy the mills and factories are all over capacity and lead times are longer than usual.  I will be pushing very hard, flying fabrics and trims to the factories, flying in finished product to our warehouse to push delivery times as much as possible.  You have my commitment to an all costs push to resupply inventory.

The pre-sale was designed to thank subscribers for being a part of KUIU.  The subscriber list is now much longer than I ever anticipated and at this pace we will have more subscribers than inventory by the pre-sale.

To be fair to you, we are going to place pre-orders by the date you subscribed and will process pre-orders until we are out of inventory.  If you are considering KUIU, please subscribe.  I want you to have gear for your upcoming hunt.

Those who subscribe late and do not get their gear during this first shipment will be first in line when the next product shipment arrives by date of subscription.  I am so sorry we have to handle it this way, I wish we had enough inventory in this first shipment.  If you have any other ideas or suggestions on a better way to handle this I would love to hear them.  Thank you for your understanding and interest in KUIU.

 

Jason

 

 

South & East of Unalakleet-Part II

We have just added Part II- The Beginning, of South & East of Unalakleet, our first feature of The Hunt.  There is some amazing writing & photography in this post I think you will enjoy.  Happy Holidays to everyone.

Jason

http://kuiu.com/thehunt/south-and-east-of-unalakleet?page=3

Four Pounds #2-Toray

To build the best gear you have to use the finest fabrics.  I met with the worlds leading technical fabric suppliers, including Schoeller, Polartec, and Toray before developing the KUIU line.

Founded in 1926, Toray is a leading chemical manufacture based in Osaka Japan. Toray fuses nanotechnology into its operations, using organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry and biotechnology as its core technologies.  Using Chemistry to solve industries most challenging problems, Toray operates leading divisions in medical, chemical, carbon fiber and textile industries. Toray leads the textile industry in new technology developments in all three major groups of synthetic fibers-nylon, polyester, and acrylic fibers.  Toray is setting new standards in waterproof breathable laminates and durable water repellency (DWR).

 

Primeflex Spiral Yarn

 

Toray’s development of the patented Primeflex yarn increases fabrics durability, decreases weight, dry-time, and stretch-recovery over time. Primeflex fabrics use a patented spiral yarn technology, allowing for the yarn to stretch and recover without using elastic such as lycra or spandex.  Elastic is heavy, hydrophilic (attracts water) and has a limited life expectancy.  Toray’s Primeflex fabrics are lighter weight with much better performance and durability than competitive fabrics.

KUIU is exclusively using Primeflex fabrics for all of its outwear, which is a key ingredient to saving 4 pounds in the layering system.  The Primeflex fabric collection is a range of 100% Poly fabrics that include stretch woven, soft shell and waterproof breathable fabrics.

 

Waterproof Breathable

 

Toray has developed the highest rated 4 way-stretch waterproof breathable laminate available, which has an unmatched 20,000mmH2O/20,000g/m2 24 Hour rating.  This allows for a maximum waterproof and breathability and stretch in one package.  This is a performance level yet to be introduced to the hunting industry.



Kudos XR is a new DWR developed by Toray has reset the standard in durability and performance.  Kudos XR DWR performs better and last significantly longer.  DWR is critical for waterproof breathable face fabric. If DWR fails the face fabric “wets out” causing condensation build up on the inside of the garment.  As you see from Toray’s supporting data, not all DWR’s are the same.

It is important to understand what you are buying.  Not all “technical” gear is made using the best fabrics and technology available. Competitive price pressures have forced most brands to cut corners and move away from companies like Toray to less expensive fabric knock offs.  There is a very big difference.

By partnering with Toray, KUIU will bring to market products with a higher performance level so you can get more out of you on tough mountain hunts. Four pounds is just one result.

I look forward to your thoughts and feedback regarding this information.

Jason

What do you Surf?

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on your favorite publications.  Your input was incredible and the post received the most comments to date.

Several of you mentioned forums, websites and blogs you highly recommend for advertising as well.  I have followed bowsite Big Game Forums for a longtime as well as advertised there with Sitka. I would like to know what else you recommend?

Your top 3 to 5 Sites would be super helpful for KUIU’s marketing plan.

Thank you again for your help!!

Jason