Reviews > Clothing > Gloves > Integral Designs Down Mitts > Kelli Wise > Initial Report

Personal biographical information:
Name: Kelli Wise
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 0" (152 cm)
Weight: 140 lb (64 kg)
Palm width: 3.25" (8.3 cm)
Hand length (wrist to tip of longest finger): 7" (17.8 cm)
Email: ciyd@comcast.net
Location: Western Washington, USA
Date: October 29, 2003

Backpacking background: I've been car camping and hiking for 20 years and sport climbing for 10 years, but am new to backpacking. My backpacking style is not ultralight but lightweight and I am striving for a suitable compromise between safety and comfort. I have started going for overnight and short trips with the goal of doing an extended trip next year. The majority of my hiking experience is in Western Washington so I get a lot of wet weather experience.

Field information: Western Washington, coastal, lowlands and summer alpine hiking below 6000' (1829 m).

Product Information:
Manufacturer: Integral Designs
Model: Down Mitts
Year of manufacture: 2003
URL: www.integraldesigns.com
Size: Small
Color: Red
This product is available in 3 different sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. All weights and measurements are for the size small.

Listed weight: 3 oz (85 g)
Measured weight: 3.7 oz (105 g) with stuff sack, 3.4 oz (97 g) alone Note: My postal scale is only accurate to the tenths of an ounce, so I measured this product in both ounces and grams. The metric weights are measured, not converted from empirical numbers. I felt that this would provide a much more accurate weight measurement.
Listed packed size: 3" x 5" (7.6 cm x 12.7 cm)
Measured packed size: 3" x 5.5" (7.6 cm x 14 cm)
MSRP: $50 US

Features: The Down Mitts are designed to be used in camp to keep your hands warm. The shell material is Pertex Endurance, a waterproof breathable fabric, and the insulation is 750+ European goose down. The down mitts are baffled to keep the down in place and the wrist closures are shock cord and drawcord closures to keep in warmth.

First Impressions
The Down Mitts were shipped via UPS and arrived on October 22, 2003 in a corrugated box with the Integral Designs logo printed on the outside. Inside the box were the Down Mitts, a catalog and a price sheet. The Down Mitts were in a silicon impregnated nylon (silnylon) stuff sack and were packed down to a size of 3" x 5.5" (7.6 cm x 14 cm). The stuff sack is constructed of gray silnylon. The seams of the stuff sack are well sewn and are not seam sealed. The manufacturer's logo tag and a tag for the Pertex Endurance fabric are sewn to the side of the stuff sack and the drawcord closure is a small elliptical barrel type.

As an interesting note, the packing slip that accompanied the shipment described the Down Mitts as having "Primaloft Insulated Palm." Primaloft is soft like down but does not have clusters like down. By comparing the palms of the Down Mitts to some Primaloft products I own, the palm insulation feels like down, not Primaloft.

I removed the Down Mitts from the stuff sack and watched them loft up. When lofted, each mitt is larger than both mitts stored together in the stuff sack. A fairly rough measurement of the total loft in the palm is 2.5" (6.4 cm). The outside shell fabric is a bright crimson red ripstop nylon with a black and white shock cord wrist closure and a small elliptical barrel drawcord. The drawcord closure is attached to the down mitt with a short piece of flat cord that has been sewn into one of the seams. The ends of the shock cord are encased in a 0.75" (1.9 cm) long, 0.5" (1.3 cm) wide plastic pull tab. The drawcord closure on the left mitt is broken and will not tighten around the shock cord. Unfortunately, it is attached to the mitt and is not easily replaced. The plastic end cap on the shock cord will also prevent me from threading the shock cord through a new drawcord closure.

There are 3 down chambers in each mitt and the baffles, which Integral Designs says are 0.5" (1.3 cm), are sewn to the outer shell using a tuck stitch. The tuck stitch keeps the threads from being exposed and reduces wear to increase product life. The stitching on the outside of both mitts is excellent. There are no loose threads, thread tails, or missed stitches.

There are also no tags sewn to the outside or inside of the Down Mitts. This includes manufacturer, fabric, or size. This is nice as I won't have extra tags flopping around and getting in the way when I'm wearing these mitts.

I turned the mitts inside out to inspect the stitching on the inside. The inner shell fabric is black non ripstop. The inner baffle stitching is also tuck stitched while the side seams are top stitched. There were a few thread tails that could have been trimmed a little closer. The left mitt had 3 stitches on the side seam that had a piece of down/feather in the stitch causing the seam to miss the lower piece of fabric. 3 stitches is not a lot but I will be watching for down leakage at this point.

Having inspected the Down Mitts, it was time to try them on. I have very long hands and don't like tight fitting gloves so I normally buy gloves and mitts in a size Men's medium. However, I didn't want a lot of extra air space to heat in the Down Mitts and decided to order the size small Down Mitts and they fit my bare hands perfectly. My thumb and fingers just reach the end of the inner shell fabric. Width wise, they are just a bit loose. This should make them comfortable to wear without leaving me with lots of extra airspace to heat up. Next, I put on a pair of thin glove liners and checked the fit. The fit was a little more snug but still very comfortable. The mitts are a gauntlet fit, which means that the top of the Down Mitts is long enough to come up well past the wrist. This will provide a lot of overlap between sleeves and mitts and keep out cold drafts.

My hands warmed up very quickly inside the mitts and the temperatures have not been cold enough to wear them for more than a few minutes, so I don't have any real initial testing of them yet. I will have to wait until I get out in the field to get temperatures low enough to really try them out.

Test Plan:
I'll be testing the Down Mitts as my camp mittens on all of my backpacking trips this fall and winter. These mittens are constructed of waterproof/breathable Pertex Endurance and 750+ fp down. I'll be looking to see how well they keep my hands warm in cold, rainy, snowy weather. Are they light enough and do they pack small enough to find a place in my pack? Will they help warm my hands after they've gotten cold? Will they stay dry even if I'm doing camp chores in the rain and snow? How easy are they to get on and off? On really cold nights, I may even sleep in them. Is the baffling adequate to keep the down from migrating and leaving cold spots? I will be looking at durability. Are they well made and do the seams hold up?

My current planned trips include a trip into the Hoh Rain forest, which is at approximately 850' (259 m) above sea level which receives an average of 12' (3.7 m) of rain each year. Due to recent storm damage, I may have to amend this trip to a different part of the Olympic temperate rain forest system. I'm also anticipating trips to the Washington coast (sea level), and some yet to be determined trips in the Southern Cascades.

I am also anticipating my first trip snow camping. This is where I expect the Down Mitts to shine. Will they keep my hands warm? Will they stay dry? Will I be the envy of all my friends?

I would like to thank Integral Designs and BGT for the opportunity to test the Down Mitts.

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Reviews > Clothing > Gloves > Integral Designs Down Mitts > Kelli Wise > Initial Report