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Haglöfs – New For Spring 2015

It was all about the LIM lightweight sleeping bags for Haglöfs as the Swedish brand unveiled its spring 2015 range at the OutDoor 2014 trade show. There are two of them in the range, one down and one synthetic and they look interesting to say the least.

New LIM Sleeping Bags

LIM stands for ‘Less Is More’ and is the brand’s ultra-light kit for light hiking, adventure racing and pretty much any outdoor activity where minimising weight counts. That said, Bruce Duncan from Haglöfs UK was keen to stress that the emphasis is equally on function so LIM kit is as light as possible while still remaining functional.

That means for the new bags that despite weighing just 473g for the down version and 372g for the synthetic – yes, that’s the right way round – the cut is ‘relaxed’ and with an internal length of 206cm, they can accommodate folk up to 195cm in height. In short, the bags are designed to be comfortable to sleep in as well as to carry.

The down bag uses 800 fill power European rated goose down from a Bluesign approved supplier housed in ultra lightweight 7-denier fabric. Construction is zoned with box-wall baffles around the torso and a quilted construction around the foot while the hood is designed to be simple but effective.

Venting Foot

What you’re probably noticed already is that while the bag doesn’t have a zip, the toe area opens out to allow ventilation and cooling. It also means that you can hitch up the bag and walk about in it if you need to, in an emergency maybe or in a freezing cold hut…

Temperature ratings for the down bag are 6˚C for comfort, 1˚C for limit of comfort and -13˚C for extreme, the point at which you just about survive after a really uncomfortable night. The equivalents for the synthetic bag are 13˚, 10˚ and -2˚, so if you’re intending to sleep in non-summer conditions, the down bag is probably your best call.

The synthetic uses Quad Fusion Plus fill by the way and both sleeping bags have a basic DWR treatment to shrug off the odd minor tent spill or condensation drippage.

Prices, if you’ve hung in there until now and denouement time, are set to be: £340 for the LIM down sleeping bag and £220 for the synthetic, due out in early 2015.

New LIM Wind Pull

The rest of the LIM range stays pretty much the same though with some new colours, but there’s a filmy light windproof top called the LIM Wind Pull aimed at bikers, runners, and so on. It weighs in at just 65g, but like the sleeping bags isn’t completely spartan.

There’s a micro-velour chin piece for comfort, and an elasticated, close-fitting hood up top for head protection. It’s also, says Bruce, pretty water resistant thanks to a thin PU coating on the fabric and, as you can see from the pics, it uses a fabric that’s so thin, it’s virtually translucent. Nice shirt, mate…

Trekking Pro Range

We won’t go into detail here, but the Trekking Pro kit is conservatively-styled trekking and hiking kit in muted colours but using top-notch fabrics. The jacket, the green one in the pictures, is called the Grymm Jacket and uses top-end Gore-Tex Pro fabric. The price is top end as well at £500 once it’s out next year.

Anniversary Pack

There’s other stuff too – the Rocker, right, a comfortable and good looking outdoors trainer and three lightweight technical mountain packs – but we really liked the unusual 100th anniversary pack. We’ll stick the rest of the pics up elsewhere, but it’s a retro-styed marvel which has been made in Sweden from materials sourced in the country.

That’s made for some interesting production choices: straps are leather, the fabric is canvas, but the lack of pack buckles and other fixings mean there are neat little brass nubbins uses as fasteners and a cunning leather fastening arrangement for the main strap.

Another neat touch is a map inside the lid of the pack showing exactly where in Sweden all the components come from. It’s a limited edition of just 1000 units and has a price-tag of £500. And if you think that’s steep, the commercial price should actually be a terrifying £1250. Gulp. It does look great though.