Pioneer Camp Vests

A vest answers a specific complaint: the middle of you is cold and the arms are in the way. Anyone splitting wood, casting, driving a long day or working a yard in October ends up in one, because the sleeve is what bunches at the elbow and the core is what actually needs the insulation. It also layers better than a jacket does: a fleece vest under a rain shell adds warmth without adding a single millimetre at the armhole, which is where a fleece jacket under a shell starts to bind.

The three kinds here do different jobs. The quilted puffer vests carry the same down as the jackets in a shorter body and are the warm ones. The fleece and sherpa vests are the ones worn indoors as much as out, and they carry the most pockets. The light water-resistant vests are the pocketed ones bought for what they hold rather than what they hold in, in the way a photographer or an angler wears a vest. The heated vest is its own case: panels run off a battery in a chest pocket, which makes it the right thing for standing still in cold for hours and the wrong thing for a long walk away from power. Sizes run S to 3XL.