Paramo gear.....

[Hicky]

Does anyone here use Paramo jackets?
I've been looking at buying one as my Berghaus is on it's last legs. I've used Keela in the past in the army and it's the dogs danglies for keeping you dry however I like the idea of Paramo and the reparability of it and ethos.

Practically speaking does it keep you dry and how much cleaning/maintaining is needed ?
Women out there, what is the fit like for a hourglass type of woman(thinking of my partner here)?

 

[Time Waster]

It is a marmite brand / system. You will either get on with it and become a Paramo evangelist or you will hate it and only promote its flaws. Truth is it has uses and TBH i think you need to try before you buy to get the right one then you have to live with it long enough to find out what your own opinions on it is. YMMV with this so IMHO you can not really rely on any online opinions.

However if you push me here is mine. I use a velez adventure lite smock as it was the model that truly fitted me best. IMHO you need a close enough fit for the paramo to contact your wicking inner layers so that the pump liner can take your sweat away. This is often an issue with Paramo's strange sizing design (IMHO of course). I used to call them fat dogwalker coats but they do have the odd "athletic" in their words fit. I call those athletic fit roomy when compared to hardshell waterproofs. You have to get used to the baggy sack look of PAramo.

Fabric system? It can work but it can fail. The lighter analogy products do not survive so well in heavy rain. Half an hour of heavy rain and you can get wet inside where the seams are on the shoulders. IMHO it is more of a softshell. The standard is heavy and works better. Even my mid 90s Alta jacket works if I found it, and reproofed it. Back then you washed and reproofed at most 12 to 18 months. Now you wash every 4 or 5 trips and reproof every few months (as I read of Paramo / nikwax advice once). Can you live with a regular and often treatment? Bear in mind eVent fabric used to say regular washing was needed, IIRC Goretex it was infrequent washing and treatment. So this might not be what you do even if you get it as who washes hardshell that often?

Buying? Do not buy without going to a main Paramo retailer or the actual Paramo shops. You need to try on for size but also for model. Each model has a difference in fit it can be subtle too. The Velex standard model and the lite model seems to be close in fit but IME the standard does not fit me at all but the lite does. The standard kind of rubs and doesn't fit in the shoulder area. The shoulder design looks on the surface the same basic shape but there is a difference sufficient that it did not fit me. I got the Velez adventure lite because it was the cheapest model to fit me.

It is a wear and forget system in that you start your day in it and finish it in it when out and about. The idea is you do not carry it. Just as well as it is heavier and bulkier than hardshell alternatives for packing away.

Just to tell you how good it can be. I once fell through snow into a tarn up to my mid thigh. Cold, wet and cooling down fast I got out of the strong wind then put on my ancient (mid 90s early design) cascada trousers and 10 minutes later my legs felt dry with jsut the outer of my softshells looking damp. Then it all dried out. I went from soaking wet softshell trousers to dry trousers with only darkened damp patches on the outside of my paramo trousers in about 15 minutes.

No idea of fit for women. Got to try it out and go for best fitting not prefered model. Ignore the spec that you want, get it fitting well first so that it works well in use. Which IM<HO is the best criteria that is important, does it work as well as it can? It is a baggy look so your partner will not keep her hourglass figure in it. There might ber some shaping in the womens but it is a basically baggy design not least due to the soft drape fabric. IT is not a fashion parade item I am afraid.

 

[Profpointy]

Does anyone here use Paramo jackets?
I've been looking at buying one as my Berghaus is on it's last legs. I've used Keela in the past in the army and it's the dogs danglies for keeping you dry however I like the idea of Paramo and the reparability of it and ethos.

Practically speaking does it keep you dry and how much cleaning/maintaining is needed ?
Women out there, what is the fit like for a hourglass type of woman(thinking of my partner here)?

I'm a big fan of the paramo anoraks; by far the best outdoor gear I've ever had. Not sweaty compared to goretex, never mind the older stuff, so you can happily wear it just as an outer layer in the dry. Pretty waterproof even in very wet conditions, though once it eventually wets out, it is no longer really breathable, but still better than anything else I've worn

Washing it in the special stuff is only an occasional thing and can easily be done in the machine - maybe two or three times a year?. Remember "maintenance free" is often a euphemism for "can't be maintained"

My experience is for hillwalking, and general waterproof coat for everyday wear and I suspect it might be a good bit too warm for cycling. My other caveat is whilst it works well for UK weather, Scottish winter mountains included, it is a bit warm for places like Southern Europe in summer.

Can't comment on fit for the ladies, though my Mrs' one (perhaps similar build to your description of good lady) fits her well enough, but that said she doesn't really like hers and tends to wear a goretex or similar coat

 

[Hicky]

@Time Waster , the hourglass point was intended as some hardshells she's worn if they're straight cut are too tight in certain areas. I know what you mean ref fit, Keela are strange too. Thanks for the detailed reply.

 

[Time Waster]

Oh she should have no issuse with the Paramo fitting those tight areas. I think. I did know a lass who possibly had the same tight area issues and I think she got a paramo in the end.

As to my detailed reply, you can be honest. I know I ramble on a bit (ok a lot). I hope you managed to get to the pertinent points within that ramble. I should try to do a TLR summary but they usually extend to about 3 paragraphs so I stopped doing them!!

 

[Drago]

Aye, used Paramo gear when I was involved in SAR. Expensive, but a fit above Berghaus etc.

A good fit too. They're realise not all 2xl customers are Lard-O's.

 

[presta]

My experience is that mine leaks like a sieve within 5-10 minutes of it starting to rain, it pours in so fast I can literally feel the rain trickling down my skin. The problem's not quite so bad if you're not wearing a rucksack, but even that's only delaying the inevitable. Spraying it with Granger's Fabsil helped, but that's generally already rubbed off before the next time it rains anyway. They are nicer to wear when it's not raining, but then, so is anything else that's not waterproof.

 

[potsy]

I love my Paramo jacket, it's my main winter dog walking one.
Main problem for me is I am a bit slimmer than when I bought it and it's now quite a loose fit!
It's also quite weighty, but there may be lighter options than mine.

Will definitely consider another one when I'm next in the market for a decent jacket.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

They run warm, and when I had one only wore it in winter. But they are nice and comfy and do the job. I got my jacket in 1993.

 

[Time Waster]

I love my Paramo jacket, it's my main winter dog walking one.
Main problem for me is I am a bit slimmer than when I bought it and it's now quite a loose fit!
It's also quite weighty, but there may be lighter options than mine.

Will definitely consider another one when I'm next in the market for a decent jacket.

You might never be in the market for a decent jacket again!

 

[Time Waster]

I got mine about 1992/93, a present when at Leeds Uni. My parents bought it as I had no good kit and was getting out a lot in the hills all seasons with the Uni Hike Soc. If I can find that jacket and trousers somewhere in the house it'll still be working if a very, very old look.

I hope it is still around, but am not sure as my partner moved into my house 13 or so years ago and first thing she did was reduce my hoarding. It is possdible in the intervening years it has been passed on without me realising. I have since got a windshirt (when it first came out) and not long after I got my first jacket I got a reversible top / fleece, also missing or put away. I have also got a Velez adventure lite bought about 5 or 6 years ago and still going well.

I think if you are not wide then they are probably going to be baggy on your. A lot of the regular fit ones are this at least. I used to call the Alta 2 the short, fat dogwalker coat. I have always tested Paramo every 2 or 3 years to see if they have changed. I try on a few Paramo Alta jackets in the latest model. I try medium to XL to see how it fits. My common finding is that medium fits me in the girth (I am 196cm, 97kg but fairly slim with a bit of dad bod going on so should be typical for my height). It is however woefully short on the arms and body. Large is baggy and still a bit short on torso but IIRC the last time the arms were not too bad. XL is like double my girth (almost, perhaps exagerrating) but the arm length might be marginally long but with the velcro ok and the body lenght is spot on.

One oddity about Paramo is how they go their own way. Sometimes sticking with it other times they revert to the standard POV on something. The classic example is that early on in their design they determined that velcro is no good for wrist adjustment as it balls up with snow and ice in the cold and fails. So early products all had a number of poppers to adjust the cuffs. This resulted in a kind of ruff of excess material coming out of the cuff on the bottom side of your arms when walking. Annoying to say the least!!!! You could never make it a tight seal to stop the cuff coming out. They used a lot of material in the cuff as they had the idea that you had to be able to roll the sleeves right up to ventilate. So PAramo never used velcro only poppers on the early jackets and smocks. Now they use velcro like all other brands. An improvement IMHO. It was this poor popper based cuff design that forcved me to buy an eVent hardshell to retire my first jacket.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Ok kit if you are not pushing hard ie slogging away up a steep mountainside - way too hot otherwise.

I don't think I would want to use one for cycling tbh.

 

[Time Waster]

I once went into a Kendal sports shop that sells outdoor kit too. They are Keela and Paramo main retailers. I was speaking to the owner who has owned the shop for many decades. He actually knew the inventor of the analogy system and he was a mountaineer in the Lakes with links to MRTs. Apparently he designed it and actually developed many prototypes that were used by local climbers, mountaineers and MRT volunteers in various trial colours as he got the design right. He then got talking to the founder of Nikwax and said he wanted to pass it on to a company who could take it somewhere. That apparently was the origins of Paramo's analogy clothing. There are probably households in the Lakes with these prototypes still as they were designed to last.

No idea if that is true but I do get the idea that the guy who took it to market (Nick Park) is a bit of a good salesman and disruptor in the market so I can totaly believe that the official story overwrites what could have been the origin. So I kind of believe that alternative origin story. Whatever the case Nick is to be commended for the way he brought the clothing to market. He is worthy of an honour (MBE or higher IMHO) for the way he has done business ethically and envirnomentally before it was fashionable for companies to do so.

 

[Time Waster]

Ok kit if you are not pushing hard ie slogging away up a steep mountainside - way too hot otherwise.

I don't think I would want to use one for cycling tbh.

I use mine for cycling to work and as my preferred cycling jacket. I have an Endura but the PAramo velez adventure lite in preference because it works better.

Obviously it is not a warm weather waterproof but TBH a hardshell jacket is a sweatbag if you end up sloggin away in the boil in the bag way anyway. The good thing about paramo is it handles sweat better than hardshells. Hardshells do not doanything with sweat when it is raining, paramo does at least wick or pump it towards the outer layer. It does not work completely but IME better than eVEnt and Goretex.

 

[Kingfisher101]

I've got about 4 different paramo jackets a couple of Velez lights and 2 summer windproof things.
The Paramo Velez lights are not waterproof even if you keep reproofing them. They are light and comfortable and definitively windproof but if its raining hard then it does come through especially where the straps of a rucksack are.
I personally think they are great for cycling and birdwatching etc. Obviously everyone is different with how a garment affects them.
Look on Ebay and get a newish reconditioned one or a second hand one.