Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Kuiu Super Down Hooded Jacket Review

I don't agree that it is cheaper then other garments out there. As it should be cheaper due to the fact they don't sell thru retailers. So when that is taken into consideration its still overpriced in my opinion. I believe Kuiu (Jason) lost a core group that bought because it wasn't made overseas. He still has his core group that is going to buy whatever he turns out. However I think on a large scale he put the nail in the coffin going overseas UNLESS he starts selling thru retailers.

He does not have brand recognition on a large scale. There are not a lot of niche market hunters (such as sheep, Ultralight weight backcountry hunters) to sustain a company that is competing against the established (Under Armour, Sitka, Kryptek, and others). I know your going to say he isn't competing against them. Sure his market base isn't but his capital income is.

In the end there is only so much "Market Cap" and niche players are always at the bottom of that unless they have one of two things.
1) Something nobody else offers. Not the case for Kuiu.
2) Custom/quality product that is head and shoulders better then what is offered by others. Not the case for Kuiu.

If his goal was to build a new North Face, I would agree. If his goals were to sell specific items to a specific group, make good products available to a group of people in need of said products, and make a big pot of money, I'm guessing he's already there.

I'm not a fan of the move to china. I don't have any gear made after that move. But the gear that I do have is miles ahead of anything I've seen, including Sitka. It is on the level of the early Arcteryx gear, and when compared to gear of that level, it is cheap.

Which is funny, because it was just assembled in Canada all the materials still come from New Zealand and Japan...but yes I can see why people are frustrated. I thought it was odd from the start that Jason promoted so hard with Made in NA, because it doesn't take an industry expert to know that it is very very tough to do that in NA...especially if you have any amount of considerable growth.

Which is what he indicated has happened and Tamoda simply could not keep up. He absolutely competes against Sitka, Kryptek and others, he's just not doing it through distribution channels. Which in some ways makes it harder on himself, but he created KUIU to deliver a better product to market. Because of more expensive materials, he had to self distribute or he would never make it at retail prices.

Comparing Sitkas 90% to the Attack pants and Guide Jacket isn't much of a comparison. I had two different 90% sets of jackets and pants and they were horrible compare to the KUIU stuff. There was far better comparables from mountain hardware and patagonia that I owned as well.

I haven't seen any of the latest Sitka stuff, but IMO when Gore bought them, they focused on scale instead of product development. Now they have so many different choices of clothing it's hard to determine the differences.

The good news is though, that because of Jason and Jonathan in just 5 short years the options for hunting clothing are far better than they were. And because of the competitive market, we will continue to get better clothing.

So are others going to Cave In and purchase the China made gear in the future?

I have several relevant analogies regarding buying China made gear, but none are appropriate here. Only my opinion and possibly a lost principle or of little matter, but make it/invest in ANYWHERE other than China.....

Yes, I'll be placing a order here soon for some Kuiu gear.

jryoung

I never said that Kuiu's gear wasn't quality. It surely is well made at least everything I have even seen from them.

Market share doesn't always come from quality alone. I can also assure you that Kuiu's market share is much smaller then a lot of other companies. Are they making money? I don't have their fincials so I can't really say. However I do know they are taking in only a small part of the market cap.

I would like to support Kuiu but until they get correct sizing that is diffenitly onhold for me.

Honestly there isn't much difference to me Made in Canada by asians, or made in China again by asians. So thats really not a show stopper for me.

Is it really that hard to go one size larger if needed?

Anyway..... getting back to the jacket.....

I took it on a hike today to test it out. Temperatures were in the mid 20s and not a cloud in the sky, beautiful day. Put the jacket on during a rest stop to stay warm. I'm very happy with the hood as it fits well and really increased the overall warmth of the jacket. The jacket kept me very warm during the 15 minute break, but I don't think it would have for an extended period of time. To stay warm at these temps without moving I will need another layer.

On the hike out I wore it over my base layers and worked up a sweat. Normally I wouldn't do that, but I wanted to test out how well it handles moisture. There was some overall clamminess on the front and sides. The back was pretty wet due to my backpack, but no loss of loft or clumping of down was observed. Back at home, the jacket dried out quicker than my Cap4 base layer, which is nice because it always dries quickly.

That is what i needed to know.You need at least 3.5 oz of 800 fill down to remain thermal neutral at 32 degrees.The Kuiu has 2.5 oz so you will need to layer it if you want to remain stationary for long glassing sessions.It is supposed to be baffled which will increase warmth with less down..Now this also depends on metabolism ect.

Buck59

From what I can tell the jacket is not baffled but sewn thru. I posted that observation over on the Kuiu website hoping that someone would refute it but so far nothing.

As an owner of both Sitka and Kuiu, buy the KUIU!! Don't get me wrong, I like the Sitka, but its not in the same class of the Kuiu. Def order a size up though. Im 5-9 160, wear a medium in everything. Got the L Guide Jacket last fall, fits great. 32 inch waist, ordered 34s in Guide Pants. Fit perfect. L Guide vest and M Merino wool shirt. Im not a guide, just a hardcore Alaskan sheep hunter.

Probaby not if there was a one size bigger to go. But why not just make your product right so people don't have to go up one size?

Got word back from Kuiu that their jacket was mislabeled on the website and is not "baffled". Which is too bad as this was one of the features that interested me and lowers its overall value. Montbell makes a hooded jacket that is very similar (fabric, weight, fill, features, etc) that is $60 cheaper. The only notable difference with the Kuiu jacket is the use of water resistant down.

So is Kuiu's Quixdown worth it? To help me decide whether to keep it I did a test on all three jackets (SDHJ, ELDJ and the Spindrift). All jackets were hung in my shower under cold water for 5 minutes. After which each jacket was shaken, surface dried and weighed. The SDHJ picked up no noticeable weight and had no clumping of the down. The fabric was also nearly dry, it has a great DWR. The ELDJ picked up 1/2 an ounce of weight and partial clumping of the down was observed. The Spindrift also picked up 1/2 an ounce with no noticeable loss of loft. I then took the 2 down jackets and put them directly under the shower head and "squished" the jackets with my hand to work the water in through the fabric. The SDHJ lost loft (maybe 1/2) but I couldn't get it to clump. The ELDJ down clumped and turned into a mushy-mess just like you would expect it to.

Bottom line is I've decided to keep the SDHJ and put the other 2 up for sale. The hood is great and the jacket layers perfectly under my Guide and ID eVent Thru-Hiker shell. While to me the jury is still out on Quixdown over long-term use, I like what I see so far.

If the Quixdown and dridown live up to the hype it really is the way to go.I've heard that the Qixdown will dry quicker than Primaloft and if that is the case sign me up.

I also heard that Arc'teryx tested the various Down treatments and that it wore off after a relatively short life. I have not seen any data to that effect but just heard thru a buddy who went to the OR show, so take it with a grain of salt. He said that they contracted with a company to put it in their stuff but after it failed, they tried several others and couldn't get it to last so they scrapped the idea (and they are not afraid of high prices so I doubt that was a factor much).

I love the KUIU stuff and have their entire line (except for the SDHJ) and trust in it and believe in it. I, like Russ, think that the SDHJ is probably a very nice down jacket that will keep you warm and is probably better than most other down materials. Whether it truly remains water resistant is another story and the jury is still out. I'll be interested to see how it performs and am watching it closely.

Lee