December and January may not have thrown many cold Wisconsin days at UW-Madison students, but it can still be a chilly trek up Bascom Hill in February and March. Students should still bundle up to make their trip to class warm and comfy. Unfortunately, there are many different brands of clothing made with different materials, making what to buy for warmth a hard decision.
Luckily, there are recommendations out there from companies and local vendors that can help students make solid choices. When trying to beat the cold weather, students should keep the following things in mind: layering, insulating and keeping dry.
Layering proves key during cold weather. It appears as one of the top tips for buying clothes for cold weather at www.eHow.com.
'Layers allow you to add and remove items as your body temperature rises and falls,' according to the site.
Students should also be mindful of insulation. Built-in insulation keeps warm air inside a jacket. According to 3M, the makers of Thinsulate, insulation works by trapping air and reflecting the body's radiant heat so it can be used to warm as well.
Avoiding the elements helps students stay warm as well. Stacey Rickman, store manager of Lands' End, 411 State St., offered an important piece of advice to students.
'Keeping dry is key in terms of keeping you warm,' she said.
Elizabeth Hutchinson, assistant manager at Fontana Sports Specialties, 251 State St., said students have many options when it comes to avoiding cold and wind.
'There's basically a wind-stopper by each brand that either uses Gore-Tex or material made by the company,' she said.
Layering, insulating and keeping wind and water out all come with a price. For students who want to stay warm on a budget, looking past big brand names can save extra money.
Hutchinson said that North Face sells the most among students. However Fontana manager Jeff Bedermann said North Face jackets are good products, but clothing made by companies like Columbia gets the same job done for less.
'You get good quality product for maybe 20 or 30 percent less in dollars,' Bedermann said.
So just what should you wear and when? Below are some pros and cons of different materials that can help keep the cold out.
Long underwear
Long underwear can be an inexpensive base layer of clothing, and should be made of synthetic fibers like polyester or polypropylene, which are non-absorbent. Natural fibers like cotton and wool absorb the body's moisture and dry slowly, however, and should be avoided in most garments since they get heavy when wet.
Fleece
Fleece is good at trapping body warmth and pulling water vapor away from the body, but is also porous and does not make for a good insulator when not accompanied by clothing over it.
Thinsulate
Created by the 3M company, Thinsulate insulation is made of fine fibers that the company touts as ideal for trapping insulating air and reflecting back radiant heat from the body. It insulates the body without being bulky and also stands up against wetness better than other materials.
However, Thinsulate does have its drawbacks. 'It is such a flat insulation [and] it doesn't hang very well,' Bedermann said. She added it does not fill all of the nooks and crannies of the body in a jacket, but works well in accessories like gloves, where material should be thin.
Down
Goose down is a good insulator in extreme cold, and fills different parts of a jacket better than Thinsulate, as Bedermann said. Buyers should look for the fill power on a jacket'the higher the fill power, the more warmth it will provide.
A major drawback: down loses its ability to insulate when wet.
DriOff
Many products at Lands' End have a DriOff finish, which lets water bead up and roll off of the jacket. This is found on some of their ThermaCheck fleece jackets, although it is not a feature that is usually associated with a fleece-type jacket'an example of how technology has changed.
Gore-Tex
Gore-Tex was specially engineered to form an impenetrable barrier against wind and water while maintaining breathability, and no moisture is said to be able to penetrate it. It also keeps wind out while being breathable so sweat doesn't make the body wet.
The Army ROTC uses Gore-Tex products. UW-Madison senior and Army ROTC cadet Nick Dal Santo said Gore-Tex is used in their boots, pants, wet and cold weather gear and parkas.
'They are very comfortable and warm,' he said.
Dal Santo warned that Gore-Tex's comforts come with a price.
'Gore-Tex stuff is cheap when it's issued to you, but if you buy it retail it's probably expensive.'
