Are Ibex’s Indie Hoodie, Springbok Shorts & Journey Crew T Good for Bikerafting? F Yeah!

Speaker 1 (00:31):

Hello, my name is Lizzy Scully and I am the co-author of The Bikeraft Guide, along with Steve Fassbinder. We are also the owners of Four Corners Guides, a human-powered, multi-sport adventure guide service based out of Mancos, Colorado. We specialize in packrafting and bikerafting, and we have various channels associated with The Bikeraft Guide. We have an Instagram @thebikeraftguide. We’re on Facebook @thebikeraftguide as well, but we also help manage Bikerafting Revolution. We also have a website and a blog, and on the blog we do reviews of equipment that we think is good for bikerafting. So we wanted to expand our offerings and start doing some The Bikeraft Guide unboxing videos to look at gear that we think would be good for bikerafting adventures. Today we’re going to unbox some Ibex clothing.

(01:29):

Now I am wearing an old Ibex shirt. This is at least 10 years old. I got it secondhand. It’s in excellent shape. It has a couple little minor holes, but still is really surprisingly an excellent shape for being as old as it is. It’s got a hood. This is size small, so it fits. It fits pretty well, super nice. Anyway, if you happen to have any of the old Ibex, you’re stoked because it’s probably still in great condition. So Ibex started 1997 and by 2017, 18, they were 19 $20 million company. Unfortunately, they ended up letting go of two thirds of their staff in 2017 because they were struggling with the outdoor market. I don’t know why. Most important is that they relaunched in 2018 under new ownership. They were purchased by the Flower Fund. They relaunched the company. Their clothing is as good or better, I think, than it used to be. So today we’re going to unbox a few things that we’re going to take on a bikerafting trip over the next few days. Our unboxing videos, they’re not reviews, it’s just more of a first look. But we will show you the gear in action while we’re actually bikerafting. So, okay, and to open the box

(02:54):

And what we’ve got today, we have, let’s see, they sent us Springbox Shorts, Indie Hoodie, and Journey Short Sleeve Crew. So first we’re going to take a look at the shorts. These are super cute. These are actually a mix of merino wool and tencel. Ibex uses all sustainable fabrics in the construction of their clothing, and they use a hundred percent merino wool and a lot of their clothing. But they also mix tencel, organic cotton in other recycled materials into their clothing depending on the item. These are the shorts. So they have an interior brief inside, and the brief is, let’s see, the shell is 91% nylon, 9% spandex, and the lining 45% merino wool and 45% tencel and 10% nylon. These shorts have a little zip pocket in the back. Apparently they have an interior hidden pocket aha right here. That’s pretty cool right in the front.

(04:02):

They also apparently have an interior elastic loop key holder. Let’s see where that is. I’m going to look for that elastic loop key holder. Oh, there it is. I found it. It’s in the pocket right here. Cool. These are super, super lightweight. Their little tagline is from trekking to trail runs. I can see these being absolutely perfect for something like that. They’re extremely comfortable. I’m actually wearing a pair right now. These are size small that I’m wearing. I can tell these are probably going to be my new favorite shorts. Okay, so the next thing we’re going to look at is the journey short sleeve crew. One thing I want to say about this company or a couple of things actually before I dive into this next product, is that they are a climate neutral company. I love one of their taglines, buy less, buy better.

(04:54):

They are more interested in providing you with a quality product that lasts for a very long time than they are in coming up with new things every year in having you buy new things every year. So a couple things to note. They outline their supply chain clearly from start to finish on their website. They call it from Farm to Fashion. They also use WRAP certified manufacturers. Wrap is an organization that promotes lawful humane and ethical manufacturing around the world. As mentioned earlier, they use all sustainable fabrics. But one more thing is plastic bags. You can actually put, it says, put me in with your food and garden waste, and I’ll be worm fodder before you know it. So these bags are compostable. How fricking cool is that? So anyway, let’s take a look. Now at the Journey short sleeve, I am actually wearing one on their website.

(05:47):

They say to not wash wool and hot water or dry it in the dryer. I got medium. It was a little large for me, so I ran it through the wash and the dryer and it shrank to the perfect size. So I’m not recommending that you shrink, but I like a little bit tighter fit. I probably should have gotten a small and followed their instructions, but I have a medium and I love it. Actually. It’s very comfortable. So a little bit more about this short sleeve crew. It is $88. It’s definitely not cheap, but again, these things should last forever. So that’s okay. You don’t have to buy a new T-shirt every year, but I have a nylon core for durability. There’s no tags. I love that because tags are itchy constantly. The wonderful thing about merino wool is there’s nothing itchy about this type of wool, and they don’t have an annoying itchy tag either.

(06:38):

Fabric origin I thought was cool. Every single product, they tell you the fabric origin. This one is Australia and the garment origin is Vietnam. This is a regular fit shirt. Okay, next. So our last item we’re going to look at is the indie hoodie. This is a bit of a pricey item at $170. Let’s see, indie hoodie. Oh, this one. Super pretty. So I love the colors of these indie hoodies. I feel like they are not overly feminine nor masculine. I feel like they would be good for pretty much anybody who identifies in any whatever way they want to identify as non-binary, female or male. So I like that about the colors of these. A couple things about the indie hoodie. It has a quarter zip, slight weight that has a scuba hood. It can be worn under a helmet. This is the helmet I’ll be wearing the next couple of days of bikerafting.

(07:37):

I often, when I’m bikerafting, wear a hoodie because it gives you total protection. I will wear it when I’m riding my bike. I will wear it in the water. Of course, it depends. If it’s really cold time of year or the climate’s really cold, then I’ll probably be wearing a dry suit. However, I prefer to go bikerafting when it’s not that cold. So I generally am wearing a hoodie because I’m older. I’m 50 and my skin discolor really easily. And what I’ve discovered for being in a boat all day with the reflection of the water is that I just tend to burn. So I like having the full coverage. I like having my hands covered. Curious to see how this performs over the next few days because as we’re paddling, we always get wet, and so usually our forearms get pretty wet. I generally like to keep my hands covered to prevent the sunburn on my hands or I’ll wear gloves or do both.

(08:28):

So I’m curious to see how quickly it dries. So anyway, the scuba hood, you can wear it underneath your helmet, which is really nice. Very comfortable. Not too much overage. It just shades a little bit of the sun, but it’s definitely not in your eyes. It fits perfectly around the face. And the zipper falls underneath the buckle. So there probably will be no chafing, which is nice. According to their website, this hoodie has flat lock stitching, which eliminates shaping during activity. So I guess, oh yeah, that’s really nice and flat. So I’m kind of curious to see how that feels as we’re moving on bikes and boats over the next few days. Other things. There’s no tags on this as well, which I love. I love the thumb holes. Every single hoodie I think needs a thumb hole. It’s surprising how much extra warmth you get just from having this little extra coverage on your hands.

(09:18):

I love it. It’s a hundred percent merino wool. So why is wool good for bikerafting? Well, it’s lightweight. It wicks moisture away, super cozy and comfortable. It’s warm. It’s warm when wet. It’s antimicrobial, which maybe is the best thing ever. bikerafting you want to take as little as possible because you don’t want to carry a lot of stuff. And so after a long bikeraft trip, if I just have one hoodie, I would much prefer to have a wool hoodie so that I don’t smell so bad. Other things, merino wool is lighter weight than other wool and merino is resistant to wear. As you can tell from the old orange hoodie I was wearing. It has almost no wear and tear on it. It’s got a lot of stains, but it’s old.

(10:09):

I have used this hoodie for everything from walking the dog to bikerafting, to mountain biking, to wearing it underneath my drysuit for pack rafting trips on the Animas River. I love this hoodie. It’s a slim fit hoodie. Wear this thing all the time, and you can see it’s already got some stains on it from my mountain bike, but I love it. It fits perfectly. It’s a slim fit. This is a size medium. It fits me a little better in the video. I’m also wearing my husband’s hoodie accidentally. I thought his was mine and it’s definitely too big for me. But as you can see, this one fits me really nicely.

Speaker 2 (10:41):

So how did the indie hoodie perform on our bikerafting adventure quite well. It of course gets wet but dries out quickly. It got wet on the first day, we packrafted, but by the next morning it was dry. I think for next year. For summer trips, I would prefer the Ibex sun hoodie, which is lighter and a mix of tencel and merino wool rather than pure merino wool. However, the indie hoodie is an excellent layer for cooler temperatures, and it did rain and sleet on us. On our August bikerafting trip, we were in the San Juan National Forest at above 9,000 feet. Temperatures on our trip ranged widely from the forties to the nineties, so I did not wear the hoodie for our 90 degree ride out, but I wore it for almost the entire remainder of the trip, and I loved it. Another thing I really love about it is I haven’t actually washed the one that I’m wearing in the first part of this video for a couple of weeks, and it still does not smell, which is great. I’ve worn it mountain biking and hiking numerous times. Couple more points. I really did love the stitching of the Ibex hoodie and the T-shirt. There was no chafing as well. The zipper, since it does fall underneath the buckle of the helmet, there’s also no zipper, chafing, or pressing against the skin or whatever. It’s very comfortable.

Speaker 1 (12:10):

So yeah, thanks a lot for joining us, and we’ll see you for the next edition of The Bikeraft Guide unboxing. If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments or pinging us at [email protected]. You can view this on our YouTube channel or on our blog. We’ll also be posting pieces of it on Instagram.