Loki Gear:

Reviewed by Sarah Blessington

When I wake up in the morning and start to assemble my life’s reality, I like to fancy myself something of a transformer. As most people do, I call out to my various transformations, “COFFEE, BACON, YIKES that burns, I guess I need CLOTHES! Ah shucks, these are boring…” So often you put on a hat, and well, it’s just a hat. The only hidden potential is that you can take it off, but alas, it will still be a hat. Apparently my fellow Autobots heard the sadness in my ‘clothes transformation’, and decided to do something about it. They invented Loki Gear. Each item they produce is jam packed with transformer awesomeness. Every day I rock a Loki, I know that I can transform to fit the elements with style.

Loki Hats:  First off, what is this transformer madness you ask? Well let me tell you, this hat is hardly just a hat. If Dr. Seuss himself had invented a hat, it would be this hat. Here are my favorite ways to transform this masterpiece:

There are two versions of the multi-purpose, all genius, Loki Hat:

Loki Fleece Hat:

MSRP: $25.00

Pure stinkin’ genius. I first snagged one of these bad boys for myself 5 years ago. I worked full time at a ski resort for 4 of those years, and this Loki was ALWAYS with me and is still in perfect condition, even through countless washes. This piece is perfectly designed for everything you need for a day on the mountain, from start to finish. For all you ladies out there whose hair battles medusa in the post-shred helmet/hat hair terror, this fleece has got you covered. You think I’m crazy, don’t you? See above photo! You’ll see that my crazed hair is safely contained on top of my head even without a hair tie. It’s diversity also makes it much less likely for me to leave it somewhere. Trust me, it’s awesome.

Now that we have the cuteness factor covered, let’s talk about some of the other awesome aspects of the Loki Fleece Hat. Imagine, fresh billowy powder coats the surface of your favorite mountain, and refills are guaranteed to keep your turns fresh all day in the below freezing chill. Think now to your cute little face, you’ve tried baklavas, scarves, that Velcro nonsense that makes you look like the Unabomber, and still your skin battles between that charming Santa like glow and well, frostbite. Why is it that your perfect powder-charging day can’t also be cozy? Let me again introduce you to your new best friend, engaged in my second favorite function, ‘Hood/Facemask’.

Whether you rock a helmet or a beanie, the cap-like feature fits snuggly (and warmly) under both while holding your neck gator in place. After the goggles are put into place, you have virtually no gap available to the weather’s cruel face licks. After some epic maneuvering, you can for sure get a baklava to a similar “snugness”, but when dealing with wet conditions, it’s not long before you have an ice blanket on your face. And then my LEAST favorite thing, they will then try to stuff themselves in your mouth, while instead you were hoping for that crisp mountain air, not pleasant. So here you have this perfectly structured facemask, that even when soaked/packed with snow, will still not suffocate you! With the fleece, there remains enough rigidity in the fabric that even if you are tearing down the mountain, it effortlessly lives its mission, while you get to carve your cozy face right off.

Loki Liner Hat:

MSRP: $25.00

This is the more lightweight and small option of the two. Which makes it super easy to tuck away in a pocket or purse. If you have the fleece original, why buy this option too? Sadly not all days can be powder days, where the fleece hat truly shines, but I know the desire to get your blood pumping outside isn’t always accompanied by magic sunshine and rainbow weather. This leaves you to prepare for the wind, and the cold. Getting dressed for a run, or packing for one, can be difficult, especially if you’re looking for an excuse to well… maybe tomorrow, those clouds are making faces at me and this coffee looks delicious, SQUIRREL. Do you wear a headband? Do you wear a hat? A Turtleneck? No! A Loki! Depending on how cold I think it is, versus how cold it actually is, I can adjust my Loki into whatever configuration I need, even mid run. Even if I was making up the cold angry cloud faces entirely, I can just stuff it in a tiny running pocket, or wrap it around my wrist. No harm, no foul. Even beyond the active life, because it just is so easy to have around, it’s practically a no brainer when it comes to what ‘just-in-case’ item I’ll bring along.

Woman’s N_Vest:

MSRP: $129.00

I have been looking for a slim fitting, warm lady vest for a HOT minute. Every time I put on my 700 fill NorthFace ‘wookie’ vest, I become shapes. Ya know, anti-lady shapes. Sure, when it comes to it, being warm comes out over being ‘fashionable’, most of the time, but why not have the option to show off your lady curves and be able to be like, YEAH, I’m a lady!? And really, when is the right time for a vest? The balance between warming your middle with a vest layer, while it still being the right temperature outside for your arms to not be reaching arctic lows, is kind of a small window of time. With the N_Vest, Loki has made that window stretch a bit longer. I am constantly pairing this vest with my Graphic Zip Hoody, to achieve full Transformer status. And baby, it feels good. I have the small size for the vest and it fits just right over any sweatshirt or sweater. The armholes are even the right size for layering, leaving a little room for the bulk of whatever you want to thread through there, including your arms. Because of how thin the vest is, it fits perfectly under your other mid-layer jackets, giving them that extra leg of life before reaching for your winter parka. As apposed to my wookie vest, were it feels like I’m stuffing angry rabbits around my torso, while looking like I’m smuggling mass candy troves, I barely notice the extra layer. Besides the N_Vest being an awesome vest, Loki has also taken care of , ‘the weather guys were spot on again, NOT, it’s now a million degrees’ situation, by adding a mini backpack function. How cool! There is a zipper pocket on the right back side of the vest, that can be an extra pocket while in vest mode, or when turned inside out, the magic of the tiny pack comes into action! This set up isn’t meant for a long backpacking mission by any means, but if you’re going to a bonfire and want to keep your brewskies insulated until it gets cold outside, you can tuck about 5 beers in the backpack. Product tested, product approved. There’s even a tiny pocket on the outside of the pack to store your keys, or other wee knickknacks. You’ve got the looks, the warmth, and the cool party trick, I call that a win!

Woman’s Graphic Zip Hoodie:

MSRP: $89.00

Most companies when designing girls hoodies think to them selves, ‘it’s just a girl, they don’t actually need to be warm, just cute’, throw a flower on some ridiculously too thin fabric, add a zipper that doesn’t stay zipped and call it a day. Then you have a company that realized that cute gets cold too. Queue the Loki genius of transition sleeves into gloves, and hiding a facemask in your hood!

How can a hoodie have that much warmth and cute crammed into a single package? Say it with me now, ‘Loki’!  With the Graphic Zip Hoodie, the material is that perfect in-between weight so when the gloves are not in use, they stay pretty well out of the way.

When I say in-between, I mean that when the gloves are in use, the shared warmth from your hands and your arms, gives you those couple extra degrees of not needing another layer. And if things are getting really nutty out there, you have your facemask ready to go! If you’re just using the hood without the facemask, it can be a little bulky back there in the neck area. Especially if you’ve got a crap-ton of luscious locks you’re trying to tuck under the hood, you can prepare to have a battle of wills on your hands. But don’t fret, if it’s actually that chilly, pulling the facemask over your head is a cute and functional way to get warm.

Woman’s Ring Insulated Jacket:

MSRP: $239.00

So it’s 1am and you’ve just started packing for your winter family trip back home the next day. First you gather everything you’re going to need for lounging around the house, baking, and family time, and you secretly hope that you might actually get a day to get out and explore. Looking into your impossibly small, it had to have shrunk, stupid airlines charging for extra bags, bag, you think to yourself, ‘my peacoat isn’t going hiking’, and then you begin the search for your active outdoor gear. There isn’t enough Tetris style packing with origami-like folding to get all your goodies into that last minute miniscule space. But you breathe easy, why? Because you have your Ring Insulated Jacket. The fluffy warmth, gloves and facemask already attached, and its removable fur hood liner brings a smile to your face. All in all, if you need one jacket to be your warm everything, this is it. My only grievances with this jacket are with the sleeves/gloves, and the zipper. When the gloves are not in use, they are bulky to the point of getting in the way quite a bit. Of course you could just push up your sleeves, but with the addition of the sleeves being a tad too long, it becomes a little irritating. This problem could perhaps be slightly solved with getting a smaller size, but as this is my only warm jacket I have for van life, the capacity of this jacket out weights this shortfall. My other grievance is with the zipper. Bryon doesn’t seem to have this problem, but about every 1 in 8 zips, the seal undoes itself and it reverse unzips. Not very ideal, but it’s actually pretty easy to just unzip then re-zip. Overall, the packability of this jacket, the warmth, the cute fuzzy liner of the jacket and the fact I don’t ever have to look for gloves, makes this jacket a great addition to my gear.

Side Note:  If you have a kid, and have lost count of how many times their gloves have gotten lost, how many times you’ve struggled to put their tiny hands in tiny mittens, let alone KEEP them on so their wrists are covered, BUY THEM LOKI. For the little ones, the K Puff Jacket and the K Meta Snowsport Jacket kill it! Especially when you hand your kid over to someone else, say a ski instructor, you can be assured that you’re little marshmallow will stay warm.

When it comes to buying Loki Gear, you’re supporting an awesome small company based out of Grand Junction, CO. The great thing about this is that they are really doing it for the love of the outdoors. These products are designed in the reflection of the environment that this stuff is meant to be used in. My favorite product that they offer is definitely the Loki Hat, it’s just so versatile and absolutely perfect that I don’t ever plan to not own at least one. My least favorite would be the Ring Jacket. I think that this jacket will continue to develop to become a better jacket, but currently compared to Loki’s other items, it hasn’t quite reached it’s potential yet. With that said, I wear my Ring jacket quite often and it keeps me toasty warm in all conditions. It always makes me happy to see such a small company creating such quality and innovative designs.  I will continue to follow these folks and look forward to what they’ll come up with next!

Stay warm fellow Autobots,

Sarah Blessington