Who doesn’t love Alpkit? Purveyors of fine equipment at affordable prices for discernable outdoor lovers. Alpkit have long made great equipment: cookware, excellent headtorches, bivvy bags, mats, dry bags, ropes, harnesses, you name it. And then a couple of years ago they started manufacturing apparel. Their down jackets were particularly good and their first range made a bit of a splash. Now they’ve branched out into hardshells with the Balance, and it’s only £175. Nice.
It’s a pretty basic jacket with none of the superfluous stuff but one that is very light and very versatile. This will be thrown in your backpack on long runs, slow walks, or fun mountain bike rides. It’s particularly good for bikepacking, and in fact this is something Alpkit are really keen on. Their brilliantly designed bikepacking bags and their impressive bikes (which they sell under the brand name Sonder) are just two of the other bits of bikepacking kit that we’ve picked for the Outdoor 100.
“It’s a pretty basic jacket with none of the superfluous stuff, but it’s very light and very versatile.”
