Trekmates Mountain XT Ultralight Gore-Tex gaiters

A while ago i was looking for a pair of lightweight gaiters. Well i eventually found a pair.
I got them from Dash4It, the map people.
They are Trekmates and are made from GoreTex, there is no specification i can find about which type of GoreTex it actually is but i will go as far as saying it's just like Paclite.

What i like about these is the breathability, the weight and the simplicity of design. I have no complaints at all. They do the job well.

To keep the weight down the underfoot retention is std bungee cord. The good thing is that it has a lifetime guarantee as do the gaiters. If the cord breaks you just email sales@trekmates.co.uk for a replacement.

The weight specified is 105 grams per pair which is remarkable for a full length gaiter. However they must have done some tweaking because mine weight just 86 grams the pair.

They are all one size but are available in Male and Female versions.
If you are looking for a new pair then be quick, you can pick a pair up from Dash4it for £33.75 with Free postage instead of normal £45. Here.

Disclaimer. I bought these gaiters with my own money and have no affiliation with Dash4it in any way.

Threshold Trailstar gaiter

  Some readers will know that i have been looking out for a lightweight pair of gaiters for some time. That’s full length gaiters not shortie one’s.

I have made lots of email enquiries to companies asking for weights of the products due to a lack of this spec. from some OEM’s.

  I am not that big a fan of gaiters but i do have a pair of Rab eVent gaiters. I only tend to wear them in winter or if the forecast is particularly wet. 

Most times they are just in the cupboard. I think the problem they don’t get to see the light of day much is simply that they are too heavy. Mine weigh 283 grams which is in fact 10grams heavier than my walking trousers. Crazy really.

 So when i was in TK Max recently i saw these Threshold Trailstar gaiters. (No i have never heard of them either.) I thought my word they are just the ticket and i took a chance on them, well at £9.95 why not. The thing was i didn’t pay an awful lot of attention to detail. I just took a guess at the weight, checked the material to make sure all the fasteners were there and paid for them.

  So, weight wise they are 160grams the pair, including the labels and ties. I thought i was onto a winner until i tried them on.

  You may be able to see in the photo above that the top pull cord only protrudes from one end/side of the gaiter. The other end is stitched into the seam with no excess to assist tensioning the top. Now i can understand the design concept, one hand tensioning and all that but unfortunately what seems to have been forgotten is that as you tension the top the zip section widens which then increases the chance of the zip self opening.
In my pair one zip opens with the absolute minuscule of effort. The other just slightly better. In other words totally and utterly useless.

  Also as you can see from the above photo the under shoe retainer is just a std shoe lace and that would last until you got to the end of the car park. This didn’t bother me too much because i could replace it with something more substantial but with the zip and tensioning issue it would be better to just cut my losses and take them back and get a refund.
 So if you too are looking for a pair of lightweight gaiters then leave these off your list, take a really good look at the detail or leave them on the shelf.
 Back to the drawing board.