Years ago I had a pair of Houdini wind pants that I wore constantly in winter, sometimes under soft-shell pants instead of long johns. They did a great job of keeping me warm in the wind and weighed only a few ounces. But they were noisy. Like most woven synthetic fabrics that can block wind, the Houdini fabric makes a horrible scratch, scratch, swish, swish noise when it rubs against itself, like between the thighs when walking.
So I’ve been on the lookout for silent, wind-resistant UL fabric and garments. Almost all 15d, 20d and 30d tightly woven nylon or polyester fabrics are noisy, some more than others. I’ve made a habit of rubbing these types of fabrics against themselves when handling wind layers in stores or when I get a packet of fabric swatches from RBTR and other fabric vendors.
So I was very pleased to hear nothing when I rubbed RBTR’s 1.0 oz/yard Hyper D (non-calendared) fabric against itself. Silence.
Timmermade were kind enough to make me a pair of wind pants of this fabric. They are indeed the first pair of wind-resistant pants I’ve owned that are completely silent when walking, at least to my ear.
I don’t think most people care about this, but for those that do…
A little more than 2 ounces and have been durable enough for light bushwacking. So smooth that most branches and such just slide off ’em. They will snag on thorns, as most wovens will, and can suffer a bit of weave distortion thereby. I fell through some river ice recently and they survived scraping along the ice hole during the fall without marks, and then dried super fast on the walk out. Very smooth and comfortable as sleeping pants as well.
