Hi James, I wondered if your readers might be interested in Finisterre? We’re a very small outdoor clothing company based in Cornwall UK, with the goal of creating the best technical apparel with minimal environmental impact.I had never heard of them, nor had my v. active UK-living bruv... guess they are a bit under the radar but I am now enlightened and yes, v interested. First off the jackets, gilets and baselayers (merino natch') look fantastic, but in addition these guys are setting a new gold standard in ethical production, charity support and using recycled-recyclable materials. They even trumpet their love of the village mailman so ship everything by standard mail, classic. (UPS will never leave at our building anyway.)
From their blurb it seems Finisterre was born out of a gap in the surfing market, [and apres-surfing perhaps -ed.?] but I can easily see these jackets for biking/ climbing/ fell running etc. A quick search online sees a bunch of British cycling sites getting into the brand for this reason. They have a seperate designer (Debbie Luffman) for the women's stuff and have to say it might beat the men's stuff on looks (I can hear trouble&strife say "finally, someone stopped putting pockets right on top of the chest"). So, prices?? The more technical jackets are around $250-300, and the softer goods, baselayers etc are great value, snaking Ibex/Patagonia on price and have a great backstory... comment below from my correspondence with them;We have worked hard on sourcing our base layers with sustainable flocks and so on. In fact we're working hard to bring back a rare breed of sheep in the U.K. to get even finer wool right on our doorstep.
At 17.5 microns, it may be the softest merino on the market. We have developed this premium jersey every step of the way from sheep to shelf [my italics... great phrase though]. The fibre is sourced from Natural Tasmanian wool accredited farms and processed and knitted in EU eco-label certified spinners.
I don't get too technical myself (have 1 fleece and a 2 pairs of longjohns, that's about as tech as I get) but have included some of the tech-speak with the data mining below as the copy is great reading.
Storm Track Jacket / Biomimetic Waterproof/ Windproof / 100% recycled polyester / Helmet compatible / Riri Aqua waterproof zips / Finisterre Lifetime Guarantee / Exclusive Finisterre NappaTM lining (ladies above, men's below)
Matanuska M65 (and Matanuska II for ladies above, see no damn chest pockets); weatherproof enough for light rain, wind and abrasion and active enough for the mountains or when pushing that high gear on the steel horse. Beeswax impregnated hooded jacket. [killing it -ed.]
One more for the ladies; the Pipistral; filled with Primaloft Sport™ synthetic insulation, recycled water resistant outer shell = max warmth / min weight. "As a UK company we’re no strangers to wet conditions and it’s a simple fact that synthetic fill retains 75% of its warmth when wet, whereas down fill only retains 15% of its warmth when wet." [good to know -ed.]
Finally, again, from Stuart @finisterre; the name Finisterre has a variety of meanings, first of all it can mean where the land meets the sea, it also refers to a body of water in the Atlantic spoken on the U.K. shipping forecast - a British Tradition. That area has now changed the name to Fitz-Roy, as the Spanish wanted to use the name Finisterre relating to another area of water. Fairly confusing - but great nautical name! Further reading. I have had a few email submisisons over past few months as the rising tide (of ACL readers) has floated all the blog-boats... but thought these guys are worth your time.
