Black Diamond Spark Johnny Ski Mitt | Review
Why we chose the Black Diamond Spark Johnny Mitt: Warm, waterproof, affordable
Price: £80 / 80€ / $100
BUY HERE
Let’s face it: we all want to be like Johnny Collinson. Luscious blonde locks, chiseled abs and an Instagram account that questions why you’ve not yet blasted out 100 pushups before 07:00 – and that’s before we even get onto his silky smooth ski style. But, let’s be real, we can’t all be like Johnny. Carbs are underrated anyway, right?
Although we can’t exactly be Johnny Collinson, thanks to Black Diamond, we can at least own a pair of gloves he’s designed. These gloves, the Black Diamond Spark Johnny Mitt, take the classic Spark Mitt (a previous favourite of Johnny’s) and put the Collinson stamp of approval on them with a tweaked design and a few handy features that Johnny was after.
Black Diamond Spark Johnny Ski Mitt Features
Bringing the mitts together is goat leather which provides a durable water resistant finish that, in our opinion, feels much better in the hand than a traditional fabric glove. The full waterproof seal has been given through a BD.dry liner that sits below the leather. Your hands are usually the first point that may start to let water in (particularly when ski touring), so it’s great to see BD address this with a full waterproof insert.
The goat leather outer has long been a feature on the original Spark Mitt, but Johnny has looked to further reinforce it for his signature mitt. This has been achieved through EVA padding on the back of the thumb and knuckles to provide impact resistance for when you’re charging hard, especially though tight tree lines.
Being a mitt, warmth is the name of the game with the Spark Johnny Mitt. Naturally, the open mitt design produces more warmth than a traditional glove design and, although mitts tend to give up a bit in dexterity, Black Diamond has stitched separate fingers on the inside to help boost your proprioception.
The inside is also lined with a soft fleece fabric, which is further backed up with 60 grams of Primaloft Gold insulation. As the name suggests, this is the gold standard of synthetic insulation which manages to uphold its thermal efficacy even when wet.
The final touches we liked were the neat raven’s feet logos (designed by Johnny) stitched into the glove and handy elasticated wrist straps to save your gloves going for a wander when you’ve got them off – a handy feature for touring transitions.
Johnny has taken the classic Spark glove and given them a lick of fresh paint. The result? An already well designed glove that’s now plastered in handy features from a man who’s spent his life charging hard in the mountains. Yes, as you can tell, we’re big fans of these mitts.
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