ACCESSORIES
These gloves keep your hands warm yet let you get your fingers on your camera quickly. Angela Nicholson pulled them on
ALL PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE STREET PRICES
● £61.20 ● www.theheatcompany.com
The Heat Company was started in the Austrian Alps in 1994. Today it produces gloves, warmers and insoles designed to keep outdoor enthusiasts warm. This includes an extensive array of gloves and mittens to suit different conditions.
The firm’s Heat 2 Softshell gloves combine fingerless gloves and mittens, with a flip-top to keep your fingers warm when you’re not using your camera. They are designed for ‘transition’ seasons, and after wearing them, I’d say that translates to all but the most extreme winter days in the UK.
As you’d expect, the Heat 2 Softshell gloves are made from wind- and water-repellent material, with a goatskin palm, and they’re lined with soft, cosy fleece that’s very welcoming on your hands when you pull them on. A pocket inside the mitten tops can also hold a hand warmer to add extra heat when the mercury drops. That’s a great idea because it means the heat is there for your fingers after they’ve been exposed to the elements.
Thanks to a long, knitted cuff, the Heat 2 gloves keep your wrists warm, but I find this needs to be pulled firmly up under my coat sleeves; otherwise, the gloves slip down over my hands. This slippage is more of an issue when the mitten caps are pulled over my fingers because they extend too far beyond my fingertips, reducing my dexterity.
A flip-back top on the glove’s thumbs means you can also get your thumbs directly onto your camera. This cap is held in place by Velcro, so you can’t just wriggle your thumbs out, you have to peel back the caps. This is fiddly with the mitten caps in place, but it only takes a second when your fingers are free. Helpfully, there are magnets to hold the mitten and thumb caps out of the way while you use
