Appalachian Gear Co - Initial review

[Gambit McCrae]

I have been wanting to check out the AGC hoody for over a year now but the material looks online to be of the most itchy option possible and at a $168 price point I was not going to take a gamble on it. But after over a year of growing support from the hiking community I decided to give it a try. I have zero in field testing feedback as it just came in yesterday but let me tell ya. This thing is nice. I love it. It is extremely light. The knit is a "micro chunky" if you will. Extremely soft. These AGC products are made of 100% alpaca with outstanding insulation and antimicrobial properties. The down sides I could see are their durability. It feels pretty fragile, but does have a nice stretch to the material. The stitching is good but I would like to see a double stitch where as the seams have just been run thru once. I was warned about the smell online prior to purchase and forgot about it until opening. The smell was not pleasant at first but dissipated fairly quickly. I will try to report back here after some testing but I think this is going to be a really nice add to the kit.

[Gambit McCrae]

Still no on trail experience with this but I do have about 30 miles of road walking experience with it now...Going to carry it along the foothills trail this weekend. So far the garment has met my expectations of being warm, comfortable and light. I have purchased one of AGC's crew sweaters and that is what I will be taking with me on trail. I found that all of my top garments have hoods and the stack up was becoming a bit redic be time I put my sun hoodie up, then alpaca hoodie, down hood and a rain jacket...sheesh. So I have eliminated the alpaca hood, and the down hood. Cant go without sun hoodie and obvi rain jacket needs a hood as well.

-The only points of interest to report on thus far is that I wear a long sleeve freefly viscose shirt under this(my sun hoodie) because the item contact of garment and skin is not pleasant to me, but with the sun hoodie as a median between my skin and alpaca, it is very comfy.

-If this thing gets wet you might as well not even touch it....I have pretty bad sensory problems and this garment wet just about is too much for me to handle lol its just extremely itchy when wet.