First Lite Thermic Kit - Big Guy Gear Reviews

I decided that this year would be the last year I would spend miserably cold during late November deer stand sits and that it was high time to invest in purpose-built late season gear. As always, complicating matters is the fact that I'm big and tall and have disproportionately long arms. This immediately limited my options significantly to First Lite (36-37" sleeve length in XL), and Kuiu (36-36.5" sleeve length in XL). Because I came to this decision just a few weeks before my hunting trip and the First Lite sleeve length is my size and I could try it on at the local Scheels; and because Kuiu is only sold direct-to-consumer, eliminating my ability to try on and see if that 36-36.5" sleeve length would work; I decided to roll with First Lite. I regret that decision. 

My whitetail hunting is done in the mountains of Virginia. While not the coldest climate possible, there are usually plenty of mornings in the 20s and even teens. When sitting in a deer stand with a breeze in the shade of trees, that's still cold enough to be miserable. I've been hunting in this environment for about 30 years and have always froze during my sits, making it hard to spend more than 2-2.5 hours in a stand in the mornings before having to either walk around or go inside.

First Lite bills the Thermic kit as its warmest deer gear, rated for below 20-degree hunts. It's windproof and water resistant, with a brushed fabric face that is both quiet and durable. Unlike other brands, which add on another $800+ of layering gear to its late season kit to achieve peak warmth, First Lite suggested in response to my question that the Furnace base layer was all needed to be comfortable in those lower temperature ranges. 

None of this really held true in the field though. While the kit did a decent job of keeping me warm and in the stand, for $1,000, it left me very disappointed. And that's even with the benefit of an unusually warm deer season this year so the coldest temps I faced were one morning when the low was 27. Otherwise, morning sits were generally in mid 30s and low 40s.

Problems I had with this gear:

Ridiculous Bulk

The most frustrating aspect was the enormous bulk of the jacket and bibs. These items are warm enough that even a walk of a couple hundred yards with zippers open will draw a sweat. But if you wanted to pack them to your stand to put on there you're going to need a massive pack or duffle bag. Last year I bought a 40 liter Mystery Ranch Treehouse backpack with the idea that it would give me plenty of storage to carry insulated layers during the hike in. But the Thermic's bulk meant that I could only get the bibs in my backpack, and when it was in the backpack it was the only thing I could fit in my pack. Consequently, I just chose to wear it all and sweat on the couple-hundred yard walks after four-wheelering most of the way.

The bulk created other practical problems. When the jacket and bibs are layered, there's so much material that wearing a bino harness was basically impossible from a fit and comfort perspective. Putting on my Marsupial Gear harness required me to extend the straps all the way. The fit was tight and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, because the layers were so thick, the bino case stuck out probably 6" from my chest. That placed it in the way of moving around and shouldering my gun. I have no idea how the guy in the product photos looks so streamlined and is wearing a bino harness in such a natural, comfortable looking manner. The harness fit and performed so poorly over the Fanatic kit that I ended up leaving my binos at home most of the time since it left me with no way to effectively handle them in tree stands.

Even without the bino case, there was so much bulk and material around my arm/shoulder, that shouldering my gun took extra care to ensure it didn't catch on fabric and that it was securely against my shoulder. I missed a very simple shot on a buck and while I don't know the exact reason for the miss, I can't help but think that this was at least a contributing factor.

Part of this bulk is excusable. These items are made out of synthetic insulation which is always going to have more bulk. But part of the bulk comes from poor decision making that, like with other gear I have from First Lite, makes me question if actual hunters are involved in the design and testing process. 

The two main culprits are the fleece lined handwarmer pocket on the bibs, and the inexplicable pockets high on the chest. 

The handwarmer pocket is a decent idea that is poorly implemented. First, the fleece lining is overkill since it's sandwiched between the interior fleece of the bibs and the jacket. This creates a hotter spot on your chest from that extra insulation, in addition to the bulk. Then, the fleece is doubled over at the pocket holes, making it even MORE unnecessarily thick. The impact is to create a sizeable popout on your chest...I ended up basically having a shelf on my chest from the jacket sloping out over the warmer pocket. This layout constituted almost all of the bulk problems I had with this kit. Frustratingly, though, aside from this aspect the fit of the bibs was amazing and I didn't have any other problems with its bulk...but the handwarmer pocket was an issue every single time I wore the bibs and was my biggest problem with the whole kit.

The high-chest pockets are completely inexplicable. They're in such a weird place that I didn't even know they existed for several days--I just thought the jacket had a weird construction at both of my shoulders that caused it to buckle out and snag the butt of my gun. Once I noticed them I literally googled their purpose because I thought I HAD to be missing something for how weird they seemed. But, no, it really was as simple as they're just dumb pockets. They're placed so high and out of the way that they're pretty difficult to access naturally. You certainly can't access them without a lot of motion. Putting anything in the pocket of your shooting shoulder seemed like it could interfere with mounting your gun. And I really just can't imagine what anyone would actually use them for since the jacket already has zipper pockets in the normal place, as well as actually useful interior elastic pockets that are great for storing gloves. Again, the main issue with these pockets is that even when empty the cause the jacket to buckle out and make an unnecessary rigid structure to catch on things.

One final issue with the bulk is that the jacket fits like a garbage bag. While I understand the need to have a more generous cut to get over the bibs and to give some room for layering...I'm 6'5" and 240lbs...there's just no reason that any XL item should fit me so loosely. Even when I wore a bulky Costco fleece underneath there was still extra room. Again, when you're charging $500 for late-season gear, I shouldn't need to layer so many items underneath that the XL needs to fit like an XXL or bigger to accommodate them.

Warmth

Warmth was good, not great. The worst conditions I encountered was a morning where temps stayed at 33 degrees all morning and there was a hard wind. I was able to stay in my stand from 6am until after 10am and stayed comfortable. That's not to say it was flawless, which, again for $1,000 is the expectation.

Two main problems again here: the body mapped insulation, and zippers letting through the wind and cold.

While body mapped insulation sounds great in theory, and could probably be executed well, it wasn't here. There's certainly logic in ensuring your body's core stays warm, but when that comes at the expense of cold arms it's not really a benefit other than maybe preventing hypothermia. Because I'm wearing this gear to stay warm and comfortable in a tree stand, not to stay alive in sub-freezing conditions, this missed the mark. There were multiple times when my arms got unpleasantly cold, and several of those were afternoon sits where there was a slight breeze but temps were in the 40s. My arms never got so cold that it made me want to go in, but they were cold enough that I had to adjust my layering and to be angry that a $500 jacket required me to take extra steps to keep my arms comfortably warm in 40+ degree temps. I would have had similar problems with the bibs, which reduced insulation from the knees down, but I also bought Lacrosse Alpha Burly Pros that provided the extra necessary insulation. Anyone wearing boots that didn't come almost to their knees would probably be annoyed their calves get cold. 

The one place I would have LOVED the body mapped thinner insulation was my crotch. This is technically another bulk complaint, but I can't imagine any hunting scenario where you can spread your legs so much that there's not going to be insulation doubled up in the crotch. Having the thinner insulation in the crotch would have made the bibs more comfortable and presumably not have sacrificed any warmth.

The other problem is that the zippers in the jacket and bibs seem to be insufficiently backed, providing inadequate insulation and wind protection at the zippers. Obviously zippers are an unavoidable impediment but when there's substantial backing behind the zipper the break in insulation and windproofing can be mitigated. But even on mornings with low wind I could feel the chill coming through the leg zippers. Never bad enough to make me miserable (but again, I was never in truly cold conditions), but certainly something that pissed me off based on the price. Higher winds were able to seep through the jacket zipper and bring some chill there. 

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