Sneak peek: Santini clothing, winter 2013

Italy’s Santini have some great looking winter clothing, but you’ll have to wait a few months before you can get your hands on it because this is for winter 2012-13.

Santini products are arranged in three different fits. That was the case before but they’ve changed the way they classify things now. Randonée clothing comes in an aerodynamic race fit; Granfondo articles are a regular stretch fit; and Criterium denotes a regular fit.

Even the Criterium clothing is sporty – that’s what Santini do. It’s designed to sit close to your body, not flap about. It’s a roadie cut, not a commuter or leisure cut – it’s just that you don’t need to be a skinny stick of a racer to squeeze into the Criterium stuff.

The main picture (above) is the Zeus in a Randonée cut – the slimmest one, remember? It’s made using a new type of Windstopper fabric from Gore, X-Free, that’s more stretchy than most. Other brands like Castelli also use the fabric which is 4-way stretch – up and down as well as side to side – so you should be able to get a close fit without it feeling too tight. You get a thermofleece layer inside to provide the warmth with a membrane in there that’s designed to protect you from the wind and rain. It’ll retail at £199.99.

The Zero jacket comes in the Granfondo cut and is designed to keep you dry too. Santini use ZeroWind fabric here which is a lightweight elastic membrane that’s said to be water resistant as well as windproof and highly breathable.

They’ve given it an Acquazero treatment to add more water resistance. We’ve reviewed Acquazero products before on road.cc and they’ve been really impressive. They let sweat escape out but spray and light rain just bead up and roll off.

That zip is waterproof and there’s quite a bit of reflective detail here. The Zero will cost £169.99.

The Argo will come in the slightly more relaxed Criterium cut. Santini’s Breezewall fabric isn’t quite as high-tech as you get with the jackets above but it’s still designed to be windproof and water resistant. You also get neat features like a zip garage to stop any scratching on your neck and a zipped pocket in the lower back.  The Argo will be priced at £139.99.

Santini have some really cool looking lightweight windproofs coming up. Most clothing brands include one or two in their line-up and they usually look virtually indistinguishable, but Santini have done just enough to set theirs apart from the crowd without going over the top.

The Hades (Granfondo cut) will be available as a gilet for £79.99 and as a jacket for £89.99… so, an extra fiver per sleeve. Seems fair enough.

The little slits you can see on the sides, just below the armpits, have mesh behind them to let a little air into that area, and the gilet version gets something similar along the yoke around the back.

You get a breathable mesh facing around the inside of the neck and the long-sleeved jacket gets a back pocket too. These extra features don’t add much bulk; each version of the Hades fits easily into a jersey pocket.

If you can’t wait until the autumn for these products to become available, Santini provide the clothing for a bunch of WorldTour professional teams too: GreenEdge, Vacansoleil-DCM and Katusha. They’re available now priced at £54.99 each.

For more info on the current Santini line-up go to www.santinisms.it and www.fisheroutdoor.co.uk.