Home Fleece and mid layers Pioneer Camp Grid Fleece

01Thin where it needs to be

Pioneer Camp Grid Fleece

Grid fleece jackets and half-zips with a waffled inside face, cut close enough to layer under a shell without bunching at the shoulder.

  • 7 styles
  • 7 colourways
  • S to 3XL size run
  • $46.75 to $65.99

Colourways on this page: Black, Dark Grey, Orange, Green Blue, Icy Morn, Light Grey, Grey.

Grid fleece is a specific thing and it is worth knowing what makes it different, because in a photograph it looks like any other fleece. The inside face is a lattice of raised squares with channels running between them. The squares hold still air, which is what keeps you warm; the channels let damp air move sideways and out, which is what stops you getting clammy when you work hard and then stop. The result is a fleece that is warmer than its thickness suggests and thinner across the shoulder than a polar fleece of the same warmth.

That thinness is the whole reason to buy one. A polar fleece under a shell gathers at the armhole and fights the jacket every time you reach; a grid fleece slides under it. If you already own an outer layer and you are looking for the thing to put under it, this is the page. If you want a fleece to wear on its own on a cold dry day, the polar fleece jackets are warmer for the money and have more pockets. Cold wash, no fabric softener: softener coats the grid and flattens exactly the structure you paid for. Sizes run S to 3XL.

Every colourway here is priced on its own; Pioneer Camp pieces keeps the figures current and the till is what decides.

02About these pieces

Questions about Pioneer Camp Grid Fleece

Thin where it needs to be

What makes Pioneer Camp grid fleece different from ordinary fleece?

The inside face. Raised squares hold still air and the channels between them let damp air escape, so it insulates like a thicker fleece while staying thin enough to layer. Ordinary polar fleece is brushed flat on both sides: warmer per millimetre at rest, bulkier under a jacket.

Can you wear Pioneer Camp grid fleece on its own?

On a still, dry day, yes, though it is cut closer than a polar fleece and it stops no wind at all. It is designed as the layer in the middle, and it is at its best there: over a base layer and under a shell, where it can vent into the jacket rather than into the weather.

Do the Pioneer Camp grid fleeces have pockets?

The full-zip ones do and the card counts them; several of the half-zips carry a chest pocket instead. A mid layer generally carries fewer pockets than an outer layer on purpose: anything in a mid-layer pocket is under a jacket and out of reach.

Every Pioneer Camp layer, every size

Every size, colourway and fill in the Pioneer Camp range sits behind this button, with the price from our last update against each one.