Sitting in the garden the other evening after a barbecue while still enjoying our long spell of mostly dry weather I felt a bit of a chill about my bare legs (I was wearing shorts). Suddenly, I leapt up, startling the small group of family and friends that had gathered, and announced that I had just the very thing!
What I meant was I had suddenly remembered an item of kit that had been sent to me to test and I knew it would be ideal for this occasion.
“Oh, she’s off to get the slanket,” I heard my daughter say knowledgably. I wasn’t, although she was close.
The Picture Organic Clothing Sleepen Sleeping Bag-Jacket is a more technical and modern version of the slanket (a fleecy blanket with sleeves that has previously served me very well on outdoor evenings). The Sleeping Bag-Jacket is a better product in many ways.
The bag-jacket is as you would imagine. It can be a sleeping bag when zipped around the edges or a jacket when unzipped at the neck, arms and bottom hem.
The bag features PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco for warmth. PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco is made using 70% post-consumer content, namely plastic bottles, and is highly compressible, lightweight and breathable as well as remaining warm and dry even when wet.
Picture Organic Clothing’s green ethos complements PrimaLoft’s own five-year sustainability goals: To have 90% of its products containing at least 50% recycled material, with no compromise on performance.
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- I’ve let this cool dude model show the various formats
On test: Picture Organic Clothing Sleepen Sleeping Bag-Jacket
Picture Organic Clothing is better known as a French snowboarding brand but this summer they have launched a camping product, the Sleepen Sleeping Bag-Jacket.
It can be worn as a jacket or zipped up as a sleeping bag. It has zipped sides and lower hem to allow arms and feet and arms outside of the sleeping bag. It also has an adjustable hood.
Usefully, when you want to walk about you can draw up the hem using an elastic drawstring, the ends of which are located in two roomy front pockets. This means you do not need to move like a penguin when walking about, rather you can take bigger strides!
I found the jacket-bag to be generally a great item. It’s warm, easy to wear or sleep in and has nice features such as a cosy hood. It is warming but not too bulky.
I also found it good for keeping the midges from bare skin. I tucked my arms inside the jacket when seated for extra warmth!
There are a couple of things that I don’t like so much: The drawstring is very, very long when you pull up the hem of the bag. There are toggles to keep the hem up but then there is a long length of drawstring left on either side. I tried to tuck this into the pockets but it wasn’t a quick procedure.
Also the zips that you do up at the shoulders and hem to make the jacket into a sleeping bag are a bit irritating against bare skin when using the jacket-bag as a bag.
I think this is a great campsite addition but not a serious sleeping bag. It’s the sort of product I would take to festivals or on a car-to-camping trip. It stuffs into its own sausage like bag so it’s easy to take with you.
See Picture Organic Clothing Sleepen Sleeping Bag-Jacket for stockists. You can buy from Snow Leader just now for £80. Keep an eye on Amazon, too.