Digital Friend's video: How-to Develop A Three Coat Layering System For Working Outdoors In Cold Weather Tutorial

Learn how to develop an army surplus three coat clothing system for working outside during cold weather conditions. This clothing system uses recycled army surplus which is layered to form a warm air bubble around the body. The layers can be added or removed in order to customize the layering system. If you are too cold, add in some layers. If you are too warm, remove some layers. It is a very flexible and versatile system. I use it up until about -6 Celsius, but it can be used in even colder conditions. The clothes are relatively rain resistant and hard wearing. If you don’t have the exact clothes seen in this video, just substitute some similar clothing and adapt the clothing you have available in order to develop your own system. The shirt keeps the scratchy wool from touching your skin. Silk wicks away sweat moisture from the skin, keeping you warm, but for the sake of easy washing, I usually just use a cotton shirt. Cotton isn’t the best material for cold weather, but it works in a pinch for work. It is really easy to get cotton dress shirts. You can use other materials as well, whatever is available. The wool jacket is the insulation layer. If you don’t have a wool jacket, use some other type of wool clothing like a pullover. Pullovers can even be layered. The next layer is the nylon wind breaker. The nylon wind breaker does not let the cold wind into the insulation layer which is acting as a spacer between the outside shell layers and your body. Wind wrecks the warm air bubble around your body. The nylon windbreaker helps protect the warm air bubble around your body from the wind. The next layer is the tough US Military Woodland BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) Shirt. This shirt is usually used in warm weather. You can use a comparable product from the country in which you live. This shirt also has to be really big and loose fitting, so that it will fit over all the layers and still be loose. The purpose of the BDU shirt is because it is very hard wearing and can easily handle lots of dirt. The nylon rips easier and is not as tough as the BDU shirt. Think of the BDU shirt as the dirt armour on the outside of your layering system. This shirt can get really dirty and it still works quite well. Nylon stops working well when it is really dirty, which is why the nylon wind breaker is underneath the BDU shirt. The Clothes Must Be Loose The clothes, with the exception of the Balaclava face mask, should all be big and loose fitting. The reason is that loose fitting clothes can fit over other clothes. Loose fitting clothes are also easier to move around in and, even more importantly, they allow you to trap a warm air bubble around your body. This is the technique used by Inuit for thousands of years. Their fur clothing is very big and loose and it traps warm air close to their body. Warm air rises, so the warm air does not go out the bottom of the clothing. If the clothing is too tight, then there is no air space between the clothing and the body and no warm air bubble can form. Collars Remember to keep all layers of collars up for maximum warmth. You can leave some of the collars down if you need to. Stay warm, stay safe and Have A Great Day!