Almya is a Czech, relatively less well-known manufacturer of babywearing clothes, whose founders are (rather obviously) wearers themselves. Apart from these particular tested and reviewed anoraks, they offer soft-shell jackets and soft-shell clothes for kids. As one of the few manufacturers on the babywearing market, they also think about dads and offer a version of babywearing anorak for men as well.
Unfortunately, our testing took place during very hot summer days in August. The material (I don’t know diddly-jack about this matter, it is simply a nylon cloth with covering on the inner side) is truly windproof; unfortunately (or fortunately?) we were not able to test its waterproofing – however, according to the references we could read, the anoraks are not 100% waterproof.
ˈTo look becomingˈ is rather a subjective matter; however, numerous possibilities to adjust the width on different levels of the anorak do not really help it. The deep pink / fuchsia colour is very nice, in my opinion; the universal black colour used for the model for men surely would not hurt anybody.
I have to say that the dressing itself was a big problem – hitting the right hole was very difficult and I had to seek assistance every time I tried. The possibility to roll the whole anorak up into an integrated pocket is fine, indeed (at least you minimize the risk of loosing it); however, the localization of the mentioned pocket behind the wearie’s neck does not seem the most practical to me – it simply got in my way a little. Of course, the dressing as well as the presence of the pocket are just minor nuisances a wearer gets used to gradually (however, as far as the back-wearing is concerned I am quite sure that the ˈsystem of holesˈ will be a problem for one set of hands even with enough practice and experience). The detachable hood that could be easily switched to the back using the snap buttons on the back ˈholeˈ felt very nice for me, as well as the possibility to detach the wearer’s hood.
Concerning the quality of sewing, I have nothing to reproach; just the material used is really wind- and airproof (Emilka and I sweated like piggies in the hot summer weather, which is hardly surprising).
All in all – why not, such a light anorak for summer hikes that can truly be a gap in the market Almya cornered. All one has to do is practise the dressing.
As you can see, Helenka did not want to cooperate during the photoshoot at all – it was really hot that day… 🙁 And of course we want to thank Martin – Linda’s Martin – for his patience while posing for the photos! 😉