Behind The Pines Technical Layers

Our technical layers came out of years of snowboarding, travelling and selling other people's outdoor clothing.

After a while, you become quite specific about what you want.

A base layer should feel good directly against the skin. It should deal with sweat without feeling like sportswear. A midlayer should add useful warmth without turning the whole setup bulky. And ideally, both should still be things you are happy wearing when you are nowhere near a mountain.

That is where the Behind The Pines technical collection started.

It sits within our wider Behind The Pines collection, but these are the pieces we make specifically to work as part of a layering system.

We started with merino

There are plenty of good technical fabrics.

We keep coming back to merino because it works particularly well for the way we use clothing.

It helps regulate temperature, handles moisture well and does not start smelling nearly as quickly as many synthetic layers. That last part becomes particularly useful on a week in the mountains or when travelling with a small bag.

It also feels good.

That matters when you are going to wear something directly against your skin from breakfast until the last lift.

Merino is not magic. Synthetics can dry faster and can make more sense for very high-output activities.

But for snowboarding, travel, hiking and everyday winter use, we think good merino is extremely difficult to beat.

140, 190 and 260

We keep the system fairly simple.

Our lightweight 140 gsm merino is the piece for warmer weather, active days and travel. Light enough to work as a normal T-shirt, but still useful as the first layer of a technical setup.

At 190 gsm, things become more winter-focused. Our Performance Base Layers use this weight because it gives a useful balance between warmth and breathability without creating much bulk underneath your outerwear.

Then there is the 260 gsm Comfort Layer. This is no longer really a first layer. It is a warmer merino sweater made to sit over a base layer and underneath a shell when the temperature drops.

You do not necessarily need all three.

Choose the weight for what you actually do.

The base layer does more than keep you warm

A common mistake is treating a base layer like thermal insulation.

Warmth is only part of the job.

When you snowboard hard, hike uphill or move between cold outside air and warm buildings, your body temperature changes constantly.

The first layer needs to deal with that moisture.

Once your base layer becomes wet and stays wet, you get cold surprisingly quickly when you stop moving.

That is why we would rather wear a good base layer underneath relatively simple insulation than try to solve everything with one massive jacket.

Our wider Thermal Underwear collection has more base-layer options from the brands we carry.

Then add warmth

A midlayer has a different job.

It traps more warmth, but should still allow the system underneath to breathe.

On a normal snowboard day, that could be our 190 merino base layer, the 260 Comfort Layer and a shell over the top.

On a warmer spring day, the midlayer might stay in the car.

On a genuinely cold day, you may want more insulation than merino alone.

There is no single layering combination that works every day of winter.

That is the point of layers.

Our Snowboard Mid Layers collection has more options if you need fleece or additional insulation.

Built around snowboarding, useful far beyond it

Snowboarding is a big reason we started developing these pieces.

But we did not want to make clothing that only makes sense when you are wearing snowboard boots.

A merino long sleeve is just as useful on a cold bike ride in Amsterdam.

The lightweight short sleeve is something we would take travelling because you can wear it repeatedly without constantly washing it.

The 260 sweater works perfectly well as a normal knit when you are not layering it underneath a shell.

That crossover matters to us.

Technical clothing gets a lot more interesting when it does not spend most of its life waiting for the next ski holiday.

Small layers matter too

The same thinking continues with the smaller pieces.

Our merino liner gloves are thin enough to sit underneath a snowboard glove or mitt, but can also work on their own in milder weather. The current version uses 200 gsm RWS merino and includes a touchscreen-compatible index finger.

The neckwarmer and clava do an equally simple job.

They add warmth where you lose it quickly without requiring another bulky clothing layer.

You can find those alongside other options in our Clavas & Necktubes collection.

Fit should be fairly clean

Technical layers work best when they sit relatively close to the body.

A base layer does not need to be compression-tight, but lots of loose fabric makes it worse at managing moisture and creates extra bulk underneath everything else.

A midlayer can have a little more room.

Enough for a base layer underneath, but still clean enough to disappear below a shell.

If you are trying to work out the complete setup, our Layering Guide explains how base layers, insulation and shells work together.

Fewer pieces, used more often

This is probably the part we care about most.

Technical clothing does not need to become a huge wardrobe of highly specific pieces.

We would rather take three layers on a trip that can be combined in different ways than six things that each work in one exact temperature range.

That is also where merino makes a lot of sense.

Wear it more than once. Air it out. Wash it when it actually needs washing. Follow the care label and avoid unnecessary heat.

A good technical layer should become something you rely on rather than something you save.

Behind The Pines Technical Layers

The Behind The Pines technical collection is our take on the layers we use ourselves: simple, comfortable and built to work together.

From lightweight merino next to the skin to warmer midlayers and winter accessories, every piece has a straightforward job.

Shop Behind The Pines Technical Layers online or come by the store in Amsterdam and build the system that works for the way you ride and spend time outside.