Nah, not only parents wear LLB. But hey, you get the right warmth at the right price and fine tune another year, if he has preference changes. I don’t get the fashion police idea, for guys. My girls no longer wear Northface fleece, but more because they’re less casual now. They still wear their “Bean boots.” And Uggs.
I’ll have to ask my kid if she’s being ostracized for wearing LL Bean, LOL. She’s pretty oblivious to labels but does recognize quality. I have to agree with @lookingforward - we were in the new store at MOA and there were several college-aged kids there - or maybe the big draw was the boots LOL.
Just dropped my son off for winter term. It is 4 degrees in Hyde Park.
Hey good news! Your son only has to go to Tallahassee tomorrow to get a taste of real winter. It is supposed to be 20 degrees (above) and they have CLOSED school at FSU.
On a 20 degree day in Chicago, everyone is discussing whether it is warm enough to wash the car (answer: only if you are willing to hand dry it)
@twoinanddone I was going through a car wash at a Chicago suburb on New Year’s Eve and the line was really long. It was 12 degree then but everyone just needed to remove the cake of salt stuck to their car. We have no choice but to wash our car in January if we want our car to last longer without rusting.
@mile30: today is the first day at school for winter quarter for the entire UChicago. I was in Hyde Park this morning. It was 13 degree and snowing. Yet everyone was taking it in stride. The pavement was dry. Even little kids going to Lab looked unfazed. Your son would be fine with basic winter gear.
My daughter on the phone, winter of 2009: “This morning was great! It was so warm, my heart didn’t stop when I stepped outside!” (It was about 10 degrees F that morning, a major improvement over the previous week.)
Just remember, a great deal of what we call Western Culture developed in Northern Europe during the Little Ice Age. Kant, Hegel, Leibniz, Newton, Locke, Hume, Smith, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Rembrandt, Vermeer. And they didn’t even have L.L. Bean duck boots or Merrells with thinsulate. Human beings can handle cold weather, as long as they don’t try to invade Russia during it.
Everything you need you can buy locally in the nearest Sams Club or Costco. You can get some ideas about what your son will need by observing what the fans wear at outdoor football games.
High-quality thermals (top and bottom) and a heavy waterproof coat; three layers (thermal, sweater and coat) instead of many less heavy layers will make his life easier. My daughter is there right now and says that she feels the cold only on her face (only three layers with -1˚ F). Very warm and waterproof boots and gloves are also extremely important.
Good boots and good gloves are by far the most important things. If you keep your extremities warm, the rest is easy peasy.
and don’t buy Canada Goose. It is pretentious and overpriced stuff, IMO.
Just back from spending a couple days with my son at move in and it is absolutely frigid in Chitown -15+ last night with the windchill. North Face and Mountain Hard Wear layers and was bearable. Quality set of gloves is essential. Today seemed warm at 14.
North’s elevators were out, not sure if it was due to the cold.
@ThankYouforHelp …and uses real fur. What a shame.
Just saw this. Trending on twitter: #chiberia
http://www.guacamoley.com/the-scoop/2017/12/30/Z1bjkep/photos-frozen-over-chicago-emerge
@ThankYouforHelp Fully agree with you on the Canada Goose comment. Have seen a lot of UChicago kids wearing those. Went online last month to check on Canada Goose jackets: stunned to find out that one has to pay $900 for a jacket that can only deal with 5 degree. And on New Year’s Eve in Hyde Park it went down to -10 with -22 degrees windchill. Right now Eddie Bauer winter parka is on sale and you can buy one that can stand up to -40 degree for less than $250.
But I have no fashion sense and do not comprehend the snob appeal ;). I guess Canada Goose will appeal more to the youngsters than the more practical folks like me.
Further to @JHS 's observation at #45, check out this portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the greatest of the early humanists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus . The guy only needs a set of earmuffs to complement his fur-lined robe and toque and he’d be set to cross the Midway in January. I think I saw him do that once - though that might have been the time I fell asleep in the stacks over “The Praise of Folly”.
My son and I are in South Georgia and just experienced the snow from Grayson. We played in it yesterday like kids. We plan to go shopping for boots and coats once the roads melt, now that we’ve actually experienced snow conditions. He hopes to attend a school in Ohio.
Land’s End is having a good sale on coats right now. My D goes to ND and we bought a coat from there and it’s held up well - now on year 3.
I often think those older figures in history and art were much more used to the cold in their drafty rooms with one porcelain burner. Or the pilgrims. For all I know, Erasmus was painted in an October.
OP’s child isn’t used to what we are.
Erasmus looks like he’s wearing a ushanka.
“I often think those older figures in history and art were much more used to the cold in their drafty rooms with one porcelain burner. Or the pilgrims. For all I know, Erasmus was painted in an October.”
Or the subject was practical and chose not to acknowledge or complain about things that were immutable. That’s a reasonable approach, as is the current approach - that if buying a bit of gear that I can afford will make my kid comfortable, it would be silly not to do so.