As our kids have grown from infants to toddlers and now to ski ages (4 and 6 years old), we’ve gone through many trials keeping their hands warm and dry in the snow. The first battle was simply keeping the kids from taking their mittens off! Our best solution, at first, was using duct tape to attach the mittens to the jacket, keep the snow out, and make it impossible for our 2-year-old to take them off.
We then went through a couple of years using whatever mittens we had lying around or whatever hand-me-down ones we got from friends, usually with mitts that were not really waterproof or let snow in through the gaps. This year, with plans of teaching the kids to ski, we decided to drop significant money on high quality waterproof mittens that go all the way over the jacket to the elbow. Fantastic!! That is, until we lost one… Half a pair of expensive, wonderful mittens is not really that useful. And if we replace them, we might just lose then again! Ugh!
Cubbies worked great under a warm jacket for skiing. And no mittens falling off!
Amidst my debate of what to do next, we got a chance to test out Cubbies by ETS (Enjoy The Snow) for our 4-year-old. It’s basically a fleece sweatshirt with mittens that zip on the ends of the sleeves. I have to say, at first, I was skeptical that constantly dealing with the zippers would drive me crazy. But then I figured out that you never have to fully detach the mitten and I decided that it’s really rather brilliant!
When we’re getting ready to leave for skiing, sledding, or a fort-building outing, we put the sweatshirt on over a base layer with the mittens zipped fully on. Then we put his jacket on over. When out in the snow, the mittens stay on, no snow gets in, hands stay dry, and he’s willing to keep skiing or playing outside all day.
When he needs his hands to eat a snack, go to the bathroom, or whatever, we partially unzip the mittens, he does his thing, then we zip them the rest of the way back on and hit the snow again. At the end of the day we take the whole sweatshirt off, mittens still attached, ready for the next outing. Since it’s a lot tougher to lose a whole sweatshirt than a solitary mitten, there’s not much chance of losing a mitten. Yay, problem solved!
The Cubbies with the mittens partially zipped on.
- Tested in: Utah winters, skiing, sledding, snowman-making, snowfort-building
- Cost: $38-$48 (for the whole sweatshirt and mittens combo)
- Availability: 18 months – 4T, sweatshirt available in pink or blue
- Best Use: Playing in the snow all day
Selling Points:
- Toddlers are unable to pull their own mittens off (and say, throw them out of a stroller? 🙂 )
- You’re not going to lose a mitten! At least as long as the kid doesn’t take the mittens all the way off — we had to train our son to not fully undo the zipper. The mittens can be fully removed for when you want to wash the sweatshirt.
- Kids’ hands stay warm and dry.
- Sweatshirt is very soft and warm.
- Well constructed, looks like it would last through at least a couple of kids, but only time will tell.
- Pretty easy to access the hands when needed.
- Very cute, especially the bear cubs on back of the hand.
- Mittens have high quality waterproofing, reinforced palm, and soft fleece interior.
Significant Stats:
Lightweight polar fleece shirt
Desired Improvements:
Currently, Cubbies only come in sizes 18 months to 4T. Hopefully, if this product catches on, they’ll be able to make additional sizes for older kids (and maybe even adults??)
In addition, the sweatshirt neck is a tiny bit tight, I’d prefer a V-neck.
The Bottom Line: Innovative system for keeping a child’s hands warm and dry. This product is comfy, cute, and you won’t lose a mitten!
This product sample was received for the purpose of review, as always these are our real and honest opinions.