Simms Fishing Products always releases a spate of new products around the time of the Fly Fishing Retailer Show, and this year is no exception. Word has come through the grapevine that Simms' new wader will be an updated, ruggedized Guide Pant from their G3 series, priced at about $380. Water-resistant pocket zippers and a true waterproof fly make the wader easy-access, while the belt system has been redesigned from last year's Rivertek Wader Pant to be more like a conventional set of drawers.
Better yet, Simms has opted to include the full "Guide" specs, meaning five layer Gore-tex to the knee (dark gray, pictured), with three layer above. Speaking as someone who has worn the last-edition Simms Guides in waist-high mode for the last three years, I couldn't be more thrilled. This is exactly the high-end, heavy-duty wader pant model that guides and hiking anglers have been calling for. While the waterproof zippers may add cost (and the jury is--as always with zippers--still out on their effectiveness), the overall strength of this build makes it exactly the model many of us would have designed for ourselves (effectively, a cut-down 2006-era Guide Wader with pockets and a fly).
All in all, this promises to be a very strong entry from Simms. While not every angler will care (and the price will surely scare off some who might have cared), those of us who use waist highs have finally got the Cadillac model which the market has been missing.
Share your thoughts on the new Simms wader--or waist-highs generally--in the Comments section!
My old Simms Classic Guide Pants are a treasured piece of gear - looking forward to checking these new ones out.
Why include a zippered fly and its added expense to something that does not need it? Any need for a fly in waders is lost when you eliminate the upper portion which requires that you remove all your gear in order to lower the wader to the useful level. With waist highs it takes hardly any extra time or effort to lower the wader than it does up unzip the fly and retrieve the object of interest. This seems to be a bell and/or whistle added to increase profit margin.
Alan -
I agree with you on the inclusion of the zippers, especially in the water-resistant (not waterproof) pockets. However, I don't see this as a sinister ploy to increase margin. Simms already offers a lower-priced wader pant in the RiverTek Wader Pant (actually, a convertible).
Anglers have proven again and again that they will buy more of the products that have "more features." While I personally hate waders with Darth Vader's own chest pack stitched on, apparently that's what sells. These companies react to market demand; in my experience they like to keep prices as low as possible to move units.