Yesterday we wrote about how to tell if a snowsuit actually fits. The question that comes right after it, almost every time, is whether it will still be any good next winter.
That one has a real answer, and it isn't about luck. There are three ways a snowsuit gets a second and third winter out of a child, and they're all things you can check with your hands before you buy. Worth knowing which one you're looking at.
1. It grows with them
Turn the sleeve inside out at the cuff. On a suit built to grow you'll find a row of snaps, or a folded hem seam, that lets the sleeve out an inch or two at a time. Same inside the leg.
The WeeDo suits that came in last week call theirs WeeGrow snaps — you let them out a notch a year rather than starting over every September. WeeDo also sells spare parts and repair kits, which is the part we find telling. A brand that stocks a replacement zipper pull is a brand that expects the suit to still be in use when one goes.
One caveat. Buy for this winter, not for three winters from now. The snaps add length later; they do not make an oversized suit fit today, and a suit that's two sizes too big rides up the second they sit down on a sled.
2. It gets handed down
This is the one that matters in the baby sizes, where a suit gets worn hard for twelve months and then there's a cousin, or a second baby, or a friend due in March.
What you're looking for here isn't a grow system — it's whether the suit comes back from a winter with another one left in it. Check the cuffs: rib-knit inner cuffs take the worst of the wet and are the first thing to go slack. Check whether the hood comes off, because a removable hood is one less thing to wear out. And look at the seams where a baby actually sits, which is where a suit gets asked the hardest question.
We've been an authorized Canada Goose retailer since 2006, which is long enough to watch the same Baby Lamb snowsuits come back through the shop on a second and third child. They have a fleece-lined back panel, a removable hood and reinforced rib-knit cuffs, in 12-18M and 18-24M.
Mini A Ture's Wisti is the same idea — a fleece-lined one-piece, and the size run goes 12m through 4y in five colours, so the next child can carry on in the same thing instead of starting from scratch.
3. You buy it in two halves
Here's the one nobody suggests, and for a child past four it's often the right answer.
A one-piece has to fit everywhere at once, so the whole suit is finished the moment any one part runs out. Buy a bib or snow pants plus a jacket, and the halves grow independently. In our experience legs go before sleeves nearly every time — so when a growth spurt wrecks an otherwise perfectly good setup, you replace the trousers and keep the jacket.
The Canada Goose Eaglet Bib Overall is the classic version of this — a plain bib silhouette with elasticized suspenders and nothing on it to outgrow except length. Kids sizes 4-5Y and 6-7Y, youth S (7-8) and M (10-12).
Mini A Ture's Wilas snow trousers do the same job with detachable braces, 2y through 6y, which is handy if the braces are the thing that annoys them.
The detail nobody asks about until they need it
This one has nothing to do with longevity and everything to do with your actual Tuesday: on a one-piece, look for a zipper that runs around the waist.
It means a bathroom emergency at the playground is the bottom half coming off — not the whole suit, both boots, and the mittens that were clipped on. The WeeDo suits have it. We point at that zipper more than any other feature on the floor, and it is never the thing anyone comes in asking about.
Pick the mechanism before you pick the colour
That's really the whole thing. If you've got one child and you want this purchase to be the end of it, buy the one that grows. If there's a younger sibling coming behind, buy the one that survives being handed down — and look at the cuffs and the seat seam, not the label. If they're past four and growing in spurts, buy it in two halves.
Then it's just a question of which one they'll actually put on without an argument, which is a different article.
What's on the floor right now
Sizes from 12 months up to 14-16, across three brands:
- WeeDo — one-piece snowsuits with the grow snaps and the waist zipper: a glitter unicorn, a purple bunny, and two pastel COSMO prints. Matching mittens clip to the cuffs, sold separately.
- Mini A Ture — Wisti fleece-lined one-piece snowsuits in five colours, Wang and Algeana fleece-lined jackets, and Wilas snow trousers.
- Canada Goose — Baby Lamb snowsuits, Kids Grizzly snowsuits, and the Eaglet Bib Overall in kids and youth sizes. We've been an authorized retailer since 2006.
Come and try one on, and let them sit down on the floor in it. You'll learn more in four minutes than any size chart can tell you — and if you want to see a cuff let out, that takes about ten seconds and it's usually the thing that settles it.
Princess & the Pea, 5112 Mullen Road, Edmonton. Mon–Fri 10–6, Sat–Sun 10–4:30. Online any time at princesspea.ca.
