BB Wear Ultra Ventilated Suit - Product Review - Part 1

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today we're going to be looking at the BB Wear Ultra Ventilated Bee Suit. So I'm going to split this video up into 3 parts. So we're going to do an initial unboxing today, talk to you a little bit about the technology behind the suit, We're going to do a field test where we do work it on a very hot day to kind of show you how sting-proof and how well ventilated the suit is. And then we're going to do another field test where we compare it on a really, really hot day to the normal standard fabric suits from BB Wear. So a little bit of background as to why I chose the ultra ventilated BB Wear suit. In the summer, I inspect a lot of beehives. I cram all of my inspections into a single day, So kind of on any given day, I could be inspecting between 100 and 150 beehives. It's hot, sweaty work. I find with some of the other suits that I use, the standard kind of fabric suits, the actual depth of the suit isn't quite thick enough to stop bees stinging directly through it. This leads me to having to wear either a t-shirt or a fleece or some sort of tracksuit bottoms or something underneath my full-body suit in order to give me the sting protection that I need when working with so many hives. That leads to another issue, which is I overheat. So I always kind of prepare for my beekeeping inspection days by taking 2 or 3 litres of water with me. I get very hot, I get very sweaty, and by the end of it, I'm practically a mess. So I've been kind of keeping a really keen eye on the developments in the ventilated suit market, And I've finally splashed the cash and gone with the BB Wear Ultra Ventilated Bee Suit, and I'm going to give it a real good trial run this season and give you my thoughts. And I have to say, my first thoughts on the product are absolutely superb. It's really evident just from kind of feeling the product that it's really well made. The products are kind of made to last. You can just tell from the way that it's put together that it really is a premium product. I'm so excited to kind of get it out into the field and work with the technology and see if it can give me the benefits that I'm kind of hoping to achieve from a ventilated suit. So first off, I just want to give you kind of a bit of information about the technical content of the suit. So this isn't a standard suit where you just take a kind of sheet of material and you cut it to size and you wear that as kind of like your standard B suit. This is really high-tech stuff. So the guys at BBR, they've given me a little bit of information just to kind of give you some feedback and give you a little bit of a greater understanding as to why it's such a superior ventilated wetsuit compared to others on the market. So the wetsuit is a technical-grade wetsuit and it's made of 100% polyester. So in between 2 layers of polyester, there is a polyester filament weaved in between the 2 layers. Now the reason that you get this kind of 3-layer buildup, and that's common across a lot of ventilated wetsuits, But particularly with the BB Wear Ultra Ventilated Suit, the reason they build it up like that with the interweaved filament layers is so they can give you 5mm of bee protection. Now, they looked into this and they kind of tried to understand the length of the bee sting. They went away and they looked at the length of even an Asian hornet sting, and they've kind of designed the suit around the worst-case scenario for the length of a bee stinger. So I understand it's kind of around 3mm. BB Wear have taken that to the next level, so they've not gone for 3mm, they've not gone for 4mm, they've gone for 5mm bee sting protection within their suit. So that gives you the confidence that the bees can't sting you through the suit, and that is something that I found with some of their other suits is that it gives you excellent protection, but if you lean over and you pull the fabric tight up to you, it's not 100% guaranteed that it's not going to sting you. So although this suit is sold as an ultra-ventilated suit, it's kind of giving you that headline promise of it being a lot cooler to wear and obviously being ventilated. It's the sting-proof qualities that really kind of draw me to this product. They've built it so it's kind of 5 millimeters thick all over whilst maintaining the really good ventilation properties and giving you the ability to kind of work your bees and not get stung at the same time. So we'll test that out, we'll put that out to kind of Real good test in the field. We'll go and work with some of our really horrible colonies, um, and we'll just kind of see how we get on with it. And I'm really hopeful that we're not going to get stung, but I put my trust in BB Wear. I've seen some of the feedback, and my initial kind of thoughts on the product are that it's absolutely excellent. So when I got the suit yesterday, the first thing I did was have a little bit of a play with it. I put it on, and one thing that I noticed was that it's, it's a really strange construction. It's almost kind of like something straight out of NASA. So like I say, it's got these 2 layers of polyester either side, and then sandwiched between them you've got this filament. And when you squeeze the filament, it really compresses down to nothing, and then as soon as you let go, it bounces back. So even if you were to kind of pull it taut over your skin, the resistance is there in order to kind of let that material bounce back to give you that 5mm bee sting protection. It feels, it feels really strange and it feels really high-tech, so I've got good promise that it's actually gonna work and kind of deliver that bee sting protection that we're looking for. Now, while BB Wear were researching fabrics to use here, they were very aware that what they didn't want to create— when you're meshing and interlocking 3 fabrics together, you can create an actual suit that provides insulation properties. So that's kind of how a lot of insulation products work, is they trap pockets of air, and then that pocket of air warms up and keeps it close to your skin. which means that it keeps you warm and insulated as opposed to cool. Now when they were researching the fabrics of this wetsuit, they paid really good attention to the fact that they didn't want to create a product that was insulating and they wanted to create a product where the air could pass readily through the material and it didn't kind of trap it in order to kind of keep the cooling properties as beneficial as they possibly could be. So when we go out into the field and we do the field test, you know what I mean, we'll do it on a nice breezy day, we'll give you feedback for that. It's just good to know, kind of be aware, it's designed with the intention to allow the air to pass through, whereas some other suits potentially can trap that air close to your skin and then not give you the cooling effect that you're looking for with a ventilated suit. So I think something really, really important to discuss about this suit, and there's no getting away from it, it's an expensive suit. And as you've seen in my previous videos, I do recommend spending quite a bit of money on your suit. There's so many cheap Chinese versions of these suits, cheap Chinese versions of kind of all suits on the market, but you really, really do get what you pay for when it comes to these suits. So I've used BV Wear for years now, I've got 3 different versions of suits from them and every single one of them is in pristine condition still. So they take their workmanship very, very seriously. They offer a 5-year warranty on all of the ultra-ventilated suits. And they offer a repair service as well, so if there's any kind of defects that do become apparent outside of the warranty, they maintain stock of all the critical components so that they can repair your suit for you. But they started making these suits 5 years ago and they haven't had to do a single repair on any of the suits. So it really kind of goes to show, you know what I mean, they put a lot of effort into sourcing the most premium materials for the suit and then the real attention to detail by kind of by the way the wetsuits are actually put together. So they're all put together in the UK, it's all put together with kind of premium products and then goes through a very stringent quality control process in order to maintain the longevity of the suit and ensure that you kind of get years of service out of them. So B.B. Wear have developed the functionality of this wetsuit further and they use something that's called long-life veiling. So they've had the veil specifically developed for their own functionality. So it's a really high-quality veil, and you can kind of get that from as soon as you put the suit on. You can understand it's a really, really high-quality veil. It's got excellent visibility. It's fully machine washable, so when you get splashes of honey or any wax or anything like that, you can pop it off, put it in the washing machine, and it will come out like new every time with no damage to the fabric in which it's made of. Another real good feature of it is it's UV resistant. So with a lot of these products, when they come into a lot of contact with the sun, they can deteriorate That's not so with the long-life veiling. Like, they've put a lot of kind of research into it, and it's expected to last at least as long as the kind of suit would be expected to last. So why should you buy this suit? The suit won the gold medal for the inventions award at Apimondia in Canada this year. I don't think you can get much of a higher accolade than that. It's won the gold in one of the biggest beekeeping conventions for products in the invention category across the whole world. The feedback and reviews for this have been absolutely superb. A lot of people are kind of moving fully over to these ventilated wetsuits now, and I have to say I think BB Wear is sitting at the top of the ventilated wetsuit category. It really is quite a superb product. So enough of me talking without the suit on, let's get it on and see what we think. So I just went off camera then just to kind of try and put the suit on, but I thought it'd actually be worthwhile you seeing me put this on. I've mentioned it in a couple of other reviews for BB Wear and other B-suits, but one of the huge benefits One of the benefits of these suits is the fact that they come with kind of zips on the legs like that. Other B-suits don't come with that functionality, and what this allows you to do is it allows you to kind of put the B-suit on over your wellies. So obviously I'm not wearing wellies, I'm in the house today, but I'll just kind of show you how kind of quick that is to get on. Okay, so So there we go. So, so I'd have wellies on there, but the wellies would slip straight through. Really, really great functionality to be able to do that. It saves a huge amount of time in the field if you're kind of traveling between apiaries and you want to take the suit off. So right, let's talk a little bit about the suit. So you've got your thumb pulls kind of on either end there. Great piece of functionality on the suit there already. Really helps when it comes to kind of putting your gloves on, means that you get good overlap between your gloves and the suit. You've got additional cuff protection here, so when it's being pulled tight and compressed with your gloves, it's going to give you that extra thickness and mean that you're not going to get stung around there. You've got an elasticated cuff on both sides that stops any ingress from bees if you're just using say, a plastic disposable glove. And then everything you can see here is all fully mesh. So like I said, you've got the 2 layers of woven polyester, and then that's sandwiched around a filament structure that's also made from polyester. So the suit is 100% polyester. 2 pockets, both Velcro. And they've gone a step further from their old suits and they've put Velcro all the way across now, which is something I really, really like. So that gives you very, very secure storage there. They're nice big pockets, you can get loads of stuff in there. You know me from my previous reviews, I like to carry a lot of stuff in my B-suits, so having secure big pockets is a big plus for me. BB Wear branded, so all of their new suits come with this nice hexagon branding. And then also, for I think it's either between £8 to £12 depending on whether you want text or a logo, BB Wear will actually brand up your suit for you. So I previously got my suits branded from someone else, so I bought the suit from BB Wear and then took it to get branded elsewhere. Now when I took it to get branded elsewhere, they said I couldn't get the branding there because their machine wouldn't slot inside the pocket, it was too small. So they could do it there for me, but it would effectively stitch the pocket shut, so I didn't do that. So it's nice to know that for a really kind of cheap and competitive price, BBwear will do your branding for you. I think that's a great touch personally. It's good for kind of any photo shoot that you want to take. It's good to kind of just promote your brand and your logo, so I would definitely take BBwear up on that. As you can see, the suit for me is an absolute perfect fit. It might look a little bit kind of like blotchy around here, um, and curls up, but that's just really the nature of the fabric. It keeps it away from your skin, which gives you added protection. But in terms of length and in terms of height, it's absolutely perfect. And the reason for that is that this is a custom-designed suit from BB Wear. So they know me now. I've got 3 extra inches in this dimension in the suit. So if I take a standard extra large from them, it's too tight. If I take an extra large— sorry, if I take an extra extra large, it's still too short but it's too wide. So they do me an extra large suit with 3 additional inches in the body, and then for me that's absolutely perfect. So if you're an unusual size, be it large or small, speak to BB Wear, send them your dimensions, and they will cut you a specific suit to fit. And they do that for a very competitive fee. I believe it's around £20 or £25 It's really not that much more to get the suit to fit perfectly. So I urge anyone who's interested in one of these suits, go and try them on, and if one of the standard sizes fits you, great. If not, send them your measurements and they will cut you a bespoke suit to fit. Right, so back to the functionality of the suit. We've got the 2 pockets here, full Velcro strips, lots of deep storage. We've got 2 pockets here, very, very nice and deep. Um, no zips or anything on these, no Velcro. So these are kind of just for loose items, things you wouldn't want to lose, you put in there. So you can kind of chuck whatever in there, but good size pockets. Then you've got another 2 really deep pockets here, and then again you've got the Velcro. It's not full width on here, but you, you can put less important items in here. But the main important thing is that you do have the Velcro strip there and it keeps it nice and shut for you. Another really neat feature that I didn't realize, and you get this on both sides, you get one there and one there, and these are hive tool pockets. They're great. I always leave my hive tools lying around, so I'm going to load these up, put a couple of hive tools, one in each pocket, and then I've always got one when I need one. So we put the veil on, and I have to say, this is the best veil I've ever seen on a bee suit. The visibility throughout it is just superb. I've taken this outside and kind of had a look around, and it really is the kind of best valve that I've ever used. I always go for the fencing style, that's just a preference, and when I'm out in the field, I wear a cap just to keep it away from my face. But to be honest, the design and the way they put the ribs into this one, it's never come close. Even if I'm kind of moving around like this, it's a really, really good design, so I may be able to even get away without a cap. The zips are really solid. You get a good feel from the zips, they're nice High-quality zips, and then you've got a Velcro band across here. So once you've done the zips up, you just fold it together and there's absolutely no way that any of the bees can get in. So a little bit more about the suit. When I looked at the kind of holes, I thought, I wonder why they're that size. I did a little bit more digging into it, and basically the size of the holes within the ventilated mesh are designed so that they're small enough that no wasps, Asian hornets or no bees can access and get their stingers down deep into it, but they're big enough to allow that through-flow of air to keep you cool and ventilated. So BeBeware went away and did some real kind of detailed studies on the size of bees, the size of wasps, the size of Asian hornets, the length of their stingers, and kind of came up with this as the absolute optimum size in terms of A, protection from stings, and then B, ventilation and throughput of air to keep the cooling effect as high as possible. So a little bit about the company. I've used BB Wear for years. I know James down there, and they kind of offer a really customer-focused service. If you stick them into Google, you'll see they're positive review after positive review. They're based in the UK, so they kind of operate out of Cornwall. All of the products, all of the materials are sourced kind of locally. All of the wetsuits are manufactured within Cornwall, so it gives you confidence that it's a UK-sourced manufacturing operation. So they've done the research into the materials, they bring them into Cornwall, and then they, they do all of the stitching and manufacturing kind of within the UK. It gives you that confidence that the quality is there, and it means that they can kind of have a real strong quality assurance process as well. So I mean, I've seen kind of firsthand the quality of some of the suits coming out of China, and there's no getting away from it, they are considerably cheaper than the BB Wear ultra ventilated suit, but in my opinion, the quality is nowhere near as good, and you're more than likely going to be kind of looking at repairs within 6 months to a year because of kind of faulty products. So there's just a huge difference in what you get in China and what you get in the UK. And if you kind of look at the reviews and the history around BB Wear, it should give you confidence that purchasing a kind of BB Wear ultra ventilated suit, it's a real investment in your bees and the future of your beekeeping. as opposed to kind of going through 5 or 6 cheaper suits in the same time frame. So just another thing to say about the company is that due to their success in their gold medal from Apimondio, they're actually offering free postage on the Ultra Bee ventilated suit at the moment. So if you're interested, I would get in there quickly because I think once the demand goes up in the summer months for this suit, so when it starts getting warm and people are a bit of a sweaty mess when they're doing their beekeeping, I think the sales of these are really gonna, gonna go through the roof. So I would advise you, if you're thinking about getting one of these suits, you might want to get in there quickly and get it while the kind of free postage offer is still available. They're quite bulky suits, I mean, they come in a box about this big, so the postage, I'm not sure how much they charge for it, but kind of it's an expensive suit, so any money you can get off it is a really good thing. So I would urge you to kind of go out and buy it as soon as you possibly can. So I've had some information from BB Wear and they've given me an estimate that this suit should last for at least 10 years. So they're giving you a warranty for 5 years for any manufacturing defect, and then they expect that the suit should last for at least 10 years. So they're about £350, so you're paying about £35 a year for your suit, which is equivalent to maybe kind of 4 or 5 jars of honey. It's really not that much. I've said investment in a good quality beekeeping suit pays for itself time and time again because you don't get stressed out when you're beekeeping. You can keep yourself nice and cool and you can focus on delivering good outputs for your bees as opposed to getting hot, sweaty, dehydrated, and making mistakes. So I just thought I'd give you a few kind of like shots of the suit. So this is the suit from the front, this is the suit from the side, this is the suit from the back, and then obviously the other side again. So this video is just to kind of give you a bit of a detail about the technical content of the suit, the reason I decided to buy it, how much it costs, the promotions that are running at the moment, and just give you a bit more information about what the suit is about and why I think you should go and get one. We'll follow this up with 2 detailed reviews. So we're going to do a— we're going to do a field test on a really, really aggressive colony. We'll choose the most aggressive colony, we'll go in, we'll do an inspection without any smoke And we'll let the bees try and sting me, and I'll tell you, and I'll be honest with you, if they sting me or not. But looking at the kind of the density and the fact that it springs back so readily each time, I think they're going to really struggle to sting through this. So we'll do— that's the next video that we're going to do. We'll wait until the season is upon us, we'll find a horrible colony that's going to be requeened anyway, and we will do a full test without any smoke to determine How well the suit copes with angry, nasty bees trying to sting you. Then we'll do a second review, and the second review will be a side-by-side review. So I will split my inspection of 100 colonies up into 2 parts. The first part I will do in my normal suit, um, we'll choose a very hot day, and then you can have a look at me afterwards and see how hot and sweaty and bothered I am. And then the second half of the day, I'll put on the new BB Wear Ultra Ventilated Suit, and then we'll have a look at me at the end and see if I'm equally sweaty. The claim with this suit is that it's got such a high sting protection that you can do it in your pants. I love the, I love the idea of that— beekeeping in your pants. So we'll do that as a demo as well. So please stay tuned. Like I say, we're splitting this up into 3 reviews. First one today, we'll do a bit of an unboxing, talk to you about the kind of technical details of the suit, all of the stuff we've covered in this video. Second review is to test the sting-proof nature of the suit, and then the third review is to test how well the air flows through it and how well it keeps you cool. So I'm going to do some close-ups now of the suit to try and give you kind of a better angle as to how the fabrics are weaved and put together, and try and give you a bit of a demo as to how it springs back to maintain that 5mm sting-proof Fabric. So I've got the suit laid down on the table now. I just want to give you a bit of a feel as to how well the suit compresses. It's quite difficult to pick this up on film, so I'll do my best just to show you how well it compresses and how well that bounces back. It gives you the 5mm bee sting protection. You can see we push it in, it compresses down to nothing, and then you move it back and it instantly bounces back, and you still get that kind of 5mm protection on it. So it's strange that when you do it over a large surface area like that, it's incredibly difficult to compress it down, which is good, which means if you're kind of leaning it over and kind of bending over, it's not going to pull and reduce that 5mm. It's just when you have a real kind of direct impact that it will crush like that, and then it pops straight back up and there's no mark or indentation or anything. So that gives me real confidence that there's no way that the bee stingers will be able to pierce and penetrate this suit. and get down to your flesh. So I just wanted kind of to get a close-up on the suit in terms of the weaving. Now you can see there that in between the holes you've got these really, really fine filaments. So you can kind of just see that just between there, you can see these really fine filaments. And that's the thing, that when you push it down, it compresses. And you can see they kind of compress, and then I push it back up and they all bounce back. So you can kind of see that throughout the suit, it's these filaments here that give you that 5mm bee sting protection, and then it allows the air to flow through it nicely, which keeps you cool. They're the 2 main selling points of this suit. It's sting-proof, virtually sting-proof, and it also keeps you cool, and that's by layering these 2 layers of polyester honeycomb structures and then having the filaments in between. So we just show it again. You can press that down, you can see it compress, and then you see it bounce back up again. It's quite amazing how quickly it bounces back up. So that's it. As you can see, it's a really, really top quality suit. I urge everyone who is interested in A, a sting-proof suit, and B, working with your bees without having to be fussed about how hot it is, to buy one of these suits. Take advantage of the free postage, and I'm sure you'll be really, really happy just as I am. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, Unbelievably, next week is forecast to be sunny, so we might even be able to get outside and go and look at some bees. We'll obviously wear the new bee suit, and I'll give you a bit of a test as to how that's going as well. So thanks for watching my videos, and I'll see you next time.