USiA - Local Made Waders & Dry Suit - Product Review

Good evening gentlemen,

Before you read the following review, I want to stress that I am in no way affiliated with USiA and am receiving no commission. I just happened to stumble across a flippin' sweet local company that makes one helluva product and I'm just excited to be sharing it with my NWKA brothers. Hopefully this review helps some of you that are a little strapped for cash get a quality product that will keep you safe out on the water.

I'd like to formally introduce you to USiA (Under Sea Industrial Apparel) a local wader, dry suit, and dive suit manufacturer owned and operated by a man by the name of Kim Johns. I met Kim through a thread he posted on iFish. I called Kim about a month ago to ask some questions about the waders he was advertising for $149.00. The description of the materials used and the quality of the construction sounded too good to be true for the price, so I decided to take a trip to St. Helens where Kim has his factory and take a look for myself.
Kim has a military contract and designs the dry and dive suits for the United States military, marines, and even local law enforcement. Since he primarily makes professional grade dive suites, his waders and dry suits are held to a higher standard than what you can find on the shelves of your local sports store.

First of all, let me start off by saying that Kim's operation is not only legit, but quite impressive. He does not have any fancy show rooms or dressed mannequins to help sell his products, just a well structured factory with waders, dry suits, and diving suits in various stages of completion. The first thing that struck me when I picked up one of his dry suits was the quality of the suit, and the attention to detail. I'll get to some details on the dry suits a little further down, but I'd like to talk a little about the waders since that is what I went down there to check out. I looked through the samples Kim had in his shop and decided on a color scheme and boot options and placed my order. My waders arrived this week and of course, I took them out to my local watering hole right away to break them in. Here's what I found:

As noted before, these waders are very well made. As you can see, I selected a black and "gold" color theme and I went with the latex boot socks instead of the built in boot.






Starting from the bottom up, the options for the foot part of the waders or dry suits are the latex boot sock, or one of three attached boot options.






The standard boot is no additional cost, the insulated boot is roughly $35 extra, and Kim just added the option for a SERVUS bogg (or muck) style boot for $65 upgrade.






There are a number of options to select from for the materials used for the waders, dry suits, and dive suits. Most of the black portions on my waders are made out of 400 series Nylon pac cloth (however you do have the option to select 200 or 400 Series Denier Twill fabric). The yellow portions as well as the butt plate are made out of 1000D Cordura. For those of you who are not familiar with Cordura, it is incredibly tough and made to take a beating. It is the perfect material to have on the thigh of your waders or dry suit, especially if you're a kayak fisherman and are going to have Lings and Sturgeon flipping around on your lap. There are over 100 color combinations that you can select from to design your waders or dry suit. There is everything from plain colors to unique camo patterns.





Now for the nitty gritty. The stitching . These products are all triple chain stitched, then single and double heat tape sealed to ensure not a drop of moisture makes it's way in. Each product is then water and gas tested for quality. The strength of these seams are ridiculous.





The zippers Kim uses for the dry and dive suits are top of the line (and also the most expensive piece of the suit). They not only have to be completely waterproof, but also gas and pressure proof since these are the same zippers used on the dive suits. If you're interested in a relief zipper, it will set you back a little over $100 bucks, since that's pretty much the cost of the zipper itself. In the event that you do manage to rip or tear the Nylon, Denier, or Cordura, all you have to do is slap a piece of duct tape to it and you're back in business. The duct tape works as a very good temporary fix when you're on the water and don't want to cut your fishing day short. Kim stands behind his product 100%. If you have any problems or need to have your product serviced he does it all in his factory in St. Helens. Here's how it looks on with my NRS boots.




Ok, onto the big question. Are these waders breathable? The short answer is NO. However, Kim brought up a great point when I asked him about the breathability. Do you really want a "breathable" product? As far as I know we don't have the technology to have a truly breathable wader. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Waders are made to get wet, to be in water. A truly breathable wader is an oxymoron. I've experienced first hand after wading through miles of river chasing steelhead in my breathables that they aren't truly breathable. I found traces of moisture through the seams and material itself after a long day on the river. Even though the materials are not breathable, they are considerably light (especially the 200 Series Denier).

After taking these out in my kayak and putting them to the test in water, I'm completely sold. I've owned MANY waders in my time, but never ones this well made. I'm particularly pleased that these waders were designed around my body shape and size which means they don't feel awkward when I wear them like some of the generic store sizes do.  I've decided that come April, and my bonus makes its way to my bank account, I'm going back and ordering a dry suit. The materials around the neck and wrists is latex and fits comfortably. Here are some examples of the dry suits. That's Kim on the left in the standard dry suit.



And here is a rescue dry suit made out of the 400 Denier (a bit thicker material)



Now comes the big question. How much? I paid $149.00 for my waders. They are normally $199.00 however if you place your order before the end of the year you can still take advantage of the promotion. If you need a promo code, just call the shop and ask for Kim. He'll hook you up. Dry suits start at $399.00-$450 for a basic design with no relief zipper (cross entry zipper) and range to about $550 for one with a relief zipper. I've been looking for a dry suit for a while, and I have yet to find one even remotely close in price to what USiA is asking. For the quality, these dry suits should easily be worth double what Kim is selling them for.

I hope this has been helpful. Once I order my dry suit, I'll post a review on it as well. But for now, I'm lovin' my new waders. It's a perfect compliment to my Stohlquist dry top, and the yellow and black looks pretty damn good next to that yellow Hobie. 



You can see more on USiA products at:      www.usia.com

USiA
1600 Railroad Ave,
St. Helens, OR. 97051
503-366-0212

Thanks!
Paul

Yes, all that yellow blends nicely together as a package. 
You just need to get a better looking model to showcase that fine craftsmanship.   

Is USiA affiliated at all with O.S. Systems out that way, too?

Their products look very similar.

Great writeup!

AWESOME write up Paul! This seems like a great article for the front page!

Yes, all that yellow blends nicely together as a package. 
You just need to get a better looking model to showcase that fine craftsmanship.   

Is USiA affiliated at all with O.S. Systems out that way, too?

Their products look very similar.

Great writeup!

I tried to get my wife to model it, but I could get 2 of her in these waders. 
To answer your question, I'm not sure if they are affiliated with O.S.  Kim has mentioned that he's been doing this for a while but no mention of affiliates.

AWESOME write up Paul! This seems like a great article for the front page!

Thanks Noah

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A question and an opinion, believed by me to be valid, based on my understanding of science and knowledge of diving.

First the question:

Of all the Romanians in the world, why did he pick that dude to model his waders? Wasn't Madalina Ghenea available? 

Now my humble opinion:

Kim is right.  Breathability is not so much of a factor in a scuba diving dry suit.  The water completely surrounding you would prevent the fabric from breathing much since moisture goes from an area of higher concentration to an area that is warmer and drier (Vapor Diffusion) aka inside your drysuit. Also, the water is cooling you down so you don't sweat as much.  In the hot sun above water, breathability is extremely valuable.  This is why Goretex, and other breathable fabrics are used for kayaking.  On occasion, I have to wear chemical resistant suits that don't breath.  On a normal day, I can last for a couple hours in one.  On one beautiful 118 degree day in Bullhead City, AZ (many years ago) I lasted less than 35 minutes with the suit and an SCBA on.  The next hour was spent in the back of an ambulance getting the electrolytes back in balance.   Wearing a non-breathable drysuit would probably do the same thing to me in the summer.  Whereas, I can be out all day long in the Goretex drysuit.  Just my 2 cents

That being said, they do look like high quality products and it was a great review.

Great review!  Thanks for taking the time to write in detail and post all the photos.  I don't need new waders but the ifish price for that level of quality has me seriously trying to justify a purchase.

A question and an opinion believed by me to be valid based on my understanding of science and knowledge of diving.

First the question:

Of all the Romanians in the world, why did he pick that dude to model his waders? Wasn't Madalina Ghenea available? 

Now my humble opinion:

Kim is right.  Breathability is not so much of a factor in a scuba diving dry suit.  The water completely surrounding you would prevent the fabric from breathing much since moisture goes from an area of higher concentration to an area that is warmer and drier (Vapor Diffusion) aka inside your drysuit. Also, the water is cooling you down so you don't sweat as much.  In the hot sun above water, breathability is extremely valuable.  This is why Goretex, and other breathable fabrics are used for kayaking.  On occasion, I have to wear chemical resistant suits that don't breath.  On a normal day, I can last for a couple hours in one.  On one beautiful 118 degree day in Bullhead City, AZ (many years ago) I lasted less than 35 minutes with the suit and an SCBA on.  The next hour was spent in the back of an ambulance getting the electrolytes back in balance.   Wearing a non-breathable drysuit would probably do the same thing to me in the summer.  Whereas, I can be out all day long in the Goretex drysuit.  Just my 2 cents

First of all, I'm impressed with your knowledge of Romanian models. But you and I both know in way hotter than Madalina.

You're right about the Goretex. I haven't yet experienced the blazing sun in a non breathable so I can't speak to your experience, but at least here in the NW we don't have a whole lot of scorchers like in AZ. I can say that being in ANY kind of dry suit or wader on a super hot day can ruin a fishing trip.
The suit materials are pretty thin, and if you get some light colors it can reflect much of that heat for the days it does get hot. But you're probably right, it's not as comfy as some breathables on a super hot day. 


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I was looking at the website and I see they have surface drysuits that are breathable.  I like the camo one but, the stream survey one looks more practical for my needs.  I like the boots.

First of all, I'm impressed with your knowledge of Romanian models. But you and I both know in way hotter than Madalina.

I have to admit, I found her by googling 'Romanian Women'.  Apparently, I am also betrothed to some Romanian woman I have never met.   Stupid Amazon One-Click shopping! 

Very Cool,You look like a Super Hero..

I had Kim make my new rain bibs (for cold wet days in the sled) and they are plain bullet proof. They make my old grundens look like the expensive crap they were.  USIA products are awesome and I just wish I could afford one of their boats!

 That said I totally agree with Craig.  I thought of having him build me some dry suits but after many years of paddling on the ocean in the hot summer sun experience told me their inability to breath was a deal breaker.  Waterproofness is only part of the equation for a good kayak fishing dry suit as 99.99% of the time you are not in the water.  Spend 8 plus hours in motion on a hot summer day on the salt and you will rank breathability equally as high as waterproofness.

I'd really like to go check that place out, those look killer. $100 for a zipper sounds steep, but not having to unzip a pfd to get at your shoulder straps would be awful nice.

I was pretty well set to try a farmer john with a rz for my next get up, due to the fact that G-Dog and PNW were the only guys at Sunset Bay AOTD that weren't shivering by days end, but now I have another option to consider.

Even at there regular price, the waders look like they would be great.

As I was looking at their site I didn't see the options of "no boots" or "relief zipper."  I guess you'd need to call in for that stuff.

Went down to USiA today and got fitted up for some waders. Great little shop, very nice folks. Everything is custom made, and they'll add any details you are looking for. I will post a some pics of my waders when they're done in a couple of weeks.

She asked me to mention that they're blowing out some surplus bags they made on a miltary contract. The CBR (chemical, biological, radiological) bags are splash proof and lined. A lot of bag for $100. They have a few different colors available.

Thanks for the review.  I am contacting them via FB to see about custom fitting for non-standard sizes like myself.  Would love to have a suit that fits better while I continue to change my body shape.