Reima Wingon ReimaTec Waterproof Kids’ Ski Pants

By Thomas Ridgeway · October 21, 2026 · 9 min read

Reima Wingon ReimaTec Waterproof Kids’ Ski Pants by Reima (model Wingon, 5100052A), insulated ski trousers with detachable suspenders

For the four-to-ten-year-old who spends ski school sitting in the snow as often as standing on skis, and who still has to be dry when we collect them at half past three.

Four sit-downs before the first chairlift

Our six-year-old sat down in the snow four times between the ski bus and the first chairlift, once on purpose, to find out whether her new trousers would let the cold in. They did not. At the half-past-three pickup the seat of her black Wingon was dry to the touch, while the boy next to her in the ski-school queue had a dark, wet ring running from his knee to the top of his boot.

Reima builds the Wingon for exactly that kind of day: insulated ski trousers in ReimaTec fabric with a water column above 12,000 mm, every seam sealed, 100 g of Re-Loft Flex insulation and elastic suspenders that clip off when nobody wants them. Thirteen sizes run by body height from 92 to 164 cm, about two to fourteen years. We put two pairs through five autumn ski days on a Tyrolean glacier and one apartment wash: our daughter’s in size 116, her eight-year-old brother’s in 128.

The price is EUR 129.95 for most colours and EUR 124.95 for a few end-of-line shades, with retailers between EUR 94.99 and 144.99. That is the middle of serious children’s ski wear, well above the supermarket pair and far below the designer labels. The catch arrives in two places, and we met both inside a week: the knees and the seat are where hard play shows first, and the fit changes from one child to the next more than any size chart admits.

A dry child buys the whole afternoon

The expensive failure on a family ski week is rarely cold. It is wet. A child whose trousers soak through at eleven is back in the hotel by twelve, and the ski-school afternoon you paid for is spent in the room with a hairdryer and a sulk. Sitting and kneeling press meltwater into fabric far harder than falling snow ever does, which is why 12,000 mm matters more on the seat of a six-year-old than on any adult jacket, and why sealed seams matter at the crotch, where a plain stitched seam would let the wet straight through.

Warmth came without bulk. On a morning that started at minus eight at the top station, a merino base layer under the Wingon was all our daughter needed; her brother, who runs hot, skied in thin leggings and never asked to go in. Breathability is rated at 7,000 g/m² over 24 hours or better, which suits the stop-start rhythm of ski school, and at lunch nobody peeled off clammy legs. A teenager skinning uphill would want more.

The bigger win was independence. The waist is elastic with a velcro adjuster, the suspenders stay put, and the hems open wide enough to slide over ski boots before the inner snow gaiter snaps shut around the boot cuff. Our son dressed himself in the boot room on day two and every morning after, which saved one of us about four minutes and one argument a day, or twenty minutes across the week: a whole warm-up lap with the ski school.

Boot room yes, departure gate no

On the slope the Wingon behaved the way ski trousers should, which means that by Tuesday we had stopped thinking about it. The black reinforcement at the hems shrugged off the clatter of skis being carried, crossed and dropped on the walk to the lift, and the inner gaiters kept snow out of both pairs of boots through two tumbles into the deep stuff at the edge of the piste. The chairlift benches were crusted with the night’s ice every morning, and nobody arrived at the top with a damp seat. Snowballs were rolled, lobbed and sat on for an hour after lessons, and the trousers came back to the hotel dry inside.

Ski school is where the suspenders earn their keep, and also where they cost us. They hold the trousers up through a morning of falling over, so no cold strip of back appears when an instructor hauls a child upright by the jacket. The price comes at the mid-station toilet. With a ski jacket zipped to the chin, a six-year-old cannot slide the straps off her own shoulders, so one of us clumped into a crowded washroom in ski boots for a step that took two minutes; the front snap and zip she managed alone. One suspender buckle also crept looser by lunch. By day three she had found her own fix: suspenders off before ski school, velcro tabs pulled one notch tighter.

The pockets are small. Two zip pockets took a lift pass and a tissue, while the goggle case, the spare gloves and the sun cream rode in our rucksack. On a glacier in late October the light off the snow is fierce, and the La Roche-Posay Anthelios Dermo-Pediatrics spray went on two faces in the car park before anyone was allowed near a lift.

Back at the hotel the Wingon asks for no special treatment, which is the point. On day four, after a wet afternoon of snow-fort building, both pairs went through the apartment machine at 40 °C, inside out with every zip closed, then into the dryer on low. They were hanging in the boot room again before breakfast. Before you travel with one pair per child, ask the hotel whether there is a guest laundry or a heated ski room.

In transit the Wingon has no job at all: it is not airport kit and not car kit. On the drive up our children ride in leggings and change at the lift station, because 100 g of insulation between a child and a car-seat harness keeps the harness from lying snug against the body. Nobody needs ski trousers at a departure gate either, so ours travel in the ski bag, rolled around the boots.

The numbers behind a dry seat

• Waterproofing: ReimaTec outer with a water column above 12,000 mm; every seam sealed.
• Breathability: at least 7,000 g/m² per 24 hours.
• Insulation: 100 g Re-Loft Flex (90% recycled REPREVE polyester), built for roughly 0 to minus 20 °C.
• Fabric: recycled polyester outer with PU coating (40,000 Martindale abrasion cycles); ReimaTec Duraplus reinforcement on the most heavily worn lower-leg sections at the leg ends (80,000).
• Fit and fastening: detachable, adjustable elastic suspenders; elastic waist with velcro adjuster and belt loops; front snap and zip; two zip pockets.
• Snow protection: inner snow gaiters with a snap; hems wide enough for ski and snowboard boots.
• Sizes: 92 to 164 cm body height in 13 sizes (about 2 to 14 years); about 6 cm of growing room, no length adjustment.
• Finish: water- and dirt-repellent, made without PFAS.
• Care: 40 °C machine wash inside out, zips and velcro closed, no softener; tumble dry at up to 40 °C.

Read the growth line twice: in a family with two or three children it decides how many winters one pair will see.

Knees, seat and the 6 cm ceiling

The first thing to go is the matte finish. By day five the knees on our son’s pair had turned glossy, and the seat of our daughter’s carried a scuffed patch the size of a palm from the sledge run behind the hotel. Nothing had opened. But knees and seat are where these trousers give way under hard play, kneeling in snow forts and riding a plastic sledge on the backside, and a hole there in January means buying the same EUR 129.95 pair twice in one winter, with the younger sibling’s hand-me-down gone too. A roll of fabric repair tape in the ski bag costs a few euros and buys the rest of the season.

Fit is the second cost, and it is paid in time. Our daughter is slim, and her 116 sat loose at the waist until we pulled the velcro tabs tight; her brother is broad through the middle, and his 128 was snug at the waist while long in the leg. Same brand, same chart, two different answers. Measure height and waist, order the two neighbouring sizes and check the retailer’s return window before the tags come off. One extra parcel beats a season in trousers that pinch.

Then the ceiling. Each size carries about 6 cm of growing room and there is no hem to let down, so a five-to-eight-year-old who grows 5 to 6 cm a year gets one winter out of a pair, two if growth is slow. Compare that with the POC POCito Skull helmet we reviewed, whose rear dial adjusts across 51 to 54 cm of head circumference and follows a child through more than one winter. With the Wingon, EUR 129.95 buys one season, and the size run stops at 164 cm.

FFH Gear Score

The marks follow the week. The Wingon did its one job, dry and warm from first lift to afternoon pickup, on every day we skied, and that is where most of its score comes from. Two things hold it back: knees and seat that show hard play within days, and a fit we had to work at for one of our two children.

• Functionality: 8.5 / 10.
• Quality & Durability: 7.0 / 10.
• Ease of Use: 7.5 / 10.
• Family Practicality: 7.5 / 10.
• Pricing: $$$ of $$$$$.
• FFH Gear Score: 7.6 / 10.

Measure in October, then let them sit

If we were buying tomorrow, we would start with a tape measure. For a child between 104 and 140 cm, about four to ten, who will spend the winter in ski school and on groomed pistes, buy the Wingon in October at the child’s true height, leave room for a thin fleece in the coldest weeks, and expect one dry, warm winter from it. For the child who lives on the sledge run from December to March, buy it only with repair tape in the bag and an eye on the knees, or choose trousers with reinforced knees and a hem that lets down.

Skip it if your family skis one week a year and the child is mid-growth spurt: EUR 129.95 for six days on the snow is a poor trade when the trousers will not fit next February. Everyone else gets the pair we would pack again, dry at the half-past-three pickup on every day we tested it.

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