One of several innovative South Korean outdoor brands that's built up a devout American following, Helinox has developed a strong reputation for sleek, aesthetic and lightweight camping and backpacking gear. It's best-known in North America for its light, compact chairs, cots and camp furniture, and now it's bringing over some coveted Asian-market kit for Americans to get their hands on. The highlight is the company's slim, solo-sleeper cot-tents, but the 7-foot-high (2.1-m) Field Tunnel Tent is a pretty cool addition for groups.
We first spotted Helinox's cot-tents a few years ago when scrolling through its Japanese website. Impressed with what looked like a lightweight but very comfortable way to camp in the backcountry, we immediately jumped tabs over to the company's US website to search for pricing ...only to realize the company didn't sell the tents in the US.
In fact, Helinox's PR team confirms the company's tents have never been offered in North America before this month. They arrive now by way of a new limited-edition Tactical Collection that promises military levels of durability and dependability. If that reads to you as "heavy," you're not off, as the tent-cot looks ultra-sleek and light but isn't exactly competitive with the lightest solo shelters already out there. Even Helinox advertises it for motorcycle touring and car camping, without mentioning muscle-powered journeys like backpacking or bikepacking.
Helinox's Tactical tent lineup doesn't comprise full setups but rather add-on fabric for existing Helinox cots. The most traditional of the bunch is the Tactical Cot Tent Fabric, a cot-top one-person mini-tent with massive doors on each side. It includes a collapsible shock-corded pole frame and packs into a carry size of 22.5 x 8 x 8 in (57 x 20 x 20 cm) weighing 3.9 lb (1.8 kg), before factoring in the cot itself.
The Tent Fabric kit surrounds the occupant with solid fabric crafted from water-repellent, weather-ready 70D nylon materials but doesn't quite sound like it's built to hold up to serious precipitation or storms. For that, buyers will want to add the Tent Solo Fly, which sets up over top the main tent fabric body to provide more serious, seam-taped waterproof protection. It comes with stakes and guy lines, includes multiple doors, one of which serves as an awning that pitches with two trekking poles, packs the same size as the Tent Fabric and weighs 3.2 lb (1.5 kg).
The third member of the new Tactical cot tent family is the Tent Mesh kit, which offers an airier tent body with tall tub floor and mesh upper. It features the same general shape, pole system and door style as the Tent Fabric kit. It also packs down to the same carry size but weighs a little less than the solid fabric at 3.5 lb (1.6t kg). It might work okay on its own in the most reliably clear and dry weather but would be best used in conjunction with the Solo Fly at less predictable times.
Again, those kits don't include the cot but work with a variety of Helinox cot products: the Cot One Convertible, Cot One Convertible Insulated, Tactical Cot Convertible, High Cot HDB, and High Cot One. Each cot weighs between 4.8 and 7 lb (2.2 and 3.2 kg) packed, so you can start to see how the full weight of a Tactical cot-tent kit won't be the most back/bikepack-friendly for a solo traveler.
The piecemeal nature of the collection and the weight offer a possible reason Helinox didn't offer the cot-tents in the US previously, and pricing really drives the point home. Looking at a setup of US$280 Tent Mesh and $175 Solo Fly, you're already at $455. That's pretty expensive even if you already have the cot itself, but if you don't, that'll set you back another $350 to $500. So you quickly tally up a bill of $800 or $900+ on a fairly heavy shelter for just one person.
The cot-tent setup definitely looks comfier than the typical ground tent, but we'd be inclined to buy a cheaper, lighter tent and throw in a cot or inflatable pad before spending that kind of money. Perhaps they'll add a more affordable all-in-one package down the line if the Tactical Collection garners more interest than sales. Perhaps not.
Speaking of cool kit that's way expensive, the Tactical Field Tunnel Tent is the final tent in Helinox's Tactical Collection. As something of a party shelter with 140-sq ft footprint, it exists at the very opposite end of the spectrum from solo cot camping. Cook in it; eat in it; sleep in it; lounge in it; play corn hole in it – call it home base for the duration of your camping adventure. That is, if you're willing to spend $2,950.
If those price tags don't hit you like a roundhouse kick to the eye, and you're interested in jumping into the Helinox Tactical world, you'd better act fast. The limited edition lineup seems to be popular, and the Solo Fly is already sold out.
Source: Helinox
