Rating

Versatility: 7

Size/Weight: 10

Features: 7

Construction: 8

Sleep Quality: 8

OVERALL: 8

Our lighter weight pick.

The North Face Blue Kazoo is a mummy-shaped bag that offers a great balance of warmth and light weight. It has great water repellency and uses soft, breathable fabrics with good warmth distribution throughout the bag. We love that it also packs in a bunch of thoughtful features including a hood drawstring, zipper pocket and draft collar. 

Best For: Backpacking in humid conditions

Pros: Warm, light and well-constructed.

Cons: Quite narrow foot space.

Verdict: A great choice for hiking.

Skip ahead to First Impressions, Sleeping Experience, Features Analysis, Construction and Durability, or the Final Verdict, or check out how The North Face Blue Kazoo compares to others in our list of the Top 5 Sleeping Bags.

Specs:

Packed Size: 43 x 23 cm

Weight: 1.1 kg

Fill: 700g ProDown

Approx Price: $550

A warm bag that works well in cool weather. With a water-resistant 700-fill ProDown™ filled bag, this one boasts comfortable warmth down to -9°C. This is certainly heavier than an ultralight bag, but offers the promise of much more warmth, so it all depends what you want to use it for.

You might find the narrow foot space a turnoff (we do) but that’s usually the case for mummy-shaped bags - except this one makes up for it with the anti-compression pads for even heat distribution. Or you can use the pad loops to attach to a sleeping mat for a stable and comfortable flat bottom layer, as we did.

We found it lived up to its promise on warmth, and also handled moisture really well - we slept comfortably and awoke warm and dry the next morning.

You can expect a dependable bag from the little details that add up to its overall performance. We’re talking about the fitted hood with a draft collar, pad loops for attaching to a sleeping mat, a vaulted footbox, Goose Down technology, and included compression and storage sack. The fitted hood and draft collar in particular were fantastic for maintaining warmth around our heads in the early hours of the morning.

Bonus points go to The North Face for using responsibly-sourced down in this bag, something we’d like to see more of across the market.

It’s a North Face - so we expect that it will be well-constructed of good-quality materials, and we weren’t disappointed. While the materials used are definitely not of the lightest weight, its durable ripstop fabrics really stepped up its game. No issues at all with zippers or drawstrings, this bag won’t fall apart and will withstand heavy use.

We think The Blue Kazoo is definitely worth its very reasonable price, given the few disadvantages we can find (eg. not ultralight) compared to its warmth and quality.

Why not visit our list of the Top 5 Sleeping Bags of 2024 to see how the The North Face Blue Kazoo compares?

Water & Outdoors reviews are written by our staff writers, who combined have over fifty years of experience on the water and outdoors. We may earn commissions if you choose to buy through a link you’ve clicked on our website, however this does not influence our reviews. For more information, please see our Editorial Policies.