In this guide
Simms put a zipper on the G3.
For more than twenty years the G3 Guide had no zip. You stepped in, pulled the bib up, clipped the suspenders, and that was the only way in or out. Its successor, the G3 Pro Guide, comes in four versions, and two of them have a front zip. They reached select fly shops on October 9 and everywhere else on October 19, so if you want to try one on before you trust a size chart, call one of the South Platte fly shops and ask what came in.
The zip is the change I noticed first. The one I’m more curious about sits lower down. The legs and seat get a new fabric pitched as the most puncture-resistant GORE has made, and around the same launch the 60-day leak-replacement line went missing from Simms’ warranty wording. Those two belong in the same conversation.
The lineup at a glance
| Men’s G3 Pro | Men’s G3Z Pro | Women’s G3 Pro | Men’s G3Z Pro Bootfoot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $800 | $900 | $800 | $1,100 |
| Front zip | No | Yes (TIZIP) | No | Yes (TIZIP) |
| Feet | Neoprene stockingfoot | Neoprene stockingfoot | Neoprene stockingfoot | Vulcanized rubber and neoprene boot, grid fleece lining, sizes 8–13 |
| Stock sizes | 19 | 19 | 13 | 12 |
| Inseams | Short, Regular, Long | Short, Regular, Long | Regular S–XXL (Full cuts in S, M, L), Short S, M, L, Tall M, L | Regular only |
| Chest pockets | Two top-access stretch (top one zippered) | Two YKK-zippered stretch | Two top-access stretch | Two zippered |
| Succeeds | G3 Guide, $750 list | Nothing, it’s new | Women’s G3 Guide, $750 list | G3 Guide Bootfoot, $900 list, no zip |
All four: 4-layer GORE-TEX Pro legs and seat, 3-layer GORE-TEX upper, self-gathering back yoke, cam-buckle suspenders, neoprene wading belt, Dark Elkhorn only, made in Bozeman of imported materials, PFAS compliant, custom sizing available.
What changed from the G3 Guide:
- Lower fabric: still 4-layer GORE-TEX Pro, but a new one.
- Front zip on both G3Z models. The G3 Guide never had one.
- Fit: a new pattern for more range of motion, and a back yoke that gathers itself to leave room for layers.
- Suspenders: cam buckles, so it converts to waist-high.
- Belt: a neoprene belt on one low-profile back loop. The old wader had a 2-inch stretch belt and loops set high and low.
- Pockets: a second top-access chest pocket on the G3 Pro (no front zip). The Tippet-Tender (the removable one) and the flank pocket inside are off the list.
- Chemistry: from “Made with PFAS chemicals” on the old page to “PFAS Compliant” now.
- Weight: not published yet. A Medium G3 Guide is 50.1 ounces.
Is the zip worth another $100?
If you fish through the winter, yes. From November on, your bib goes on over a base layer, fleece, and usually a puffy, and the new back yoke is cut for exactly that. Getting out of a pull-on wader with all of it underneath means suspenders off, layers bunched up around your middle, and cold fingers working a buckle. Nobody has ever looked dignified doing that on a riverbank. A zip turns it into one pull.
I wear a chest pack, so on any zip wader the pack would have to come unclipped before the zip could open. That would still be quicker than the suspender routine. It also means the G3Z’s zippered chest pockets matter less to me than they would to someone who carries everything in the bib.
The G4Z, the other GORE-TEX zip wader in the Simms line, is $1,100 right now. The G3Z Pro gets you a zip for $900.
If most of your days fall between April and October, the zipless G3 Pro at $800 is the simpler wader, with one less zipper to keep clean. The cam buckles drop it to waist-high on the warm afternoons before it turns into wet-wading weather.
What happens below the knee
A Colorado tailwater chews on a wader from the knees down. You get down on the cobble at Deckers, my home water, to stay under a pod of rising fish. You sit on a wet boulder while you re-rig, push through willows to reach a seam, and snag a blackberry cane on the way back to the truck. What all of that leaves behind is pinholes in the knees, shins and seat, the kind of leak you notice an hour into a cold morning and can’t find with the waders on. At about 80 days a year (my number, and a few more than my knees would vote for), that’s the part that goes first.
That’s the part Simms rebuilt. In Simms’ words, the new lower is “the most pinhole-puncture-resistant 4-layer GORE-TEX Pro fabric GORE has ever developed.” I like where they put the effort. I’m less sure what the sentence is worth until that fabric has a full season on Colorado cobble behind it. Every new wader is the toughest one ever made, the same way every new fly box is the last one you’ll ever need.
The warranty wording changed around the same time, and across the whole brand. The 60-day leak-replacement line is gone from the warranty and repair pages, though it still shows on the current G4Z page. A functional defect still gets replaced. Repairs after year one may carry a small service fee, and after one year, punctures and abrasion can leave a wader beyond repair. If you’re buying, ask the shop what a second-year repair costs.
Bootfoot for standing, stockingfoot for walking
The $1,100 bootfoot is for cold days spent mostly in one place: a long winter session on the Arkansas below Pueblo, or a whole day getting into and out of a drift boat. There are no laces to freeze stiff at the truck, and the zip comes standard. It’s also the most expensive way in this lineup to stand still, and a slow January sit gives you plenty of time to work out the cost per hour.
The outsole is rubber. I fish rubber soles with no studs, and that’s how this boot ships, with room to add Alumibite or Hardbite cleats or Hardbite studs if you want them.
A boot foot can’t be laced tight around your ankle, though. For walk-in water, say the hike into Cheesman Canyon or a mile of blue line with no trail at all, a stockingfoot and a laced wading boot are the better pair. The bootfoot also comes in a Regular inseam only, with boot sizes 8 through 13. Outside that range, it’s a stockingfoot or a custom order.
The women’s G3 Pro
It gets the same fabric at the same $800, and the size run is a real one, with Full cuts in S, M and L and both Short and Tall inseams. This launch has no women’s zip and no women’s bootfoot.
Should you grab a leftover G3 Guide instead?
The real trade is $600 against $800. The extra $200 buys the new leg fabric, the neoprene belt and the new pockets, and that math fits the women’s version best, since the women’s G3 Pro has no zip either. On October 10, Simms had the women’s G3 Guide in stock at $600 (down from $750 list), while the men’s showed sold out on its site, so a men’s pair now means whatever dealers still have.
For the new ones, size by your largest girth first, whether that’s chest, waist or hips, then inseam, then foot. Don’t plan on a color decision. Every model comes in Dark Elkhorn, which takes away the one call I’d be qualified to make at the counter.
My take
The zip is why this launch matters on Colorado water, and the one built for a Front Range winter is the G3Z Pro stockingfoot: layers under the bib, a walk in, cold hands by noon. The leg fabric is the bigger promise and the one I’ll wait on, since 60-day leak replacement is gone across the line and a year-two pinhole is still a repair you pay for. The women’s line is the weak spot in an otherwise smart rebuild. It needs a zip before this family is finished.
Next: what goes under the bib once it’s cold, in my winter guide to the South Platte.
Product photos: Simms.