Established in 2011, British outdoor brand OLPRO is making a name for itself in the tent and camping world thanks to its focus on value, sustainability, and funky designs.
The founders of OLPRO wanted to ‘create cooler designs that rekindle the excitement of camping’. OLPRO has a wide range of large family tents, with this particular model being a 4-person inflatable design.
The promise of value, eye-catching design, and sustainability certainly caught our attention. We’re always keenly hunting for more affordable outdoor gear that improves the status quo regarding eco credentials and therefore took the OLPRO Blakedown Breeze 4 Berth Inflatable Tent out for some real world testing with high hopes.
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Pros
- Easy to pitch
- Good flysheet waterproof rating
- Relatively sustainable
- Well lit living space
Cons
- Could have better ventilation
- Very bulky when packed down
Design and features
The first thing we noticed about this tent is that it comes in a very, very large bag. It measures 50cm tall and deep, and almost a metre long. It was the largest bag of all the family tents we had on test, some of which were large six- and eight-person tents. So, although it may take up most of your boot space, we did at least think it should be easy to stuff the tent back inside its bag when packing the tent away.
The Blakedown Breeze 4 takes a fairly conventional approach in terms of shape. It uses the very popular tunnel shape with a porch at the front, living space in the middle, and bedroom at the rear. At 6m long and 2.8m wide, it’s quite generous for a 4-person tent, matching many that are advertised as 6-person models.
There are two entrances – one at that connects the living space and the porch, and another side entrance, whose door your can prop open with poles to give the entrance a bit of cover.
The bedroom area has a full removable inner. OLPRO says the sleeping ‘pods’ are darkened, which they are, but aren’t on the same level as Coleman’s BlackOut or Decathlon’s Fresh & Black light blocking fabrics.
In terms of storage, there are four mesh sleeves attached to the removable inner.
Pitching
We found this is a very easy tent to pitch. All you have to do is peg the corners, inflate the poles (a manual pump is included), square the tent and guy it out. It took us about 15 minutes with two people, but you could easily get it down to 10 if you’re well practiced.
One important thing to remember is that you need to zip the doors shut before you square out and adjust the guy ropes and storm straps. Leaving doors open while doing this will usually result in not being able to zip them shut.
Taking the tent down is reasonably easy too. The main challenge we’ve encountered many times with inflatable tents is getting all the air out of the poles so the tent can fit back in the bag. Happily, the air poles on the Blakedown Breeze 4 escaped as we were folding and rolling it up.
Packed down, this is quite a bulky tent, but we did at least manage to get it back in the bag first time.
Living and comfort
Tents of around this size, whether advertised as 4, 5, or 6-person models, always work best for four people. We like the OLRPO hasn’t pretended to make the Blakedown Breeze 4 larger than it really is.
In terms of living space, the central room is well proportioned, being large enough for a table or chairs, and any additional pieces of furniture or storage you need. The feeling of space is helped by the large windows and skylights.
We liked that the porch space is generous too, meaning that you truly get two living spaces.
The sleeping area is 2.5m across and 2.05m deep, which is a little shallower than the standard 2.1m depth we've usually found in other family tents. We could still fit our Outwell double airbed inside, but it does make for a tighter squeeze.
Although the tent is gets plenty of natural light, we would have preferred some improved ventilation. There are only the front entrance, side entrance, and small bedroom vent for airflow. None of the windows have a mesh panel – all are solid. Most tents get warm during the day, but even on a mild spring day we found it was getting relatively toasty inside.
Durability and weather resistance
The Blakedown Breeze 4 is quite a bulky tent and one of the plus sides of that is its sturdiness. We’ve tested a lot of large tents and many – particularly those under £1000 can feel a bit flimsy in places. The Blakedown Breeze 4 doesn’t. It feels well made and durable, provided the owner cleans and cares for it properly.
To help keep it stable, the guys are all thicker straps (except the ones for the side door). We also liked that the flysheet has an impressively high waterproof rating of 5000mm HH. Many – if not most – tents of this type have a rating of 3000mm or 4000mm HH. So, the Blakedown Breeze 4 can certainly stand up to persistent rain.
Sustainability
Sustainability is something OLPRO aims to stand out compared to its rivals. Indeed, there are a number of areas where OLRPO does do well.
The Blakedown Breeze 4 (and all other products in the Breeze range according to OLPRO) uses a 150D Oxford fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. Eight bottles are used for every square metre of material, which OLPRO calls OLTECH RE-PRO 150D. OLTECH RE-PRO 150D even has a UPF50+ rating.
OLRPO is also a certified B Corp, which is quite rare for a camping brand. B Corp businesses are independently assessed to meet ‘high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.’
OLPRO has other eco initiatives too. It plants a tree for every tent, awning, and backpack sold; it stocks spare parts; and takes back used products to refurbish and resell.
Price and competition
On its own site, OLPRO says the Blakedown Breeze 4 has an RRP of £1200 but is currently priced (at the time of writing) at £715. The other places where this tent is stocked, such as Decathlon, Mountain Warehouse and Amazon, it’s also priced at £715.
While it can be heavily undercut by smaller, poled 4-person tents such as the Decathlon Quechua Arpenaz 4.1 F&B tent, we think this is reasonably good value for a large, well made, inflatable family tent with better eco credentials than most of its rivals.
Verdict
Overall, this is a very good family tent. It’s well priced, easy to pitch, and has a generous amount of indoor and outdoor living space for four people. We were also very pleased to see OLPRO is making meaningful effort towards sustainability.
How we tested
We tested the OLPRO Blakedown Breeze 4 in mid spring alongside a selection of other family tents from rival brands in order to directly compare products and to use the tents in the primary conditions they were intended for.
Our team is made up of very experienced industry experts with many decades of testing experience between them, much of which include summer camping trips with family.
The author of this review is Chris Williams who is a staff writer and gear tester for LFTO. He joined LFTO in 2021 and in addition to several years of both journalistic and outdoor industry experience, he has been using tents on family summer camping trips since before he could walk.