JAWS: ICARE 4.x – 2026 Product of the Year (Inflatable)
« Carry it to places no kayak can reach, paddle it like one when you get there. »
Among the highlights of last year’s Paddle Sports Show was the 2026 Product of the Year Awards, organized in partnership with KS Publishing and the Paddler’s Guide. Each year, the contest spotlights the best new paddlesports gear for the upcoming season. This year, Jaws’ ICARE 4.x took the win in the inflatable category. We asked the team a few questions about their award-winning packraft and the future of packrafting.
Hey guys. Congrats on winning 2026 Product of the Year for the ICARE 4.x at the Paddle Sports Show. What’s this packraft about? What was it designed for?
« The ICARE 4.x was developed by and for kayakers, with the goal of bringing the best sensations of kayaking into a packraft. »
The ICARE 4.x was developed by and for kayakers, with the goal of bringing the best sensations of kayaking into a packraft. Built with a sharp, high-performance hull, it delivers a balance of stability, responsiveness, and control that inspires confidence in Class IV+ whitewater, all in a boat that folds into your backpack.
Nice, so it’s principally focused on whitewater. How much time and effort went into bringing this product to life?
The ICARE 4.x is the result of years of iteration and R&D. We kept asking ourselves: why does a packraft have to feel like a packraft? The 4.x generation involved extensive on-river testing and beyond to dial in the hull geometry and material specification until it genuinely felt like something new.
Does it build on ideas or designs from previous products you have created?
Yes, the ICARE lineage goes back to our earlier open-deck whitewater models, and the 4.x is very much an evolution of that DNA. What changed with the 4.x was the combination of a refined freestyle hull shape with slim-profile tubes, and crucially, a new approach to rigidity. Previous models pointed in the right direction; the 4.x is where we felt we truly arrived.
Was there a moment during development when you realized this product was special?
« This doesn’t feel like a packraft. »
There’s always a moment on the water where you stop thinking about what you’re testing and just start paddling. That happened for us on a Class IV section in the Alps. Someone looked up mid-run and said, « This doesn’t feel like a packraft. » That was the moment.
What feature or innovation are you most proud of in this product?
Two things work together to make the ICARE 4.x feel genuinely different. First, the tail construction, the shape of the stern gives the boat a rigidity and tracking that’s much closer to a hard-shell river kayak than anything we’d achieved before. Second, the fabric. We worked with a high-quality Japanese TPU that allows us to run significantly higher air pressure in the tubes. The 420D dual-coated fabric allows inflation up to 3.2 PSI, minimizing deformation even in Class IV+ conditions. Higher pressure means a stiffer tube, and a stiffer tube means the boat responds like a rigid hull. That combination of the tail geometry and the fabric is what makes the ICARE 4.x feel alive on the water.
Where do you think packrafting is headed in the coming years?
« For us, the future is about continuing to close that gap with rigid kayaks, while keeping everything that makes packrafting unique: the freedom, the portability, the ability to access rivers that no other boat can reach. »
Packrafting is still young as a sport, and we think it’s only just beginning to be taken seriously by the whitewater community. The ICARE 4.x winning this award tells us the industry is ready to acknowledge that packrafts can perform at a genuinely high level, not just as expedition tools, but as river boats in their own right. For us, the future is about continuing to close that gap with rigid kayaks, while keeping everything that makes packrafting unique: the freedom, the portability, the ability to access rivers that no other boat can reach.
What’s the most incredible place this packraft has been taken?
One expedition that stands out is the polar journey led by Matthieu Tordeur across the Antarctic Peninsula. Navigating between wildlife and glacial landscapes in some of the most remote and demanding conditions on earth. But closer to home, JAWS boats have been tested extensively in the Alps and Norway, where much of the real development happens in cold, fast, technical water with no margin for error.
Your packraft has an eco-sensible build. Can you tell us more? How important is this in your design process?
Our packrafts are made with 100% recyclable and fully repairable TPU fabric. This isn’t a marketing choice, it’s a design constraint we set ourselves from the start. We think the most sustainable product is one you never have to replace. Building something durable enough to last years and repairable enough to never end up in a landfill is part of every design decision we make.
To learn more about JAWS, visit their website.
L’article JAWS: ICARE 4.x – 2026 Product of the Year (Inflatable) est apparu en premier sur Kayak Session Magazine.