What do you get when you cross the Ford Bronco with high-end outdoors outfitter Filson? Well, it’s in the name: you get the Bronco Filson, a premium take on the Blue Oval’s heritage-laden off-roader.

If you don’t know anything about Filson, you may forgive yourself, for I didn’t either. In a sentence, I’d describe them as bougie Carhartt with a splash of Cabela’s hunting spirit, and not in a dog whistley way. They were founded in 1897 and focused on kitting out “prospectors and explorers for the Alaska Gold Rush” with the goal of making something rugged enough to last there for years, saying that they strive to be the “standard of excellence” that was “engineered for utility and longevity.” And if you don’t know Ford, you might be on the wrong site.

As for how these companies came together, it was a happy set of circumstances where Ford saw Filson as an inspiration for them while developing this generation of the Bronco, and Filson always thought of the style and edge of vintage Broncos when they were developing their apparel. Thanks to that mutual adoration, we have the Bronco Filson, a higher-end approach to the offroader that combines style with performance. Let’s talk about it.

The New Toy

Big headline things to get it out of the way: it’s got a Sasquatch package as standard for it, the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 out of the Raptor (but in a different state of tune), Fox shocks, a stiffer body, 35-inch tires, and a gaggle of badges to make folks know you have a fancy trim. Ford is describing this car as a premium, rugged SUV, and my mind immediately went to G-Wagons and Grenadiers. Upon seeing it in person, it’s really neither.

At the end of the day, this is still a Bronco, and I’m not saying that in a bad way! They didn’t trick this out with a million options that Mercedes-Benz would offer in a G-Class, nor is it the hyper-tactile yet still luxurious interior of Ineos’ offering. Instead, Ford opted to class up what they already have, like a musician remastering their old records.

The Filson editions have an interior covered in complementary earth tones that feel welcoming and relaxing. The seats are a custom job with a gridded design in the center of the back and the booty portions. Lastly, I think the coolest contribution from Filson is the additional storage found inside.

Filson makes plenty of rugged bags that folks keep for generations to come, and there are two mounted in the rear that you can take off and walk around like a shoulder sling bag. If we’re being honest, I didn’t think they felt like something that’ll last for your grandkids or into the heat death of the universe, but I do sincerely love the look of them and think it’s a genuinely nice and useful addition. Up front are saddle bags as well, that you can put anything saddle bag-sized in!

Other styling cues include rear pillars that color-match the body (and the two new colors are called Field Green Metallic and Iron Sands Copper Metallic), and a tire carrier on the rear stamped with the Bronco and Filson name.

All of this is fine and dandy, but I think the most impressive and important thing here has nothing to do with literally any of this, but is thanks to becoming a premium car.

Use Your Inside Voice

Ed Krenz, the Chief Program Engineer for Bronco, mentioned that folks who go off-roading are typically accepting of compromises like wind and road noise in their off-roader, while higher-end customers simply wouldn’t tolerate it. As a result, they’ve worked like hell to reduce the NVH in this car, coming in at a cool 20% reduction. That’s seriously great.

“What we were uninterested in doing is giving away or trading off the open-air or removable doors to improve the quietness in the cabin,” Krenz said. “So we had to find a more clever way.”

The first thing they did was retool the roof seal in the front so that it almost tapers away in the middle, allowing wind to be ramped over the top.

“The whole point of doing that was to basically ramp the air right over the seals rather than ensuring the seals always had enough compression to withstand direct air,” Krenz said.

Another new approach to deflecting air (which wasn’t on our vehicle, as it’s not a final production model) will be a wedge on the bottom of the mirror that pushes air away from where the front doors meet the fender, a spot that they found to have high air aspiration.

As for the final two things, one was essentially just quality control to make sure all the seals had better fitment, which they’ve struggled with in the past, and the other is having a bunch more soft materials in the interior that can absorb more of the sound that enters the cabin.

Krenz says that they benchmarked some of the other premium SUVs in the market and said they’re around 21-23 sones (a unit ascribed to perceived loudness), while their normal Bronco was roughly 29-30, and while he didn’t disclose what their sone level is now, he says it’s comparable now.

“This product gets us in the zip code of the premium product,” he said. “You can do a hands-free call, and you don’t feel like you’re yelling at the mic. You can hear yourself think.”

I’ve never driven a Bronco for more than a few minutes, but after hearing other folks on the press trip complain about the road noise, I’m confident this will be a welcome improvement to potential buyers. [Ed Note: I have driven a neo-Bronco, and it’s roughly comparable to driving around in a soft-top convertible in a hurricane with a chaser of tire noise. – MS]

A Few Other Goodies For The Pavement

We unfortunately weren’t able to drive the car on this trip as it was just a reveal event, but I think it’ll shape up to be a nice ride, and not just because of the better powerplant inside that they say gives you more grunt off the line than the 2.7-liter V6.

To further improve comfort on the Filson, they’ve tuned the suspension to be better for on-road livability with only a slight knock on off-road comfort.

“The trade-off to that is a little bit of more bounce in the off-road space, a little less comfort off-road, no less capability,” Krenz said. He also said the difference in comfort on the dirt road would mean maybe you go one mile per hour slower than you otherwise would, and then you’re about equal on comfort with other Broncos.

They also took a support bar off the Raptor that braces the cant rails in the rear, which created one real issue: visibility. Looking through the rearview would be a nightmare thanks to the support bar blocking the top half of the view and the rear tire carrier blocking the bottom; thus, the Filson comes with a digital rearview mirror mounted to the roof so that it can see above the tire.

All this extra engineering and the extra parts get the Filson a price tag in the mid-70s, which seems okay considering the Bronco Raptor starts at $79,995. Will this perform as well as a Braptor off-road? I’d be damned if it does, but you do have the same powerplant and some beefy tires to get you anywhere you need to go, and you’ll do it in some damn good style. Hell, I’ll give ‘em 70 large for the bags alone, but my parents also say I’m notoriously irresponsible with money, so maybe I’ll just get the car instead.

Topshot image: Ford. All other images are by Griffin Riley unless otherwise noted.