Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsIts cons outweighed its pros
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2018
As stated above, I purchased this jacket off of Amazon. I read a lot of reviews before deciding to take a chance with this jacket. In the end, I was reminded (yet again) of the old saying, 'you get what they pay for'.
I am 6'3" and about 225lbs. After looking at the sizing charts and the reviews I purchased a large. It arrived quickly, I unpacked it, and tried it on. It fit in the arms and the length came down to just below my waist. I was a little surprised to discover the inner cuff, thumb cutout. After I zipped it up, I would say the chest was 'snug'. I was worried about how it would hold up over time putting on a backpack after the jacket was zipped or any other body movements that would require aggressive arm/chest movements. If I were to do it over, I would probably try an X-Large next time to see if the chest were not so snug.
I live in an area that gets a lot of rain/wind during the Winter months (I jokenly call it the monsoon season but it is not that bad even if, at times, it can feel like it.) I put up the hood on one of these windy/rainy days and found out just how the hood was designed. It does not have any adjustment on the back of it like several other coats may. When the hood was over my head and not fastened together under my chin, I could only look down at my feet for if I looked forward I got a wonderful view of the inside of the hood. The top of the hood came over my head and covered my face to approx the middle of my nose. However, when it was velcroed together under my chin then it fit like it should and I could see and thought the hood fit wonderfully. There are many reasons to put a hood up and not want/need to velcro it together, such as using it to block a wind guest or five and try as I may I could not find a way to get the hood to sit right without the under chin Velcro strips being put together. Thankfully, both my old jacket and this jacket had hoods that unzipped and the zipper size matches so I was able to take my old jacket's hood off and attach it to this jacket. Then I had what I would suggest was a usable hood.
I mentioned earlier that I was a little surprised by the 'inner cuffs'/thumb holder. I tried these out for their designed purpose and have mixed feelings on them. On the really cold, windy, rain going sideways days I would put my thumb through the hole to pull the inner cuff down and then put on my gloves. They felt really strange but that may have been from my lack of being used to them. They did block the wind and rain from hitting my skin, going up the arms, and gave an appearance of keeping my arm/wrist warmer. They also made taking off the jacket, especially while wearing a watch, a whole new exercise. No need to go to a gym for an upper body workout; just try to take the jacket off while it is wet, without it pulling your watch up your arm so far it rips skin off, and/or pulling your long sleeves up so far it feels like you are taking your shirt off. One should not attempt to take this jacket off in a hurry!
There are three outside pockets, all with zippers on them. I had the jacket almost a month when I noticed the seam over the left hand pocket was already starting to come apart. By the time I noticed it the seam opening was almost a thumb width in size. It wasn't apparent very easily due to the designers of the jacket putting a rain 'overhang' over this seam. I did like that part. After using the two hand pockets for things like carrying my keys, gloves, change, hands, etc I found a couple things that I was not the most fond of. One of them being is the zippers went down so far to the bottom of the pocket I was worried I was going to lose something just by keeping the pocket unzipped.
Then there is the zippers themselves. I have had, on several occasions, the zippers of all three outside pockets get stuck in the closed position when fully zipped up. They took some surgical skills to convince the zippers that they should go back to working and open again. I tried to modify my behavior to not zip them up all the way knowing this would mean that it would be much easier for the rain to enter those pockets. The stuck zippers made it difficult for me to get my wallet out of the upper left chest pocket to pay for a meal with having to take the jacket off first (did I mention one should not try to take this jacket off in a hurry? I got reminded of that by my watch.) The stuck zipper made it interesting to get my gloves out so I could put them on and keep my hands dry/warm. The final downfall was when the left hand pocket's zipper got stuck with my house keys inside while I was trying to leave to catch a bus. I missed my bus trying to get the zipper to open and in getting the zipper to open this time I managed to rip the entire pocket open and away from the jacket. The zipper is still fully zipped but I was able to retrieve my keys and everything else in that pocket. (Edit: after logging in to post this review I discovered the keys' incident happened the day after my return window closed.)
Due to this last zipper incident I have gone back to my old jacket. This jacket will probably be thrown out as its flaws have annoyed me way to much and outweighed its pluses. There are some pluses to this jacket. When it was on and working, it felt pretty warm. It did a good job of blocking the ice wind and rain. While I like my jackets to be a bit longer on me than this one was, I will say this jacket had a good length on it and not dig in for that. Amazon did a good job of getting it to me quickly and it was the jacket that I ordered.
It is outside my Amazon return window (closed on Mar 10, 2018) and would probably cost me more to return it to the manufacture than the jacket is worth I will not be replacing/exchanging this jacket. In the end, the design of the jacket's hood and the fatal zippers sticking issues have doomed this jacket for me and the reason for my personal reason for this mostly unsatisfactory review of it. Others may have a better experience with this jacket, what I described was just my experiences.
