The North Face Men's

I bought this practically without thinking. It won the gear of the year award from Outside magazine last year so I assumed it would be incredible. I bought it the day before leaving on a 10 day glacier trek in the Wrangell range in Alaska. I really loved the feeling of this jacket, especially the parts made out of windstopper. In the field it breathed great and was a good outerlayer on clear, relatively windy days. I never once got sweaty in this jacket. I did however get wet. The apex fabric just sucks up water and takes a suprisingly long time to dry. This was the deal killer for me. Also it really wasn't windproof enough in stronger breezes. It cut maybe 60% but it really didn't kill the chill.

I really liked the look and feel of this jacket. It's great for stopping the wind and keeping you warm for temperatures above freezing. It has an athletic fit, so I had to order a size larger than usual. The sleeves are pretty long; for me they went to about the end of my pinky finger. My main issue with it is it's lack of insulation and warmth. With 20-30 mph wind gust and wind chill around 20 degrees with a buttoned up flannel and t-shirt, I was pretty cold. It doesn't work well alone as a late fall, early spring jacket. It would also be nice if the hood was detachable or able to roll up in the collar, along with more pockets. Overall with decent layering, this is a pretty good jacket.

Overall this jacket has a variety of nice features that make it a very versatile layering piece. It holds up well in a pretty strong wind, however you will probably be chilled if you don't have at least a light fleece underneath or you cinch the drawstrings. As far as comfort goes this jacket is incredibly comfortable and the grey stretch panels provide a full range of motion. This jacket will fend off a very light rain at best. After ten minutes of a medium rain I started to notice major leaking. This jacket is great for running in cooler weather and for a dry windy day.

I went on a trip to Paris on a very windy and rainy day and the jacket kept me pretty warm. The friction of the arms with the chest started to damage the nylon part of the arms of the jacket. I wasn't expecting this for such an expensive gear, though. That is why is not excellent, just pretty cool.

This jacket is the best softshell that I own and I use it all the time for xc skiing, and scrambling in Canada. The hood works well when its windy with snow blowing around but a hard shell is too much. I have the The North Face Apex Bionic and Sentinel jacket in a size small but ended getting a medium in this jacket. The fit is nice with an athletic trim but the jacket is really stretchy too so I can wear the Sentinel or a 300 fleece jacket underneath without restricting movement. The only thing I would change about this jacket is maybe having a cord for adjusting the hood to cinch it up. Other thing I would mention is that the description here says fleece weight of 200 but this is the thinnest jacket out of the 3 TNF softshells I have. I would say the Apex Bionic feels like a 200 and that is the thickest one I have. Its a really thin jacket and its windproof but has no real insulating properties if you are standing still. However, this jackets really shines when you are working hard going up a steep hill in the open. Overall, I like this jacket so much that I would get another one if this one started to fall apart but so far after 8 months of use, the jacket still looks good.

I am very content with this jacket, cause it can be used in spring, summer and fall. In winter you can use it under another jacket. It feels very comfortable and soft and is not heavy to wear.

Very nice product from TNF, But did not like the cuffs or the Performance fit. The jacket was just a bit too tight in the fore arm area and not quite long enough in body length for me.