Arc'teryx Trident Hooded Softshell Jacket - Men's - 2006 BCS

I'm 5'7'' and I bought a small. It fits great sideways, and if it was a few inches longer - it would be perfect.

Not having a windproof membrane, the Trident breathes much better than "windproof" jackets do. Great for pushing hard in weather where other jackets would make you sweat too much. However, the jacket is very wind resistant and water resistant. Hood is a nice feature, rare for a softshell. This jacket is not for hard-core weather, but is almost perfect for typical cool, damp NW weather.

I searched high and low for a Trident Hoody in my size and Armadillo color and at less than full price because I thought it was discontinued as of Dec '08. I finally found someone on ebay with one and bought it for $115 US shipped. Winters in Montreal got cold enough for me to want to spend the money on a serious mid layer to complement my basic Columbia 3-in-1 without adding bulk. It does everything I wanted: fits perfectly, adds mega warmth, stands on its own (not litterally) and looks awesome doing it. Now the real problem: Costco started selling cheap no-name copies which I SWEAR look to be the same material! I don't know if I could justify the cost now that the masters of rip off have cloned the real deal (my wife bought one for $34). You can buy the Multicam fabric Arcteryx uses for their massively expensive military version, so it's probably the same factory that started selling their own designs from the same material! And believe me, they're not much different...

China, USA, whatever. Of course I would prefer non-child, non-slave-wage labor, but the bottom line of purchases like this are 1. Does it perform, and 2. Is it durable. And on both of these questions, this jacket delivers. This is an odd-bird in the softshell world. Its cut much larger than most of them that I have tried (most of which are either designed for only the thinnest of insulation underneath, or are so thick that anything short of arctic temperatures renders them sweat lodges once the work commences).

In my opinion, this is the perfect sweatshirt. But when I say "sweatshirt", I mean "a single jacket that can do duty as both outer shell over insulation and under a heavier shell in the winter, double as a kicka** boarding shell in the spring, and by itself is the perfect weight for foggy, damp evenings the rest of the year (in NorCal)". Couldn't be happier with the quality, fit, durability. My only complaint (and this is more of an Arc'Teryx issue) is you best shave often, as the center zipper has no chin softener, and the coils can grab your beard hairs in a right painful manner. Other than that, this thing is fabu.

I bought a Trident Hooded Softshell but I returned it. The product by itself was nice, except that it was made in China. I know that Arc'teryx has some new products which are made in China but these products are cheaper than the made in Canada. But the reason I returned it was because it wasn't a wind blocker product. Instead I bought a alchemy Jacket (which has no hood) from Mountain Hardware, which is a very nice product, windblocker...and made in USA.