Diana Miller

I really love most everything about this jacket, its dual zipper system (once you have it zipped you can unzip it from the bottom to give you added mobility), all the pockets, the pit vents, goggle wipe, the media ports, RECCO device, and the fact that it is waterproof with a nice protective hood and 600 fill down is fantastic... you really can't ask for more in a skiing/snowboarding jacket... My only issue with it, and it may be b/c i'm female, but it seems to have go go gadget arms... i've had to tuck 5-6 inches of the sleeve up under each side and hem it cause the arms were so long on me, and i don't have short arms! I've never run into this problem before and i have a few other North Face jackets...But overall I highly recommend this jacket, its super fuctional with high mobility!

Hey everyone, just wanted to post this in case someone like me is out there and didn't happen upon this yet...I wear these alot and walk my dog a couple miles a day in these when the temps are cold, and when you wear a rubber boot that can't breathe its gonna build up moisture somewhere in the boot. This boot does a fantastic job of keeping sweat/moiture away from your feet by wicking it to the outside of the inner boot, and that is where i found all of my yummy sweat the other day. The inside rubber was pretty socked full of moisture , yet the liner was still holding up and doing a great job of keeping my feet dry (barely any wetness to the touch on the outside of the liner, inside of the liner was totally dry of course). So, if you wear these alot (like hours every day) i'd recommend taking the liners out every day and letting them air dry overnight, also take out the orange rubber grid insole thingys that are under the liners so that you can take a paper towel or rag and wipe up all the moisture that has built up inside the entire rubber part of the boot. I just worry that if this isn't done at least once in a while wouldn't/couldn't mold/mildew and other great stuff start to accumulate in there? I know this sounds so gross but i felt i had to share...hope this helps...

Unfortunately the material (I guess the blue part is tough leather?) is really kinda stiff, but they do their job well, and if you measure your dogs' paws accurately (go to ruffwear.com, click on the boots, then click on 'how to size') they fit really well too. We also use baby socks under each of the boots too, as they advise you to buy liners to use under the boots on ruffwear's site to help achieve a snug fit, but baby socks are cheaper, and they go up on our dogs legs nice and high... Fortunately we haven't had any problems with the top of the boot hurting the area around his dew claw. I think this boot is just a little bit taller than the other boot that we tried, (the Bark n Boots Grip Trex boots with the vibram sole), which hit right where the dew claw sat, which was terribly irritating for our dog, not good!
*Heres a little FYI- you might want to check out geartrade.com, they have a bunch of these boots right now for over 50% off, and its all from the returns that come to backcountry.com...They prob don't want that advertised, so shhhhhh, so don't tell anyone, lol....(just go to geartrade.com and type in ruffwear in their search engine). Hope this helps someone!

I really love the way these feel on, although it took some getting used to b/c of the padding in between the thumb and pointer finger. But now that is why i really like the glove so much, i use this glove mainly when i go showshoing or winter hiking (basically anytime i am holding poles). When it is snowing or a little colder out they fit under my waterproof shell glove nicely and keep me extra warm. All in all a great glove for a great price.

I've never thought of myself as having super wide feet (in fact i've never ordered a size wide shoe ever), yet my feet are neither tiny or super narrow either, but these boots were extremely narrow and painful to try to walk around in for more than a few minutes. They were completely squishing my toes and foot bones all together and the uppers were terribly stiff and uncomfortable which pinched and hurt my ankles, not fun! To be fair, they were fairly warm for the short time i had them on, and I have read that they do pack out ~.25"-.5" after wearing them for a while, but i didn't have the pain tolerance to try...lol...

This is the third pair of North Face's shoes/boots i have tried this winter and they have all been way too narrow and small, and in one of the cases they did not allow for med. to high arches and that part of the boot (Janey Boot) was way too painfully tight across the top of my foot.

I used to have a pair of NF's trailrunners a few years back and i loved those, so, i don't know if things have been changing in the footwear deptartment there lately, but North Face either needs to make their shoes a bit wider so real people can fit their feet into them, cause we also want to wear winter socks with them, or they need to offer them in a wide width as well as their regular width...I love all of NF's outerwear, jackets/coats, backpacks, etc...they have gotten it right in those departments, I really wish they could adjust this one...

Man o man, this is one puffy jacket, i look like a marshmellow in this one, but it sure does keep me warm, so to mask the marshmellow effect i have zipped it into my hardshell and now that kinda squishes it down and gives it total waterproof protection and extra warmth for me. There is one thing that has me a little ticked off though, its the fact that they gave the mens version a stow away hood and have totally left it out for the women's model, whats that about? I guess they don't think we need head protection, even though we are the one's with long hair that we don't want to get messed up or wet. C'est la vie....

I love vasque's boots... i actually have these in the mens version (my 2nd pair) because i tried both of these and found that the womens' version was just way to narrow where it tapered down towards the toe box area. It felt like it was pinching my toes together. If you look up on this page to the 11 detail pics above and scroll right you can see what i'm talking about in the overhead pic of the boot. The rest of the boot feels amazing, especially the support it gives you for your ankles. So, if you don't have wide toes? i guess, this would be great. I have average to slightly wide feet, (although, i've never had to buy a wide width shoe in my life), so most people with narrow feet should be fine in this boot i would imagine, and it fits true to size. But after reading the reviews below about this boot having a roomy toe box i'm beginning to wonder if i have abnormally strange feet (or if i'm going crazy), lol, or if those people just have tiny toes? I'm a 10 in womens and i have this in an 8.5 in mens, which doens't have the narrow toe issue, and i LOVE them, they keep my feet dry, offer great support, and give me great traction on gravel/dirt/rock.

*Try to watch out for hitting the plastic lace hooks on anything hard, or pulling too hard on them, cause if you break one then your boot is caput. The hooks are pretty tough, and lasted about 1.5 years for me before they broke, but still, i would've wanted them to hold out much longer. You really can't use the boot anymore if they break, cause you need them tied to support your ankle properly to avoid injury, and so hotspots and/or pressure points don't form from being laced up improperly. That's why i am on my second pair now. Too bad they didn't make them in metal!

Even though this isn't gonna keep you super warm on its own when temps dip down into the twenty's and teen's, its a great interchangable jacket system, so when it does get colder i take out the inner fleece jacket and zip in one of my North Face down jackets to keep me nice and warm.

After trying on both of them I opted for the mens version cause they make it a little bit longer and parka like vs. the womens style. Plus it seems like manufacturers, not really in this case, but alot of times seem to make the mens versions of things with a little more care and with better quality products...not fair, lol...So i always try both options on and opt for the one that's more comfortable and better made...guess what, 9 out of 10 times it turns out to be the mens version...(always the case in sneakers)...weird...

Oh yeah, FYI: I have noticed that this thing attracts lint, pet hair and my own hair like white on rice, i have the all black one and i am constanly having to use the lint roller on it. Just something to consider if you have pets or are balding, jk...you might want to go with a more neutral color so hair wont show up as bad.

I have last years womens model which i like alot and I decided to buy the mens version also because i like its slightly longer length and the casual look of it vs. the womens model (and b/c i got a great deal on it)! Plus its so easy to move around in and it it doesn't constrict your movement at all which is great for any outdoor fall or winter sports. I also like that it isn't a super puffy jacket that makes you look like a marshmellow...I just wish it came with a hood and DWR coating (they coated the womens version...weird, huh?)! My womens one seems a bit warmer, i have been chilly in this once temps get into the 20's, so you may need to start layering more or go to a jacket with a higher fill power if you live somewhere relatively cold.

I had some feather leakage, which eventually settled down both with my womens one and this one. North Faces' site says to expect some leakage with all of their down products and to pull the down back through the underside of the fabric and then massage the fabric and down from underneath, which will plug up the holes in the fibers of the fabric... that did the trick...

* Update...Unfortunately my jacket has just met an early death...Last weekend my nephew threw it on top of a lamp at my sisters (unknowingly) and it smoldered and almost caught their house on fire, basically burning the sleeves and waist off...uggh...burning feathers & plastic (ripstop) are a horrific smell. I really loved that jacket cause it fit so nicely in my hardshell and was so comfy. Moral of the story, don't let children handle your expensive outerwear....lol...

I really, really want to love these boots, wait, i do love the look of these boots. But they just aren't the most comfortable things in the world. I have been having some problems with rubbing on my right ankle and with something jutting into the back of both my heels after i wear them for about an hour or so. I guess the leather starts to rub? I'm hoping its just the initial break in period and that the leather will soften up. There is also barely any arch support, but on the up side, they are so roomy that there is plenty of room to add a gel or air insole for added support, which is what i did, and they are gorgeous with that thick fur snow collar; they just should've used more supple leather. I also have the Sorel Cate the Great's and they are a million times more comfortable than these boots, which i don't understand, cause when i hold them next to each other they have the same rubber bases, and seem very similar on the bottom. Something weird about the leather on the inside i guess....

*Now its a few weeks later and i have gotten them to soften up a bit from trying to wear them around the house whenever i can, but i must say, they didn't hurt me until after prolonged use anyway, so if these hurt you right when you put them on or shortly thereafter, i would say its a lost cause and def send them back to try a different shoe!

I ordered these in black about a month ago and i have to say i absolutly love them!! They are warm and gorgeous, and made very well. The only thing that annoys me is that when I'm wearing them with skinny jeans, the inner elastic part of the boot pushes my jeans up the shaft of the boot and bunches them up so that I have to readjust my jeans every hour or so. But the look of them is worth the fuss...

I also have the Sorel Joan of Arctic boot and these are far more comfortable than them, there is really no break in period for the Cate's, whereas i am still having some problems with the Joan's and pain in the right ankle section.

*FYI, in some pictures the sole of the black Cate's look white, which i was nervous about, but when i got them I found out the sole is actually a light/medium grey color. You can see what it looks like on www.sorel.com.

I also saw a notice on sorel's site that these boots were noted on Oprahs show a couple days ago as being a must have for 2011! I def think so...and you will get compliments everywhere you go!

These are a really high quality winter boot, and when i first ordered them (geez, this is a whole other story), my UPS driver left them at the end of my driveway at my mailbox right before X-mas and somebody stole them, but backcountry was amazing and sent a replacement set out right away...anyway, i thought that the inner boots were snug and hurt the bones in my feet from the memory foam scrunching them together (actually, when i initially tried them on for about 30-45 minutes they didn't feel too uncomfortable, it was the next day when i woke up and tried to walk that i realized how bad things were and that they had squished my foot bones!), so i had to return them...

BUT, I wish i had read the reviews about breaking them in and wearing them for at least a few hours (or many more) to let the memory foam liner mold to your foot since many other people seem to have had this snugness problem as well, so, i have since re-ordered them from a site where I found them at a great discount and after some initial dicomfort the first two days, they are feeling really good. Its now taken about a week for the inner boot to get to where i feel like it is totally stretched out and molded correctly to my foot.

I feel that they run true to size, as i am always a 10 in everything and after the memory foam has given, i even have a tiny amount of wiggle room now, so i would not recommend ordering up, just be patient with them. These probably wouldn't be uncomfortable in the beginning for the average person, as i have lupus and arthritis and semi-wide feet to boot (no pun intended), and alot of shoes/boots are uncomfortable for me. The arch support is fantastic, they are amazingly warm, seem well built & durable, and have really helped out with my Raynauds over the past week (no way you're getting cold feet in these, and i literally have the coldest feet on earth!). Thanks backcountry for your great customer service amidst all the chaos of the holidays!