Not a bad jacket but...

By jj.ormond1166812 Ranked #247 - Men's Softshell Jackets February 25, 2009

First off, I am 5'11, 250 with a fairly athletic build plus a bit of a belly; the XL fit pretty good, maybe a little snug but the XXL would have been too big.

I picked up the Synchro after I returned the Backcountry.com Shift Welder softshell becuase I wanted pitzips. This jacket is just not what I was looking for. I wanted a softshell for a stretchy and completely comfortable wind barrier that is mostly waterproof. Maybe even use the softshell as a midlayer under my gore-tex hard shell. The Conduit fabric makes this jacket too much like my mountian hardwear hardshell. As a result the jacket just didn't breathe as well as the BC Shift. I went hiking on a windy 30 deg day and wore the synchro to block the wind; It did a good job of that but when I took the jacket off at the end of the day it was soaked with sweat inside. I will note that there was sweat on the outside too so it was breathing, just not enough. As a comparison I put a full day of hard skiing in 40 deg temps wearing the Shift softshell and never felt too hot, too cold, or damp. The moral of my long story is I sent the Synchro back and picked up another Shift jacket when it come up on Steapandcheap for half price. I guess pit zips aren't needed with the right jacket.

View Details: Mountain Hardwear Synchro Softshell Ski Jacket - Men's

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