Not a bad jacket, just missing things

By dakranii Ranked #551 - Men's 3-in-1 Jackets December 14, 2009

This isn't a bad jacket, it works, it will keep you warm and dry. It's just missing some things that should be here and has poor execution on other things.

It has no inside wind flap behind the zipper. Fine, okay, it has one on the outside. But there is nothing to protect your chin from the zipper. Other jackets I own have something, even a square of nylon. Not this jacket. If it's cold out, your chin is going to be resting on cold zipper. Not ideal.

It's lacking in pockets. It has two pockets on the shell and two pockets on the liner. That's it (aside from the arm pocket, which I'll get to in a second). There are no chest pockets whatsoever on the inside or outside of the shell or the liner. That's too bad.

The velcro around the wrists to tighten the cuffs is woefully short. It doesn't come anywhere near tightening enough to keep weather out. And when you tighten it as much as you can to get gloves over the cuffs, the tightening strap is sticking up so much because it has no velcro to attach to that the glove often catches it and undoes it.

It also is missing "pulls" on the the drawcords around the lower hem. They are impossible to grab and tighten on the go when you have any type of glove on. Not good.

It's a neat idea that the snow skirt zips out of the shell and zips into the liner. This gives some nice options for changing things up. But the liner is considerably shorter than the shell and too short to be used alone in the snow. Any spills and you'll have snow up your back.

The arm pocket zipper is very hard to open and close. I never use it because of this.

This is a good looking jacket, it works well in bad weather, keeps me warm and dry. It has a great hood. But a number of things make me wish for a different jacket. I purchased it on the spur of the moment from Steep and Cheap.

My first jacket was a Marmot. It's kind of like when I rented a car a few years ago that didn't have cruise control. I thought "they still make cars without cruise control?" It didn't dawn on me to even check.

Same with this jacket. I guess some things I took for granted on my Marmot jacket. Now I'll remember what to look for in the future.

View Details: Outdoor Research Trio Jacket - Men's

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