Looks and fits nice, durability embarassing

By vic2621805 Ranked #87 - Men's Rain Jackets September 8, 2010

Never heard of this brand but when I saw the Svalbard pop up on the BC Labor Day sale for $200 I decided to take a chance based upon the many positive reviews it received. I really wanted to love this jacket for the upcoming winter season, but after two separate plastic pieces broke in under 2 minutes, I quickly got an RMA number.Appearance: I really liked the Caviar with Blue Zipper combo, however I was a little disappointed when I noticed the rubber zipper pulls which attach to the metal zipper pulls are actually a lighter shade of blue then the zipper tape. Enough that I can see the difference from 5' away.Fit: 6'/185LBS/33" Waist/43R suit jacket/Athletic build. I choose a Large and it fit perfect IMO. I could place two fists on top of each other between my the center of my chest and the inside of the jacket. My hands cupped the bottom of the jacket (Approximately 8" below my natural belt line). The hood was large enough to accommodate any size helmet, so much so that wearing the hood without one on looked kinda silly unless it was completely cinched down in the back which I also think looks a little weird by itself.The underarm vents open up right into the jacket, there is no mesh at all to keep out snow/rain/misc. The main zipper pull is on the left side of the jacket, which is opposite of what most men are accustomed too. Normally men's zippers are on the right and women's are on the left. I'm not sure if this tradition exists in Norway. The main zipper has only one zipper, IE. You cannot zip the top up and then unzip a little from the bottom. The zipper pits are small and it takes an extra step to zip the zippers into them. Starting the main zipper took me about 4 - 5 seconds. I tried several times and each time I had to put a lot of force into getting it started. When unzipping the main zipper from a completely zipped up state, the zipper tends to catch around the neck line where the form of the jacket changes to accommodate the chest. Again, this requires you to hold the jacket with your off hand in order to easily unzip it past this point. The sleeves are too long for my liking but that seems to be the style these days. They extended approximately 1.5" past my wrist, requiring the velcro straps to be used to fit correctly.Technical Aspects: There is one additional pocket not mentioned on BC.com. That is the interior mesh Napoleon pocket above the right pec (Behind the Norrona Label, but on the inside.) There exists an elastic cinch cord around the belt line that is accessed via each of the front lower pockets. This can be seen in the photo of the inside of the jacket, it is the black tape. There also exists an elastic cinch cord around the bottom of the jacket. The belt cinch is held in place by a plastic alligator jaw piece that pinches the elastic, this pieces is then glued into the plastic pull which I have photographed. I released the clamp on the cinch cord and pulled on the pull, with very little force, the alligator jaw was ripped out of the pull and the elastic cord disappeared into the hole wrapping around the back. I managed to get the cord back out and tied a knot through the end to secure it. At this point I was disappointed but figured I'd live with it because it could have just been a poor glue job and the fact that it can only be seen when you pull the pockets inside out. I then proceeded to pinch the clamp on the bottom cinch cord and tighten it up. Upon doing so, the plastic clamp broke, the top piece flew out and so did the spring. Please don't accuse me of using to much force. I baby my things and it broke with almost zero effort. I put the pieces back together and decided to RMA it.Bottom line: If you are buying a Norrona product that has no technical features, IE, A base layer or fleece, than I think it compares very nicely to Arc'Teryx but when you started adding technical features, IE, cinch cords, zip pits, hoods, underarm vents, it falls way behind in quality.

View Details: Norrøna Svalbard Dri3 Jacket - Men's

Helpful Votes: 2 Yes