Ultralight LoftTek™ Adventure Jacket

I bought one of these a while back and wear it all the time during the winter, to the point that I bought a second one since it's on closeout and my first one is getting beat up (my fault, not the jacket's). Mostly I just wear it around town but it was a great thing to have on a rainy backpack trip in the Sierras last summer. The fit is just right for me - I am 6'3", 170+ lbs. and it is trim without being tight, even when I wear a vest or other layers under it. And when wearing it on a cold day the hood is key.

Light and warm, could not ask for anything better!

Two stars is kinda low and probably implies I don't like this jacket. That's not entirely accurate, but I think for the money (even buying clearance) it's pretty overpriced. I've got a lot of Outdoor Vitals gear in my closet, and what I'm finding more and more is that earlier models of gear have a distinct lack of polish that later gear has gotten dialed in. In this specific case: This jacket is warm, and fits great if sized up one size as the website recommends. It does the job it was intended to do. But the negatives are numerous. The hood, IMO, is poorly designed. It's consistently feels too large and oddly shaped, and is either obstructing my view or falling off my head. This can be mitigated somewhat with the rear cinch, but not to the degree that it ever feels "right." The sleeves with thumb loops feel great at the wrist, but if used with the thumb loops are too short and pull at the webbing of my thumb. The seams are all finished with binding, but this makes many of the seems stick out, bulky and very noticeable when wearing the jacket. The pit zippers are functional, but stiff and you're constantly aware of them. I haven't notice any other complaints about this next one, but it was BY FAR the biggest irritation I had with this jacket. The pit zippers are finished on all sides with grosgrain ribbon, including the ends. But apparently the ends of the zippers were not dressed when they were installed, so in both pits in my jacket I had a hooked wire in the middle of my bicep that was scraping and scratching the inside of my bicep like a thorn. It took a couple wears for my to figure out what was stabbing me, and eventually I picked up that it was a bent tooth from the zipper poking through the grosgrain at the end of each zipper. I cut the grosgrain open, snipped the bent teeth off the zipper, and then carefully used a soldering iron to melt the other teeth to prevent them from catching as well, then recovered the end of the zipper tape. I'm in the Make-your-own-gear community and had the skills and tools to handle these fixes reasonably easily, but many will not. I also don't find this lack of polish to be acceptable on a jacket that's $100 on clearance. After modification, it's a pretty decent $60-70 jacket IMO. As purchased, it wasn't worth that. Thankfully, I can say I haven't ever encountered issues like this on OV's more modern releases, but I can definitely say after a couple purchases of older gear, I don't have much faith in purchasing past-gen equipment. It's clear their attention to detail has gotten much, much better in recent years, but this jacket is Amazon quality at an REI price.

I really wanted to like this jacket. It has lot of great features! However, I ordered a large first, noting the suggestion to size up. It was much too big, lots of capping space that would be hard to heat up and stay warm. So I exchanged for medium and it was still quite roomy on top, but just so tight across my hips. I could zip it, but I just felt like it hit me in a weird spot and much too snuggly. I’m smaller on top and have a higher waist that measures 31 inches and my hips are 42 inches at the widest spot, though the jacket hit much higher than the widest spot of my hips. So, as much as I would’ve liked to of gotten a great price on this, especially because I like that it is waterproof, I just couldn’t get the size to work for me.

I have owned this jacket for about a year and I think now that I can write a decent review on it. I was looking for an insulated jacket to hike with, something I wouldn't mind getting wet, sweaty, or dirty. What sold me on this one was the armpit zippers. As a man who warms up a lot on the trail it seemed like a perfect match. The ultra light nature of this product was also a factor. I also figured I would buy from a newer/independent company. Plus it was on sale. I have used this jacket on a weekendly to daily basis at least 6 months out of the year on rainy hikes, snowy hikes, and early morning cold summer hikes. I have exposed it rarely to direct rain as I use it as a mid layer under my shelf. The warmth of the insulation has held up and I have only washed it about 2 times. I air fan it more of the time to not risk ruining the insulation (that's what the internet tells me anyway.) I would recommend this as a good starter jacket if you don't know where to start. I have not experienced any of the insulation material peeking out of the jacket though I have noticed a few strands poking out of the stitching but nothing is unraveling. I would also caution to be careful where you walk with this jacket. I have almost snagged it on a few things but luckily they were just close calls. I am content with this jacket. I am not sure if they will restock it but it has more than exceeded my expectations.