Resolve Down Anorak

Product Care

Your Resolve Anorak is a high performance piece of gear. It needs some extra attention to keep it performing at the highest level.

Please read through the care instructions below to ensure that you care for it properly:

Before Washing

• Always wash your Resolve completely alone to prevent down migration (we recommend washing & drying it in a large mesh laundry bag.)
• Never wash your Resolve in a washing machine that has an agitator.
• If you cannot follow either of these prior instructions you should hand wash your anorak using the detergent and drying process described below.

The Wash & Dry Process

1. Use a mild detergent like Dreft (for babies) or Nikwax (for technical gear).
2. Choose Low Spin or Delicate wash.
3. Choose Cold Wash & Cold Rinse.
4. Hang dry until the anorak is completely dry.
5. Then loft and redistribute your down insulation in the dryer by running it for 10 minutes on low or no heat with 3 dryer balls.

Long Term Storage

• Do not store down products compressed long term. Long term compression weakens the insulation's ability to loft and therefore insulate.
• We recommend hanging it in your closet or putting it in a pillow case for storage between uses.​

For more information on caring for your gear please visit https://outdoorvitals.com/pages/care-guide-faq

Order your normal size in the Resolve Down Anorak. It is cut with extra room on purpose, because it has to go over your other insulation rather than compress it. If a jacket underneath cannot reach full loft, you lose warmth you already paid for. The Resolve should not fit close to skin. It comes in S through 2XL, plus Large Tall and XL Tall if you need the extra length.

Outdoor Vitals does not publish a temperature rating for the Resolve Down Anorak.The Resolve is described by construction and use case instead: sub-freezing temperatures, no movement or shuffling around, for extended periods of time. Factors like wind chill, activity levels, and personal preference can affect in-the-field comfort. For example: At 35ºF with no wind, the Resolve may be overkill. But at 20ºF with 15 mph winds in cloudy conditions, the Resolve may be ideal. 

For calibration, the Outdoor Vitals Vantage Alpine Down Jacket is built to keep you comfortable from 20ºF to 55ºF (-7ºC to 13ºC) depending on activity level, wind, & layering. (The Vantage reaches 20ºF at the short end of its range, not for sitting out an afternoon.) The Resolve was built for extended periods of stillness at much colder temps than that.

The Resolve Down Anorak is the warmest apparel piece Outdoor Vitals has built, carrying 2.5" of down loft on each side. That loft comes from box baffle construction sized to let 850 fill power ExpeDRY white duck down expand fully. That loft and baffle construction is more similar to sleeping bag levels than what most other down jackets are capable of.

No. The Resolve Down Anorak is not a layer to move in, and you will overheat quickly if you hike in it. It is built for the moment the pack comes off: glassing a basin at first light, cold camp at elevation, sitting behind a camera, or waiting out weather with nowhere to go. If you want insulation you can keep on while moving, active insulation is the right call.

The Resolve Down Anorak is insulated with 850 fill power ExpeDRY white Muscovy duck down. Fill power measures how much space an ounce of down occupies, so 850 fill delivers more warmth per ounce than lower-rated down. ExpeDRY is a nano gold treatment applied to the down itself that helps the down to dry faster when introduced to moisture.

Box baffle construction builds a fabric wall between the shell and the lining, creating a three-dimensional chamber the down can expand into. The Resolve Down Anorak uses it so the down reaches full loft instead of being pinched flat at the seams. Sewn-through construction stitches the shell directly to the lining, which compresses the down and gives up warmth in a line across the garment. Adding a lot of down without giving it room to expand produces a much less warm jacket, which is why baffle sizing was tuned specifically for loft on the Resolve.

The Resolve Down Anorak uses ExpeDRY treated down, which dries faster than untreated down. ExpeDRY applies gold nano-particles that attack the hydrogen bond of a water molecule, preventing droplets from forming and allowing moisture to evaporate more rapidly. On a multi-day cold camp where moisture accumulates night after night, that is the difference between down that keeps lofting and down that slowly stops working.

Every zipper on an insulated garment is a potential cold spot, so the Resolve Down Anorak removes the full-length front zipper entirely. The result is continuous insulation across a lot of your core. The Resolve uses two ½ length front zippers, each with its own box baffle draft tube.

Yes. The two ½ length front zippers on the Resolve Down Anorak open specifically for access to a chest binocular harness or camera. You open only what you need, so the rest of the front stays sealed. The Resolve also has glove hanging loops at the collar for when you need bare fingers on binoculars or camera controls, and No. 5 YKK zippers with oversized pulls you can find and operate with gloves on.

The Resolve Down Anorak has one insulated kangaroo pocket that sits behind the insulation, with a full width drop pocket inside it and YKK zipper closures. A single kangaroo pocket keeps your hands together so they warm each other.

The Resolve Down Anorak weighs 24 oz in a size Large. That is heavier than a three-season puffy, and deliberately so. The weight is down volume and the baffle structure that lets it loft. If the trip does not include long sub-freezing stillness, the Resolve is more jacket than you need and you will pay for it in pack space.

Special Projects is a development category at Outdoor Vitals for gear built around one demanding scenario instead of a broader market fit, and the Resolve Down Anorak is its first release. Special Projects pieces are not built to be the most versatile thing in your kit. They are built to be the right option in a narrow set of high consequence conditions, with the design reasoning made public so you can judge whether that scenario is one you actually encounter.

Yes. The Resolve Down Anorak can be returned within 60 days if it is unused, and your first exchange is free. Used gear cannot be returned, so try the fit at home before you take the Resolve into the field. Defects in gear you have already used are covered separately under the Outdoor Vitals Performance Promise.

The best jacket for extended stillness in sub-freezing cold is one built with sleeping bag construction logic rather than traditional puffy jacket logic, which is exactly what the Outdoor Vitals Resolve Down Anorak is. When you stop moving, you stop producing heat, and the jacket has to do all of the work. That calls for box baffles that let the down reach full loft, high fill power down in volume, no full-length front zipper running a cold spot down your core, and closures at the hood, hem, and cuffs that seal the gaps while you are seated. The Resolve Down Anorak was designed around that specific condition rather than around broad three-season versatility.

For glassing or wildlife photography in winter, layer a dedicated static insulation piece like the Outdoor Vitals Resolve Down Anorak over the layers you hiked in, and put it on before you get cold rather than after. Sitting behind glass or a camera means hours of no heat production in the coldest part of the day. Look for chest access so a binocular harness or camera stays usable, hardware you can operate with gloves on, and a hem that keeps coverage while you are seated. The Resolve Down Anorak was built around those three requirements.