REI Gossamer Vest & Jacket

thanks for mentioning that, the jacket it hooded and inexpensive… 149$/15ozs compared to montbell’s 165$/13 ozs… or wildthings gear EP hooded 195$/16ozs…

vest is 9 oz / 99$ vs montbell 110$ / 5.2 oz…

so, more affordable but slightly heavier than possible other options…

very nice offering… especially is you belong to the co-op and have some “points” burning a hole in your pocket…

Saw the vest in person today at REI, and love it. I own the Patagonia Micropuff vest, and have a brand new MEC Northern Lite vest in my house. Just from living room type of wearing, I prefer the Gossamer.

For it’s 9 – 10 ozs, it has a ton of features. A small piece of fleece (or similar fabric) lining where the vest meets your chin. (Only one of the three with that). It has a waist drawcord for cinching; the other two have non-adjustable elastic. In addition to (unlined) hand warmer pockets, it has a zippered interior security pocket. I really think REI has a winner with this garment; it’s a nicely designed vest that I would wear around town.

But alas, who am I kidding. I’d trade all that for the 3 ozs I’m saving with my MicroPuff vest! :-)

-G$

I saw these in person and tried them on in the store. They are nice and fully featured.

The down side is (I’m only estimating now) that the warmth to weight ratio may not be that great. The loft on these garments appeared to me to be about equivalent to montbell’s thermawrap jackets, but quite a bit less than Patagonia’s micropuff line. So probably as warm as a thermawrap but with considerable more weight (and more features like pockets etc).

For the jacket, totally agree with you. For the vest, a little less sure. The vests use Primaloft One, while the jacket uses Sport. The MEC also looked like it had less loft than either the Gossamer or the Micropuff vests.

In any case, we need hard data here. Will it be BPL to the rescue with an in-depth comparison?? :-)

Also, slightly off topic… but MEC lists the Northern Lite garments as “New.” Anyone know what changes were made for the 05/06 season?

-G$

I own a Norther Lite Pull-Over. I purchased the last year Pull-Over model (paid only $30 US for it during the MEC closeout sale!). I also look at the “new” vest. The loft and the shell frabric is exactly the same (looking at the tech specs from the in-store computer). The only difference looks like the addition of DWR and some change in the zippers. It looks like there was no DWR before (again from the tech specs). I find the zippers to be better and lighter on the old model. Regarding the weight, for sure the new one is more heavier (a bit less than 2 oz) because of the DWR and new zippers.

For the price I really can’t complain about the Norther Lite Pull-Over. It’s warm, light and very usefull.

They are currently in sale at less than half-price in store: the vest, the jacket and the pull-over.

Hope this help.

That is helpful, thanks for the thoughtful reply and time.

-G$

I have purchased the Gossamer vest and really do like It. It does have a lot of features as others have said. Anyway, I weighed the vest at 8.35oz not to bad. I wanted to know if the warmth was comparable to the micropuff. If the warmth is the same I would trade the oz for the weight and versatility.

My Micropuff vest has more loft than the Gossamer vest, and probably warmer because of that.

(I’m also the “anonymous” poster from above)