New Balance Fugu down jacket

I want to say that I saw a post about the jacket in one of the gear forums over at Whiteblaze.com about 6 months ago (possibly less). If it wasn't this jacket, it was another down jacket made by a sporting goods/shoe manufacturer. Try a search over there. From what I remember the owner said it was comparable in warmth and weight to higher-end jackets like Western Mountaineering's Flight Jacket.

Edit: Found the post; looks like the same jacket. Here's the link: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22605&highlight=balance

It is also available on Joe's New Balance Outlet for $124.99 from $250 in limited sizes of course.

http://www.JoesNewBalanceOutlet.com

After checking out this jacket at Joes New Balance Outlet, I noticed that Joes had my favorite trail runners on sale (the 801). So, after ordering a pair of shoes, I had a moment of weakness and decided to order this jacket as well (lucky timing on my part given that they only had 1 medium left in stock).

Just received it today (BTW – Joes offered 2nd day air shipping for free), and I can sum up this jacket in one word – WOW!

On my scale, it weights in at 13.5 oz (383 grams). Yes, this is a bit heavier than the 10.5 oz Western Mountaineering Flight Jacket, and the 11.3 oz Mont-Bell Alpine Light Jacket, but I'll live with the couple of extra ounces given the $125 price tag and all the features:

(-) 850+ fill
(-) Silky smooth nylon shell with (according to the label) "Super DWR"
(-) "Radiant Barrier Technology" (which appears to be some form of metalized liner fabric) that (according to the label) provides (exactly) 4.6 degrees of extra warmth, plus being windproof
(-) Two zippered hand pockets which are down lined on both sides
(-) Nicely elastic cuffs
(-) Elastic drawstring around the lower hem
(-) dual front zippers
(-) Wind flap behind the front zipper (which has a stiffener sewn into it, and just a smidge of down insulation)
(-) A HUGE down-filled collar
(-) A hanging loop (are you listening Mont-Bell)
(-) A small-ish velcro-ed interior pocket
(-) A mesh pocket with a drawstring that serves as a built-in stuff sack
(-) And two odd features in the right handwarmer pocket:
(+) A "snap loop" (that I guess you could use to secure your key chain
(+) A second, side-entry pocket (that I have idea how you would use)

I'm 5'10", 155 lbs, and the medium fits me just fine.

Before ordering this jacket, I searched around for reviews. The only consistent comment I read was that starting the zipper was a bit tricky. This is true given the dual zippers, but I don't find it to be a big deal.

At the moment, I can only see two (small) "issues" with this jacket:
1) The jacket is too "bulky" to stuff into the built-in stuff sack (it doesn't help that the mouth of this stuff sack runs along the long dimension of the sack).
2) The stiffener on the zipper wind flap should have been sewn to the outside of the flap (not the inside). The nylon shell material that IS on the outside of the wind flap is easliy caught by the zipper.
The bottom line is that these two issues are just nit-picks on an otherwise well designed jacket.

I expect this to make a nice addition to my collection of down-insulated garments (specifically, my MontBell UL Down Vest, MontBell UL Half-Sleeve Jacket). These jackets aren't shown on the New Balance website, so I'm guessing they have been discontinued. If you are in the market for this type of jacket, I would advise you to get one quick!

-PLR-

I have a few things to add to Paul's recommendation to purchase the Fugu including the warmth of the jacket, the fabrics used, and the looks. The New Balance Fugu claimed 4.6F increase in warmth based on the liner piqued my interest and so I did some tests. First, this is what the liner looks like magnified:

:

The tricot protection layer looks identical to the third layer used to protect eVENT and Gore-Tex membranes but, I have never seen the silver membrane below it before. Has anyone seen a similar liner before or know anything about this type of liner? For example, is it microporous or hydrophilic?

The Fugu tested significantly warmer than a Cabela's down jacket with the same single layer loft of ~1.5". It is very much warmer than a comparable loft down jacket than the modest 4.6F claim in their marketing hype. I suspect that this is primarily the result of the 850 down in the Fugu versus the 650 down in the Cabela’s. None the less, this unorthodox liner probably does make the incremental 4.6F contribution New Balance claimed.

My simple test was to IR measure the heat transmitted through the jacket in a 70F room and compare that with an identical loft down jacket and a jacket previously warmth tested by BPL. I used a regulated 135F (65F delta) heat source under each jacket and let each jacket acclimate for 1 hour. The mean 95F skin heat passing through the jackets in a typical 30F (65F delta) winter environment was simulated with this simple test. One other reference jacket I tested was the MEC Magma (1.1" Primaloft One). BPL previously tested this jacket as part of their Synthetic Belay Jacket tests.

MEC Magma (1.1" Primaloft One)……….86.4F
Cabelas (1.5" 650 Down)……….80.3F
New Balance Fugu (1.5" 850 Down + Radiant Liner)….77.1F

The less heat moving through the insulation and measurable on the outside surface, the better is the jacket’s insulation. To put the above numbers into another frame of reference, I tested my comparable weight Patagonia Micropuff pullover (.6" Polarguard Delta) and it yielded 90.1F of heat to the outside surface.

The material is quite windproof. A simple mouth breathability test yielded an undetectable air flow similar to the Epic Praetorian used in the Special Forces PCU Level 4 Windshirt.

One other thing I looked at was New Balances DWR claim. Again the Fugu was an outstanding performer. I ran the jacket arm under the faucet for a few minutes with no detectable water entry or wet out. I then looked at the fabric under a microscope. The DWR is probably for the life of the garment. Each fiber appears to be silicone encapsulated similarly to EPIC. Attached are photos of my Special Forces L4 Epic windshirt fabric and the Fugu jacket exterior fabric.

Special Forces L4 Epic windshirt:

New Balance Fugu exterior fabric:

Subjectively, it is a very nice looking jacket with an athletic cut:

Great pictures Richard.

Your picture of the tricot layer over the metalized liner may be highlighting the one (potential) short coming of this jacket – the metalized liner does not look particularly breathable.

Have you experienced this to be the case?

-PLR-

Paul- I just received this jacket and local temps are too warm to wear it. It will be awhile before I can test the breathability is a cold field environment.

You said, "(+) A second, side-entry pocket (that I have idea how you would use)". It appears to be an eye glass pocket; eye glasses are held securely and protected from getting scratched when other hard items are in the same pocket.

Wanted to revive this thread and see if there are any more satisfied/unsatisfied owners since the last post. Have been reading the latest reviews on comparable down jackets and the Fugu keeps popping up on the radar. All things being equal (or almost equal) the pricetag on the Fugu is attractive to me.

So …any updates out there ??

Thanks in advance

I have one, I love it. The sizing seems to run a bit big in the girth, but I thought they were discontinued. I bought mine at joesnewbalanceoutlet.com when they were blowing out these coats for $65 to $99 but that was last September. Good luck.
EDIT: Hey Mark, Just checked that site and saw no mens coats; they still had some womens versions which (even though I have one) are a bit inferior: they come petite and regular (no long), there are no zipper pulls on the pockets like the mens–just delicate dress-like pulls, and have extra baffles on the front (I removed a seam between two baffles on the front of mine for better loft). Still, they are wicked cheap! Of course this is only one site and there is always the used market.

Mark, Overstock.com has them for sale at ~$125 in S-2XL.

Has anyone seen one of these in an XL Tall or can anyone comment on how long the torso length on an XL is?