Best around town puffy coat?

Montbell Alpine Light Down Parka

KJ

I posted this in another thread but, Arcteryx Cerium SV. Warm, fits well, excellent construction, nice features. Only issue is the price.

Crux Lava and Eddie Bauer Peak XV.

Something with a somewhat durable shell

No 7-10D pertex etc …

Wearing it daily will abrade it over the years and youl get pinholes

Also something with a good warranty should the zipper go

I use a EB downlight personally for daily wear the last few years

Also if you wear it daily, the down will degrade with enough washes/use and the DWR will wear out

;)

Around town, I don't want to look like I am off to conquer the latest mountain while I am grabbing a head of lettuce, getting a replacement bulb for the car or meeting a friend for a pint.

Just as I do not wear nylon pants or wicking shirts on my daily commute, don't like to wear straight up outdoor clothing. That's just me. :)

So, my cold-weather puffy for town is no longer made. It is the infamous lifestyle gear made by GoLite. On clearance, it was a post-Christmas gift from Mrs Mags. I forget the model, but it looks more like a 60/40 jacket that happens to be a puffy. Fairly durable for daily wear too.

I get some nice compliments on the jacket and I like wearing something that does not look something everyone else is wearing. Perhaps it is my more conservative tastes in clothing, but the shiny down jackets popular today look like something from the Jetsons. :) While backpacking, hiking ,skiing, etc? Who cares. In town, no thanks.

Warm, stylish and I don't have to worry about if my outdoor clothing is too beat up to wear in town… Don't know it is THE BEST, but it is what works for me.

Found this on ebay..again,can't remember the model

Eddie Bauer has a 550 fill down sweater that I picked up for $25 on clearance. It's heavy at 14+ oz, and I'm not entirely sure of the fill weight, but it gets the job done and is sturdy enough for daily wear. It has a rip stop nylon shell and I have taken it backpacking although I'm in the market for something lighter.

For me, an around-town puffy coat must have a durable shell. Durable enough to hold up to subways, taxi cabs, and leaning stoically against brick coffeeshops. I don't layer as much in-town, so more down will be needed.

Thus, I find the Marmot Iceland to be my go-to winter wonder. Keeps off the worst that both the U.P. and Chicago can throw at me, priorities considered.

+1 for the MB Alpine Light Down Parka. It uses a 30D shell, so plenty tough for everyday use. Has nice hand warmer pockets, a nice big, adjustable hood to fit over my ball cap, or over my beanie. Is rather wind resistant, and warm! I can easily wear just this parka with a shirt underneath while in town, or outside around home, and be comfortable all the way to the lower 20's, which is nice since I can pull it off when inside a heated building, and have my tshirt only, and be comfortable. As well, cost is reasonable, at least IMO.

Lightly insulated leather jacket with a hoodie underneath. Sure I live in the desert, but I survived the snowiest and coldest winters Boston had seen in decades with this get up. Emphasis on "survived," since crossing the Charles daily was a lesson in suffering. Leather is surprisingly not that windproof….

"Leather is surprisingly not that windproof…."

? Bwah?

At one point, a motorcycle was all i had for transportation and at one point during that same prior point, i would leave the house around 5:30 in the morn for work, got on the highway for about 25 minutes, all through fall to the end of December. My windproof layer was a leather jacket. I had some other layers on underneath, but only a couple and these were highly breathable.

Did ok.

Btw and not directly related, i'm originally from MA, though not Bean Town specifically. Bout half an hour outside of same (though lived in other places in MA further away).

I was surprised too! Probably as much construction as fabric. Wind may have found it way in through the seams.

Still I definitely crossed the Charles on a number of occasions and felt the wind rip right through my jacket body panels. Granted sometimes I was a in blizzard walking home or on days with windchill in the negative double digits, but I definitely remember air circulating around my torso. Miserable times for a ill prepared desert rat. Lets not even talk about the glove and shoe situation ;)

Back to the original post though, leather can take you a long way if you layer with it. By no means light but before we had down we had leather and furs.

I saw a Marmot Greenland puffy in XXL for $152 shipped on eBay and figured that was probably my best bet. Tried to look for a more durable coat but couldn’t find one in an XLT or XXL that was cheaper. Maybe if I had a Costco around. :) Does anyone have a Greenland or seen one? It supposedly has baffles that are about 1” tall where they are sewn together so it should be really warm and maybe I can also use it as a parka for when it is really cold. Mostly I will be using it while waiting for and riding the bus and walking around. When I drive my car I usually just use a fleece. I can always try to contact the seller to cancel the order if people think it is a bad choice because the ebay seller doesn’t get in until Monday.

…without the Membrain WPB shell or all the interior pocketry. It has almost a pound of down, so it really is quite suitable for very cold environments. My Iceland is a furnace; ambulating around town I'll stay warm into sub-zero temperatures with something like Cap 4 underneath.

I've got a review of mine over at Trailspace.com

Brett, I have a Marmot Greenland parka. I normally wear size large, but I needed to size up to XL in that coat. This is one serious parka and very puffy. You will probably take up both seats on the bus due to its bulk. Mine weighs 1# 15 oz., and it is one of my warmest sub-zero coats. The shell fabric is pretty gossamer, so I wear an oversized wind shirt over it to help protect it. It pairs beautifully with my WM Flight pants on a muy frio winter day. It will keep you warm on a sub-zero day, for sure, but maybe overkill when the temps are in the 20-30* F range. It might be a bit inconvenient to find a place to put it when you take it off in a restaurant. $150 is a great price for this parka.

Yeah, that was my consideration also in that the shell is probably very thin. But then again I haven’t seen many that are not. The only thing that I have that could fit over it is possibly a Dri Ducks jacket in XXL and that is a maybe. Should I still go through with it then. Are the sewn part of the baffles really 1” tall?

Yes, about 1" between the stitching on the outside and that of the inside. I'm not quite sure what they've done there. It's almost like there might be a thin membrane that runs perpendicular to the outer and inner fabrics, although I can't actually feel it (and I can't imagine how they would do something like that). But if the stitching between the inner and outer shells allows a 1" space, it seems like the down could shift from one chamber to the next. Maybe the stitching is so tight that this is prevented? I don't know.

You probably won't need to put a protective shell over it, Brett, as you'll be using this in an urban setting, not bushwhacking off trail. I mainly use a windshirt over mine to keep campfire smoke off it, as well as to protect it from flying sparks.

I might just keep using the R2, windshell, hat and mitts at the bus stop then and around town. be nice if I could extend those down a bit. Thanks for the info on the Greenland.