Patagonia calls it a Down Shirt rather than a down jacket; actually, it's a pullover. And, Patagonia modestly calls it their "lightest-weight insulation" with no hype (thankfully) about it being the lightest down garment in the world. Technically it is. It's insulated with 800-fill power down and has a very lightweight 0.8 oz/yd² (27 g/m²) shell fabric, so obviously it grabs our attention.
With Patagonia's new Down Shirt we now have a total of four really lightweight down insulated jackets to choose from: the MontBell Ex-Light Down Jacket, MontBell Down Inner Jacket, Crux Halo Top, and Patagonia UL Down Shirt. Looks like we have four good contenders for an ultralight down jacket shootout.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Specifications and Features
- Description
- Performance
- Ultralight Down Jacket Shootout
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# PHOTOS: 5
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Discussion
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I agree with others that using a down shirt/jacket for hiking is tough considering the high price and moisture issue in that application. A light fleece seems like a much more durable, moisture resistance, and CHEAPER option.
I am less worried about mositure & wind resistance since I would combine it with a wind shirt or rain jacket. I think that provides a more versatile system.
Regardless, the higher price of the Patagonia down shirt is the only reason to completely eliminate it from consideration.
Well in terms of synthetic equivalents, if you consider that the version of the Halo with baffles similar to those on the UL shirt – and almost twice the down fill – tested as roughly == the cocoon 60 then its clear the UL shirt can't be very warm.
In fact in terms of insulation at this weight point it very likely loses rather badly to something like PHDs ultra/WM's flight vest. Certainly an awful lot more core warmth, if of course less on the arms :)
Suspect implementation was reasonable, but they just pushed the basic design idea a bit further than it really rationally goes.
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