By Alan
Columbia Thermodynamic Soft Shell Jacket
Upon first look at Columbia’s new ThermoDynamic soft shell jacket, it looks like a lot of other high quality soft shells out there on the market. It’s sharp with its lines and cut. It has great pockets with really nice zippers and pulls. It’s when you open it up and see the lining that you will notice what Columbia did to set it apart from the rest. The lining of the jacket is covered in tiny foil dots that remind me of my foil emergency blanket. If the idea of reflecting one’s body heat back at them to keep them warm works for our emergency blankets, why wouldn’t the same principle work in a jacket?
The first time I went to wear the jacket, we were still running temperatures in the 30′s, so I wanted to wear a long sleeve micro fleece under it for some added warmth. This turned out to be a challenge to put the jacket on since the lining of the jacket on the back and down the sleeves has a slight fuzziness to it that clung to the micro fleece with almost Velcro strength. The lining on the front of the jacket looks to be ripstop nylon with the foil dots on it too, which did not want to cling to clothing as bad as the different fuzzy lining material on the back and down the sleeves. Once on and zipped up, I liked how light it was, and that it didn’t feel bulky, but I could tell that it was catching on my layers under it and was limiting the mobility of my arms especially in the shoulders. I continued to wear the jacket for a month with different types of clothes under it and it seems to work best with T-shirts made of CoolMax, polyester, and even cotton. Not having a long sleeve shirt allowed more arm mobility, but it still wasn’t the best in the solders. I think the shoulders need to have a relief sewn into the back of them to allow a little more mobility.
Close up of worn interior area
Out on the trail, or even just out and about on the weekends running errands, the jacket kept me fairly warm. It is by no means a winter parka replacement, but it reminded me of the warmth of wearing a Polartech 200 Windblock fleece jacket, but in lighter, less bulky package. Plus the slickness of the softshell works great for keeping it free of trail debris, where the fleece would be more like a giant lint brush. The warmth from the lighter jacket makes it great for hiking and backpacking. If we would have gotten more snow this winter, I would have tried it out snow shoeing and X-country skiing. One thing that was interesting about the jackets was how much warmth and activity level played off . If I was just standing around, the warmth seemed to dissipate quickly, which I think is due to the lack of insulation, but if I was doing anything physical, it would keep me nice and warm. Now this can be said for just about any jacket, but it seems like this one would keep me warmer during those times of activeness, compared to ones that kept me at about the same level of warmth during non active times. Perhaps the little foil dots do work and have something to do with this.
So far the exterior of the jacket is holding up great and looks like new. The shell appears to be very abraision resistant, but in my long term testing we’ll get a better chance to see how it holds up to having a daypack on it and brushing up against rocks and trees. The inside of the jacket has one area about 3″ in diameter where the foil dots appear to be wearing off. This could have been just a manufacturing defect in this section because the rest of it looks like brand new still. I’m going to have to keep an eye on it to see if the area gets any bigger or if any other areas start to show the same wear.
Overall, so far I like the jacket, and think it will work great for my outdoor activities. My biggest gripe would be the lack of shoulder mobility, an issue I haven’t had with other jackets that I would put in the same category as this jacket. Due to this, I would not recommend this jacket to anyone with broad shoulders since I have this issue and do not have wide shoulders.
