User Review: Patagonia Storm Jacket

Patagonia Storm Jacket
Above: The current Storm Jacket, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed February 22, 1999 by Tom

Rating:
Fabric: Nylon w/H2No coating
Price Paid: $289 USD

Junk. I have bought Patagonia gear since 1974, but the absolute and total failure of this product indicates that the fine folks in Ventura are more concerned with designing politically correct jeans that will save the world than they are producing an "iconic" product that works.

I recently spent a week in the Cascades where we got 3.5 feet of snow in 4 days, 50 mph steady winds at the treeline, etc -- basically what I would call a "storm" -- and I was soaked throughout. I found snow between the liner and the shell, the chintzy little velcro cuffs refused to work after the first encounter with snow, and the hood, while fine when on my head, was a drift magnet otherwise. It took almost a full day to dry it out after the trip!

To their credit, I called Patagonia's customer service folks, shipped it back, and got a check in a week (I now have a very functional North Face jacket). But the idea of spending three hundred bucks on a product that this company calls one of their core products says a lot about where their priorities are these days. Given that it was such a categoric failure, I can only assume that Patgucci's definition of a "storm" means "protecting yuppies from the grim harshness of the rain falling in the mall parking lot" rather than saving someone's butt in the mountains