Mountain Hardwear Mountain Tech Jacket - Men's Review

The Mountain Hardwear Mountain Tech Jacket is a heavyweight fleece with a windproof membrane. The jacket performs well around town as an outerlayer but is ill suited to serious outdoor use and particularly multi-day overnight trips where you carry things-- it's heavy. This is one of our lowest rated jackets. It used to be called the Windstopper Tech jacket but the name changed when the company dropped its contract with W.L. Gore Associates and now uses wind and waterproof membranes from other companies, such as eVent.

This type of fleece was popular in the 1990's and early 2000's. Fleece technology has come a long way since then and our testing suggests that heavy windproof fleeces are not worth purchasing because (1) they are very heavy compared to other fleeces, (2) the membrane drastically reduces breathability and comfort, which are the main reasons to get a fleece in the first place. The Mountain Tech jacket is best suited to use as an outer layer for around town. But other types of outdoor apparel perform better than windproof fleeces as outer layers.