The Best Men's Hardshell Jackets of 2017

Best Overall Hardshell Jacket

Arc'teryx Alpha FL

$425.00 at Backcountry See It See all prices (3 found)

The Arc'teryx Alpha FL continues to beat back the competition in 2017. In six years of testing hardshell jackets, we still haven't found a model that performs better across the board. It has proven to be lightweight and nearly indestructible, making it the ideal product for winter sports that punish shells, such as alpine climbing. Indeed, if it hadn't already won our Editors' Choice award, we would recognize it as our Top Pick for Alpine Climbing. The low hemline and long sleeves are designed with climbing in mind, and the storm hood provides ultimate protection. While casual users might find it to be lacking some features (no hand pockets or pit zips), its pared-down approach maintains a low weight and maximizes mobility. As a lightweight and packable model, it can even double as a practical summertime rain jacket, and the GORE-TEX Pro membrane has proven to be very durable. Simply put, we love doing everything in this jacket and, especially considering the below-average price tag, the Alpha FL is still the best overall option on the market.

Read review: Arc'teryx Alpha FL

Best Bang for the Buck

Outdoor Research Axiom

$252.73 at REI See It See all prices (3 found)

The soft, supple fabric and athletic trim of the Outdoor Research Axiom make it the most mobile and top fitting jacket in this review. At only $389, it is nearly the most affordable jacket in this review, second only to the Top Pick Award-winning Outdoor Research Furio. The Axiom remains the same remarkable design that inspired us to award it our Top Pick for Skiing in last year's review. We have tested it countless times backcountry skiing and not once did we wish we were wearing another jacket. It also proved to be great for resort skiing and ice climbing. Design features, like the headphone port in the upper chest pocket or the two-way front zipper for easier harness or pant access, show that OR thinks of all the little things. Why change something that works? We commend Outdoor Research not only for their thoughtful designs but also their commitment to making them among the most affordable models. We happily recommend the Axiom as our Best Bang for the Buck winner.

Read review: Outdoor Research Axiom

Top Pick for High Exertion Activities

Rab Latok Alpine Jacket

$399.95 at Backcountry See It See all prices (2 found)

Hardshells are defined by their three-layer, waterproof/breathable membranes that serve to keep you dry from the outside as well as the inside. While attention is given to the type, quality, or innovation of the membrane, the reality is that breathability is a backup strategy to help you dry out once you're soaked in sweat. However, copious sweating is anathema to a climber or skier's hydration strategy and an easy way to end up dangerously chilled. To combat overheating in a hardshell, air vents are key, and the Rab Latok Alpine Jacket has innovative zippered vents to keep even the hardest working uphill athlete dry and ventilated. Instead of the usual pit zips, Rab extended the zipper on each arm all the way out the forearm, ending close to the wrist. They also include a two-way front zipper with buttons at the bottom of the jacket to allow for venting of the chest and torso without the jacket flapping in the wind. Through lots of uphill skinning, our tests revealed that this jacket's features vented better than any other in this review, making it our Top Pick for High Exertion Activities, when staying dry and cool are of primary importance.

Read review: Rab Latok Alpine Jacket

Top Pick for Rainy Climates

Outdoor Research Furio Jacket

$243.73 at REI See It See all prices (3 found)

Based in Seattle, Washington, Outdoor Research understands what it means to tackle mountain objectives in the rain. Whether you're plodding to the summits of Mt. Rainier or Mt. Baker, or searching for powder in the North Cascades, the threat of rain is a constant. The Outdoor Research Furio jacket is the most versatile model in this review, keeping you comfortable on windswept summits and in soaking rain during the approach bushwack. It features a mix of both three-layer (hood, shoulders, arms) and two-layer (back, front) Gore-Tex membranes designed to minimize weight and maximize protection. Since we originally reviewed this jacket, the construction materials are updated to be slightly more durable, weatherproof and comfortable (you can find more info about this upgrade in the main review). You'll also notice that OR made some small cosmetic changes to the chest zippers and color blocking design lines. Like the Outdoor Research Foray jacket, a two-layer rain shell, it also has full-length side zips and a two-way front zipper that give the greatest possible amount of venting options without exposing you to the elements. While all hardshells should keep you dry in the rain, the Furio does the best job of also keeping you dry and cool on the inside, and so is our Top Pick for Rainy Climates. For full-body protection, consider completing the ensemble with the $345 Outdoor Research Men's Furio Pants.

Read review: Outdoor Research Furio

Top Pick for Resort Skiing

The North Face FuseForm Brigandine 3L Jacket

$499 List List Price See It

The North Face Fuseform Brigandine 3L jacket is unique to this review in that it is optimally designed as a resort skiing jacket, one of the most popular uses of a hardshell. While The North Face mentions all the trendy tag-words on their website — "low-profile…lightweight…skinning uphill" — we aren't buying it. This is the second heaviest and bulkiest jacket in this review and runs hot with only lip service paid to venting. That said, its weight means it is warm, a useful attribute in the arctic winds of Loveland, Colorado, the highest (and coldest?) ski resort in North America. It's also equipped with an arsenal of features that almost seem gluttonous — forearm pocket with goggle wipe, thumb loops, a powder skirt with buttons and clips for attaching pants, double internal stash pockets, hand pockets, and napoleon pockets, a smartphone pocket with headphone port accessible from both inside and outside the jacket– you get the idea. While it scored poorly due to its weight, warmth, bulk, and a hood that didn't keep rain out, most of its attributes make it ideal for resort skiing where weight doesn't matter, warmth is appreciated, features are a bonus, and you hopefully won't encounter rain. With many of the same attributes and a similar design, we liked this jacket better than The North Face Free Thinker Jacket, due to its supple and mobile fabric and fit, and much lower price tag. If the slopes at Vail or Park City are your primary reason for owning a hardshell, then we can recommend this one as our Top Pick for Resort Skiing. Need protection for your legs? Check out the The North Face Fuseform Brigandine 3L Pants.

Read review: The North Face Fuseform Brigandine 3L

Analysis and Test Results

In order to decide which jackets performed the best, we compared them side-by-side based on five separate criteria: Weather Protection, Weight and Packability, Mobility and Fit, Venting and Breathability, and Features. We weighted each of these categories based on their importance to the average hardshell user. Our testing included extensive use while backcountry skiing, resort skiing, ice climbing, and doing manual labor in winter conditions. We designed tests to measure the characteristics of each jacket head-to-head. In each category, we gave a jacket a score from one to 10, combining that score with the weight of the category, and adding the scores together to determine our final rankings. A detailed description of each category, as well as how we tested it, is described below the following comparison table.

Weather Protection

Nothing is more important when considering a hardshell jacket than how well it protects you from the weather. After all, if it wasn't for the weather, you wouldn't even need a jacket. Hardshell jackets are different than softshells because they are meant to be waterproof, keeping you dry even in a downpour. Softshell jackets are designed primarily to be breathable. Hardshells are also different from rain jackets because they have waterproof/breathable membranes designed to allow moisture building up on the inside of the jacket to transfer through the jacket, so it can evaporate. All of the hardshell jackets in this test include some sort of waterproof and breathable membrane.


No matter what kind of membrane technology is used, every one of these jackets is waterproof. Since we tested these jackets during the Colorado Rockies' winter, we encountered snow more than its non-frozen cousin, rain. In order to be sure these jackets were indeed fully waterproof, we zipped each jacket up, tightened down the hood and wrists, and stood under the downpour of a shower for three minutes. All of the jackets were waterproof, and not a single one showed signs of water permeating through the membrane. However, the type of membrane and face fabric are not the only things that keep you dry.


Hardshell jackets also come with a Durable Water Resistant (DWR) coating applied to the face fabric. This chemical coating is designed to repel water when it hits the outside of the jacket and leads to the "beading" effect you notice when water hits a new jacket. The water has no chance to soak in, so it beads up and falls off. The reason why the DWR layer is important is because it improves the breathability of the membrane. Without it, the jacket will "wet out," meaning that the water no longer beads and falls off but soaks the face fabric instead. In this case, the jacket still retains its waterproof qualities because it still incorporates a waterproof membrane below the face fabric, but the breathability of this membrane becomes impaired.


We performed the shower test again after three months of winter testing and noticed that all of the jackets showed slight signs of wetting out, meaning that the friction and abrasion of our activities had worn off some DWR coating. In most cases, the wetting out occurred in predictable patterns: the mid-back, shoulders, and front waist, all places where pack straps ride or rub. Some models had also lost their coating on the sleeves, another high abrasion area. It is well known that DWR coatings wear off over time, and in order to keep your hardshell jacket both waterproof and breathable, you must wash it and reapply a DWR coating. As a result, we did not penalize jackets that suffered from DWR wear but made a note in the individual reviews how they fared.


The bigger factor when it came to weather protection, and one that really helped differentiate the jackets, was the design and fit. The most important feature in keeping water out of a jacket, especially in a downpour, is the hood design. Some hoods, like the Arc'teryx Alpha FL's, worked magnificently in the shower, while others proved to not have enough bill for protection (the Patagonia Refugitive). The way that the collar was designed when fully zipped also played a role in how well the hoods kept water out. In the worst cases, water ran straight off the sides of the hood, pouring down the neck like a rain gutter spout, like the The North Face Free Thinker Jacket. In the shower test, we also noticed that all of the main front and pocket zippers of every single jacket passed the test, stopping leaks. This year we were also happy to report that none of the pit zips leaked.


The final part of assessing weather protection came from our field testing. Wipe out in powder often enough or climb enough dripping ice pillars, and you will see where a jacket lacks or has you covered. Of course, our powder wipe-outs were purely intentional, you know, for testing purposes (wink). A big offender here was hemlines that were too short and rode up above the waist with arms overhead or, worse, allowed snow up when skiing. Another problem encountered was sleeves that were too short for the size, especially when lifting the arms overhead or to the sides.

As the most important metric in assessing a jacket's performance, weather protection accounts for 35% of each product's final score. Many of the jackets did a very good job protecting us from weather, and since we couldn't choose one over the others, we gave the Marmot Cerro Torre, Arc'teryx Beta AR, Arc'teryx Alpha FL, and the Outdoor Research Furio, each 9 out of 10 points for weather protection. On the other end of the spectrum were jackets with hoods that allowed water to run down our necks: both Patagonia jackets, as well as both of The North Face jackets.

Weight and Packability

To test for weight, we measured each jacket straight out of the box and ignored what the manufacturer's website said the item weighed. However, we found that due to changing sizing among many manufacturers, we needed to order men's large jackets for some brands, and men's size medium in others, complicating our weighting metrics. For that reason, we also made note of the manufacturer's stated weight in our specs table.


The jackets selected for this year's review had a wide range of weights. The lightest jacket was the Arc'teryx Alpha FL, weighing in at a mere 11.4 ounces for a size large. This jacket has been stripped of many features, such as underarm ventilation and hand pockets, all in the name of weight savings. The majority of the jackets fit in the range of 14-20 ounces, hovering close to one pound. Then there were the two North Face jackets, which both weighed in at close to 25 ounces, fully five ounces heavier than any other jacket tested. These jackets proved to be great choices for resort skiing, where weight doesn't matter, but didn't make much of an effort to truly trim ounces.


How much weight matters is subjective. As gear and materials evolve, manufacturers continually find ways to produce gear that matches the "light and fast" demands of elite alpinists. But not everyone is an elite alpinist, or even aspires to be one, and so for those people, it is important to note that the difference between the lightest and heaviest jacket in the review was only about 14 ounces, or close to a pound. In other words: not much. For most, other performance characteristics may be far more relevant.

There is no clear correlation between weight and overall jacket performance. Besides differences in fabric, manufacturers typically save weight by cutting out extraneous zippers and pockets, features that many users demand. So while wearing a hardshell jacket that feels as light as an extra shirt is far preferable to wearing a jacket so heavy it feels like you just donned a movable tent, there are other factors to consider when choosing to cut the ounces.


Packability is also considered into the weight metric. Climbing or skiing in good weather or warm climates means that the jacket will often live in the pack, and so having one that packs small and doesn't weigh a ton is a bonus. Unlike lighter and smaller wind breakers or rain jackets, these jackets don't stuff into their own pockets. We typically rolled them up and stuffed them into their hood for compact packing and to protect their DWR coating. Weight and packability accounted for 20% of a product's final score.

Mobility and Fit

As important as a jacket's weight is how well it fits and how easy it is to move in. We aren't using these jackets to watch an arctic football game in Buffalo, NY — though they would stand up to the test. No, we are using these as our outer shells for climbing up and skiing down mountains. They need to move as we move, and they need to fit like a perfectly designed suit of armor.



The best jacket designs used membranes and face fabrics that were soft and supple, and in the best cases, quiet. The Patagonia Refugitive used stretchy material under the arms and along the sides, ensuring that no matter how we moved, our jacket didn't stop us. We looked for an athletic fit around the torso, a hood that didn't constrict our view (even with a helmet on), a collar that was as comfortable as it was protective, and fabric quiet enough that we could hear ourselves thinking while moving inside the jacket.


The more we tested these jackets in powder and on ice, the more we realized that some of them simply didn't fit their intended purpose. Not only did we want them to move well and not inhibit our range of motion (Mobility), we also wanted them to keep us covered no matter what position we were in (Fit). Three things drove us crazy when it came to fit: short sleeves, high hemlines, and baggy chests. When a climber raises their hands above their head to swing their tools, they need the sleeves to stay put by their wrists, not ride down to the middle of the forearm. Likewise, when skiing through the glorious bounty of powder that last night's storm dumped, a high hemline can only lead to snow filling the inside of the jacket. Lastly, both skiing and climbing require you to be able to see your feet, and a baggy jacket front simply gets in the way. Any or all of these things caused us to dock points for fit, and their absence made us very happy.



The best jacket for Mobility and Fit was the Outdoor Research Axiom. It is athletically sized, has long sleeves and a low hem, and the fabric is supple and quiet, leading to great mobility and a perfect fit. The Arc'teryx Alpha FL also has a great fit and mobility, docked only by its loud, crinkly nature. On the other hand, we found that both the Patagonia Triolet (size M), and the OR Furio (size L), had sleeves that were too short, while the Patagonia Triolet and The North Face Fuseform Brigandine 3L were too tight and constrictive in the shoulders, arms, and chest. Mobility and Fit accounted for 20% of a product's final score.

Venting and Breathability

The hardshell jackets we tested all purport to be waterproof and breathable, so it only makes sense that we test them for their breathability. While an interested reader can spend days reading about the science of breathability on manufacturers' websites, the sweaty outdoor enthusiast slogging up a mountain might notice that these jackets don't seem very breathable. So what gives?


In years past, we attempted to accurately test these jackets for breathability by running in them on a treadmill in a controlled environment and making notes of the differences. We came to a few broad conclusions. First, there is no doubt that these jackets DO breathe, but it is virtually impossible for our testers to definitively state which one breathes the best or the worst. The second obvious conclusion drawn from the treadmill test was that in order to produce the correct atmosphere inside the jacket for breathing to occur, the user is going to feel uncomfortably hot and moist.

Due to the laws of physics, a certain amount of heat and moisture must be generated before an efficient transfer of the moisture from the inside to the outside of the jacket will take place. Our treadmill test proved what longtime hardshell wearers have long known: venting and airflow will keep you more comfortable than keeping your jacket zipped to the chin and letting it breathe for you. So, while breathability is an important characteristic, it is really more useful as a backup, meaning if you get wet or sweaty inside your jacket, it's nice that it will work to dry you out. However, the first option to avoid getting wet and sweaty in the first place is to ventilate.


For that reason, we chose to ditch the treadmill test this year and instead focus our energy on field testing these jackets in hot environments. While on the uphill in the backcountry of Colorado, we almost never choose to wear a hardshell, as we will almost always end up too sweaty way before we reach the mountaintop. But for three months this winter, we donned our hardshell for every uphill, testing out how effectively we could regulate our temperature while working hard. Besides the ubiquitous front zipper, most of these jackets featured pit zips of varying lengths and were easy to open and close.

A couple jackets, such as the Rab Latok Alpine Jacket, our Top Pick for High Exertion Activities, and the OR Furio, featured much longer and more effective arm or side zips, originating in the arm pits. The Furio even had mesh-backed pockets and a two-way front zipper. These attributes helped us stay relatively cool. While the Arc'teryx Alpha FL and OR Axiom did not have any pit zips, they were thinner and lighter than most, meaning we didn't heat up as quickly. Our testing indicated that the two North Face jackets were heavy, thick, hot, and had very small pit zips that didn't help us regulate temperature while traveling uphill. Breathability accounted for 15% of a jacket's final score.

Features

We chose to weight our "Features" metric as just 10% of a product's final score, as features are far less important to a jacket effectiveness when compared to the other metrics described here. However, the features that a jacket includes and especially how well they function can make the difference between smiling with appreciation every time you wear the jacket or frowning with annoyance every time you have to screw with something that doesn't work. All the jackets we tested share features like pockets, collars, wrist enclosures, zippers, and drawcords, and so the quality, placement, and how well they function is an important characteristic to consider.


We assessed this metric based on the quantity of features (because more is always better, right?), as well as the quality of the features. The Rab Latok Alpine Jacket ended up with the highest score, as it had a perfect blend of practical features that worked well, including some not found on other jackets, like the Velcro hood stow strap and full arm zips. The Patagonia Refugitive and The North Face Fuseform Brigandine 3L also had good feature sets. The lowest scorers were the Alpha FL and the Black Diamond Helio Alpine Shell; both jackets were intentionally designed with few features to save weight.

Below is a short description of some pertinent features and how they perform on a hardshell jacket.

Pockets
Pockets come in all shapes and sizes: hand pockets, breast pockets, interior pockets that zip or don't, sleeve pockets…you name it. One thing is for sure, pockets are handy for holding things. With this in mind, we love pockets that hold stuff in convenient-to-reach places. Our favorites are "Napolean" style breast pockets, that live high on the chest and allow crossover access. We also like interior non-zip stash pockets that store bulky accessories like gloves or a hat or even a water bottle.

We find less use for hip-height hand pockets because they tend to sit underneath a waist belt on a harness or waist strap on a pack. Of the jackets tested, The North Face jackets had the most pockets, while the lightest jackets tended to have only one chest pocket. The Editors' Choice winning Arc'teryx Alpha FL only has one napoleon-style pocket, while the Black Diamond Helio Alpine Shell has two napoleon-style chest pockets.


Wrist Enclosures
All of the jackets in this review use the same system for wrist enclosures: Velcro. However, they are not all made equal. Some of the Velcro was not very sticky, and some models had Velcro swatches that were too small. A couple had wrist enclosures that simply wouldn't shrink down tight enough for our tiny wrists, like the Marmot Cerro Torre, while others were too bulky to easily fit our gloves, like The North Face Free Thinker Jacket. In general, the Arc'teryx model jackets (the Arc'teryx Alpha FL and the Arc'teryx Beta AR) had the best quality and size of Velcro wrist enclosures.


Drawcords
Drawcords are used liberally in all of these jackets to tighten openings around the face and the hemline. The positioning of the pull tab end of the cord and the quality of the buckles that hold the cord taut make a big difference in performance. We loved hood drawcords that have the pull tab on the outside of the jacket, rather than the inside, so we didn't have to unzip the jacket to find the tab (if we wanted to tighten the hood, we usually wanted the jacket to stay zipped up!). We loved the buckles that we found on the Patagonia Refugitive and the Black Diamond Helio Alpine Shell because they released simply. Most jackets used buckles that were very small, making them hard to grip and squeeze to release with gloves.


Collars
When it's really storming, you want your jacket zipped all the way up, and that's when you notice whether the collar is awesome or not. The good ones ride comfortably high up, just under your nose, but aren't tight and don't restrict movement of your head. They also feature a soft micro-fleece lining that doesn't chafe. The bad ones do the exact opposite. Then there are the collars that are so rad they make you realize you never paid attention to collars before. The internal collar that lives inside the hood on the Arc'teryx Beta AR is, without doubt, the most comfortable and protective collar available.


Zippers
Zippers these days are tight — watertight. In our shower testing and use in the field, we didn't encounter a single instance of zippers failing or leaking. We loved two-way front zippers, like those found on the Rab Latok Alpine, OR Furio, Axiom, and Marmot Cerro Torre, because they allow easy access to the top of our pants or harness, and also allow for easier venting.

Conclusion

Donning your new hardshell jacket is a great feeling, even though picking what to buy can be daunting. Getting the features you desire, the weather protection you need, at the weight you want, all while keeping an eye on the price, is a tricky balancing act. However, we hope our tests and analysis of these jackets will have you on your way to finding the right product for your cold-weather activities and your budget.