Review – Patagonia Better Sweater

After my trusty Mountain Equipment fleece finally gave up (the zip stopped working) after pretty much daily use for 7 years I’ve had to find a replacement. I opted for the Patagonia Better Sweater Jacket and now that I’ve had it for a week here are my thoughts.

Better Sweater Jacket – Stonewash

Use

Firstly I’ll make it clear that I’m not intending to use it for outdoor activities – at most it’ll be used for short walks down the canal and over the moors or as a thrown on layer when it gets chilly in the evenings at a campsite. Mostly it’ll be keeping the draughts off when sat at my desk writing blog posts. I’m sure it would perform adequately as a mid layer for winter activities but there are lots of much better options if you want something for this kind of thing.

Better Sweater Jacket – Classic Navy

Warmth/Weight

I would describe it as a mid-weight fleece, a lot of fleeces/casual tops seem to going thinner at the moment, apart from the odd few which are really heavy weight with a big pile (eg: Rab double pile jacket), so it took longer than I expected find one I though would give a good amount of insulation. The best way to judge this is to look at the published weights – we always put them on our webpages. The Better Sweater Jacket is in the 500-600g region, which if you look through the range is at the heavier end of the scale, though I would still describe it as a mid weight jacket.

Fleece inner and high collar

Fit, Look & Feel

The fit, look and feel are great. The fit is nothing fancy, just a regular fit – it sits a bit lower at the back which is nice if you’re wearing a pack as it keeps it below the bottom of the pack helping to stop it ride up.  It’s really comfortable – the inner is a super soft pile which is really nice against the skin. The outer is a polyester knit which is soft to the touch and has a reasonably hard face to it so I’m hopeful it won’t easily get snagged/worn.

Regular Fit

Features

I’m a fan of the collar – it’s quite big so gives good protection against a breeze but with the front zip slightly open it doesn’t get in the way at the front or back which can be annoying on some fleeces. It’s got 2 zipped hand warmer pockets which are a good size for putting bits and pieces in and it’s got a surprisingly large chest pocket which personally I haven’t found much use for, but if you’re a chest pocket kind of person you can easily get phone or passport sized things in it with space to spare. Finally it has the little Patagonia Fitzroy skyline logo on the front – always good as Patagonia is a popular brand at the moment for the fashion conscious.

View Patagonia Better Sweater Jacket

Here’s what Patagonia have to say about it:

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