Adventure with Alex

Only a day after returning to chilly New Hampshire from a warm Thanksgiving in Florida we received a greatly anticipated package. Alex’s Patagonia Baby Hi-Loft Down Sweater Hoody had arrived! We ordered this after seeing Alex’s BFF Rowan don it after joining us for a dinner party on a chilly night a few weeks ago.

BFF Rowan sporting his Patagonia Puffy!

Knowing Alex will be spending a fair amount of time out in the snow this season we decided a high quality down jacket for days he does not need his North Face Insulated Down Suit was needed.

Fits great!

I’m going to put it right out there and let you know this jacket ain’t cheap ($129). Patagonia is known for pricey clothing. They are also known for extremely high quality clothing and excellent environmentalism. While they have factories all over the world they believe in transparency and make it quite easy to see where they source their products. Still some would say paying this much for a 2T jacket that he will grow out of in one year is crazy. For this I have 2 opinions to share;

1) Alex’s comfort in cold weather adventures is our first priority. If we want to snowshoe, hike, and ski with him this winter keeping him as toasty and mobile as possible is priority numero uno!

2) Resell value. This jacket is already out of stock at almost every retailer I searched online, and it is only December 3rd. While I would think Patagonia would increase their product run the following season I can also understand them staying conservative with production. Expensive quality kids clothes usually do not sell until they have been marked down to basically cost. Quality brands just don’t make money on kids clothes. But when supply is limited they can still sell at retail, or close to it. Also, from a consumer standpoint they have solid resale value. Bottom line, I’m sure baring any major damage to the jacket we will sell it at the beginning of next season for around $80, and put that towards a 3T size.

This way to the Christmas Trees daddy!

Enough of the politics, on to the review!

You can read the nitty gritty details from the manufacture’s website here. I’m just going to call attention to what makes this a 5 star item.

Warmth– While 600 fill goose down isn’t the highest fill down I like to see in a quality peice, they were not skimpy on how much they used! 74 grams, in a jacket that only weighs 235 grams, that means 1/3 of the jacket’s weight is quality down. That is a great ratio when it comes to down jackets!

Dryness– DWR: “Durable Water Repellent finish”- on lots of jackets so no big deal? Well Patagonia treated both the shell fabric and the lining of the shell fabric for a double dose of water-resistance. While the fabric itself will be basically waterproof the stitching at the baffling will be a weakness to water, so we plan on reserving this for when all H20 is in it’s preferred state… frozen.

Durable– Shell Fabric: “1.4-oz 20-denier polyester mini-ripstop”… what does that mean? It means super lightweight packable soft quiet durable nylon, not cheap big box store blue light special nylon. It also shows zero signs of wanting to “bleed” down, a common cosmetic issue with even high end adult down jackets.

Warm enough for Christmas Tree hunting!

So that’s it. Well almost. It also packs into a virtual nothing ball so we can bring it anywhere it might be cold. It has nice fuzzy chin protectors and hand-warmer pockets. Alex, being 2, hasn’t really discovered how to use pockets yet, but it’s nice they are there.

Bottom line: It’s not cheap, but worth every single penny, especially if you can either hand it down or re-sell it and buy the next size up!