All posts tagged: Puffer

Best Puffer Jacket (2026): Patagonia, Arc’teryx, REI

Best Puffer Jacket (2026): Patagonia, Arc’teryx, REI

Published by skeptic

Mountain Hardware’s Ghost Whisperer UL hoodie has been a popular pick among ultralight backpackers since it was introduced a few years ago. It remains the best puffer jacket for anyone trying to shave every last ounce off their pack weight. It weighs just 6.7 ounces for a men’s medium (7.3 ounces for the men’s large I tested), packs down to a tiny little thing (stuffing into its own pocket), and the 1,000-fill-power goose down offers one of the best warmth-to-weight ratios on the market. The very lightweight shell material is a mix of 5D and 7D ripstop nylon, which is a bit more fragile than heavier jackets, but it has held up well so far in my testing. I can safely say that the Ghost Whisper UL is everything I ever wanted in an ultralight down puffer and then some. What sets it apart from some other very nice puffers out there are the little details. First there’s the 1.9 ounces of 1,000-fill-power down, which is as high a fill power as you’ll find in …

Outdoor Vitals Vantage Alpine Puffer Jacket Review: Perfect Spring Puffer

Outdoor Vitals Vantage Alpine Puffer Jacket Review: Perfect Spring Puffer

Published by skeptic

I’ll confess I would have a nerdy admiration for ExpeDry down even if it didn’t work, just for its use of basic chemistry, which even I dimly remember from high school but for some reason never made it into a product until recently. What’s even better is that it does work. I don’t have a lab, and I’m not particularly interested in what happens in one anyway, but I am a backpacker, living in a cold climate, with a deep dislike for being cold. In the real world, where I live, if your jacket loses loft and you get cold, bad things happen. In my testing, the Vantage jacket loses almost no loft throughout the day, even when I am active and sweating in it. Better Than DWR? Photograph: Scott Gilbertson Outdoor Vitals is not the first to use ExpeDry. Marmot, Katabatic Gear, and many others also have various sleeping bags and jackets with ExpeDry down, but the Vantage is the first time I have noticed a real difference. The Vantage has less fill than …

Why I Swapped My 0 Puffer For This Uniqlo Down Jacket

Why I Swapped My $800 Puffer For This Uniqlo Down Jacket

Published by Jenni Sidey

After a few winters in a beautifully made, technically impressive, but very expensive puffer jacket (I’ll name names, it was Arc’teryx Veilance’s Conduit coat) I realized it just wasn’t fitting quite how I wanted it to. No matter what I tried, it still felt too slim, too long, and not quite the right vibe. I decided to take decisive action: Flip it on Facebook Marketplace, and start looking for something else. Being the menswear sicko that I am, I initially looked at a replacement in the same price range. A $600 puffer from an expert Japanese label at my local menswear shop caught my eye. Gorgeous, obviously. But at the end of the day, I wasn’t really convinced I needed to spend the scratch. After all, I’ve had holiday gifts to buy. Still, it’s cold where I live (Canada), and today the sun set at quarter-to-five. Most days, that means practicality beats getting a fit off. I undeniably needed a no-nonsense daily workhorse, but at a more manageable price. This led me to Seamless Down …

The Puffer Jacket No Guy Can Resist Is a Major 40% Off for Black Friday

The Puffer Jacket No Guy Can Resist Is a Major 40% Off for Black Friday

Published by Jenni Sidey

For more Black Friday savings intel, check our guide to the best Black Friday clothing deals. Then make moves to GQ’s frequently-updated master list of every single Cyber Week deal that matters. When I first saw this deal, I couldn’t quite believe it. For as long as I can remember, the North Face Nuptse Jacket has been, at over $300, a purchase as painful as it is practical. But there I was this morning, scoping out the Mr Porter’s Black Friday deals, when suddenly I saw it: The North Face Nuptse, 40% off, down to $198 from the usual $330. The North Face 1996 Retro Nuptse Quilted Nylon-Ripstop Down Jacket You can’t go wrong with the black colorway. I’ve owned my Nuptse for five years, ever since I first paid above-retail price to a Moscow-based Grailed seller for it, during a winter where the jacket had entirely sold out across New York and the North Face’s website. (I refused to compromise and consider any other style.) What I got in that strangely wrapped package was …