Marmot Men's Featherless Component Jacket Review

Fresh snow has dumped twice in the last week in Virginia, which has been a great opportunity to photograph the snow covered Appalachian Mountains. When I saw the temperature was going to be so low for my sunrise hike though the Ridge and Valley Range of the Appalachians, the first piece of gear I grabbed was my Marmot Featherless Component Jacket. This jacket is WARM, so I knew I would be just fine even on this freezing morning.

The things I love about this jacket are first, like all 3-in-1 jackets, it’s actually two jackets: a waterproof outer shell and a featherless insulated jacket that zips together forming one all-purpose jacket. Dressing in layers is the key to staying warm during the winter, and the Marmot Featherless Component Jacket allowed me to easily unzip the outer shell when I got too warm while hiking. The summit had 25mph sustained winds with gusts of over 50mph and while I waited for the sun to rise over the ridges, the jacket did an outstanding job blocking the wind. I was warm the whole time and never felt the wind except when it tried to blow me off my feet. My experience with some other 3-in-1 jackets I have owned is the wind leaks though where the jackets zip together creating a weak point, but even in the 50mph winds, I did not feel any leaks with this Marmot jacket. Along with keeping me warm, this jacket also kept me dry.

The week before, Virginia got 14’” of snow in 24 hours and the waterproof outer shell kept me dry while the 700 fill power of Marmot’s featherless 3M Thinsulate kept me warm. Since the inner layer is made of synthetic and not down filling, I knew that even if it somehow got wet, the jacket would still keep me warm. The truth is nothing is 100% waterproof and if you are out in the rain or snow long enough, moisture is going to get through the outer layer. Having a synthetic layer will make sure you stay warm even when wet, which could save your life. Marmot made a high quality jacket that shows in the details.

There are a lot of small details that were put into this jacket, which are what takes it to the next level for me. First, the pockets on both jackets are lined with polyester, which kept me warm even when I wasn’t wearing gloves. There is also a zip pocket on both jackets inside the left breast, which is where I keep my phone and extra camera batteries so they stay warm and the batteries last longer. Since the pocket has a zipper, I don’t have to worry about losing anything from this pocket. Speaking of zippers, the outer shell has a nice pull tab which makes it easy to grab to zip up and unzip the jacket even when wearing thick snow gloves. Finally, the hood on the outer shell had a nice cinch pull on the back of the hood. When tightened, the hood stayed in place during high winds and remained comfortable at the same time. 

The trade off with synthetic fill is that it is heaver than down, but unlike down, it will keep you warm when wet. The jacket is just a little too heavily built to take it backpacking, but that's not what it's really designed for anyway. The Marmot Featherless Component Jacket would be outstanding for any other activity. From car camping, hiking, snowboarding, cross-country skiing or just your every day life, this jacket will perform better than expected; and for that reasons, I would highly recommend this jacket.