A ‘one winter guarantee’ lets a customer wear Askov Finlayson’s parka through months of cold and judge for themselves its worthiness against nature’s worst.
Eric Dayton set out a year ago to build a new kind of winter coat. In the process, he rebooted a company founded nearly a decade ago.
Minneapolis-based Askov Finlayson launched in 2011 as a retail store. It soon developed its own products with a hybrid theme of quality design made for the outdoors, as well as clothing and accessories for active city life.
But Dayton, a lifelong winter-lover and friend of explorer Will Steger, wanted to focus the brand and build something new. He saw a hole in the marketplace for a parka that was warm, good-looking, and functional for city life and the outdoors.
The Winter Parka is indeed different from anything on the market. Its influence is “the North,” as Dayton calls his home state of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest lands adjacent to the Great Lakes and Canada. As the parka was coming to life, he hired a veteran outerwear designer, John Ly, and went to Ely, Minnesota, at the edge of BWCA to meet with Steger.

The result, after more than a year in development, is a product that checks boxes on form, function, sustainability, and warmth. Dayton is so confident customers will love it that the company offers a “one winter guarantee,” including free shipping and free returns.
Askov Finlayson Winter Parka Review
I tested the parka out this winter starting as snow pounded in an early-December storm. Its quality and attention to detail were apparent from the moment I zipped up.
Velcro cuffs seal out cold at the wrists. An insulated collar surrounds the neck. The hood, a “scuba design,” kills some peripheral vision but is among the coziest you’ll ever wear.
The Winter Parka launched last month for $495. It is available online as well as at the company’s Minneapolis retail store.

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