In the past, you owned a single winter jacket. Now, if you’re into a variety of activities, you might own three, or even more. The genre of the winter jacket (coat, parka, puffy, shell. . . whatever you want to call it) has segmented wildly in recent years. There’s now a piece of outerwear for every thinkable activity and climate type.
This diversity of shells is something I cover this week on Outside magazine in my column “The Gear Junkie’s Top 10 Winter Shells.” From an uber-warm Arctic coat to a wind shirt, the specialized jackets here will keep you covered. —Stephen Regenold
‘Top 10’ Winter Shell Jackets
1. Aerobic Softshell: Ibex Breakaway 2
2. Insulated Parka/Shell: Helly Hansen Enigma
3. Bombproof Hardshell: Arc’teryx Alpha SV
4. Fast/Light Shell: Mountain Hardwear Quasar
5. Down Puffy: OR Virtuoso
6. Arctic Parka: Canada Goose Snow Mantra
7. Minimalist Down: Patagonia Ultralight Down Hoody
8. New-School Softshell: Mammut Gipfelgrat
9. Electrically-Heated Jacket: Columbia Circuit Breaker
10. Wind Shirt: The North Face Verto
—Stephen Regenold is the founder of GearJunkie.com and a contributor to Outside magazine. See his bio page on Outside at this link.
