Icebreaker Teton Zip Softshell Jacket Review

Today I’m going to be reviewing the Icebreaker Teton Zip Jacket. This is made from Marino wool from Icebreaker. They sent it to us to try out and it’s new for the 2012/2013 season, and I’ve been wearing it for the last six  weeks, and this is one awesome jacket. I’ve had a bunch of softshells before. I’ve had North Face softshell, I’ve had a Marmot softshell. This is my first Icebreaker product ever, and it’s just really, really sweet.First off, a bit of the specs. It’s made from 65% Marino wool, 35% polyester. I don’t recall the weight off the top of my head, but it’s certainly not the lightest jacket. You’re not going to want to go backpacking with it. I mean, you could, but it’s going to weigh you down a little bit. But in terms of skiing, hiking, any sort of winter sport, snowshoeing, this is great. It layers easily, as I’ll show you. I’m wearing my Patagonia Nanopuff right now. I’ll show you what it looks like layered and what it looks like on.

They also make a version of this that is hooded. I chose to go for the non-hooded version, just because I wanted it to be a little lighter. So, about the jacket, it layers nicely. You can wear it by itself. I’ve been comfortable wearing it by itself in about 50 degree weather. Once it gets a little colder than 50 degrees, I want to throw on my Nanopuff underneath it or something. And, you know, once it gets to the teens, I haven’t been comfortable wearing this by itself or wearing it layered.

Let me just adjust the microphone. Here’s what it looks like all zipped up. It fits you real nice, covers your neck real nice. One thing that’s cool about it are these angled sleeves. I’m not sure if you can see, but let me unzip this a little bit again. So these angled sleeves, they’re cut at an angle like that, and when you’re wearing it down, it keeps this part of your hands warmer so like all the way up to your pinky finger, the end of your pinky finger stays warmer, and your thumb’s still exposed but you still have full mobility with your thumb then, like that.

It’s something I wasn’t sure what the purpose was of it, but I’ve enjoyed it. It’s great when you’re rock climbing too because you extend up, you can grab the rock, and if you’re pulling yourself down, this sometimes slides in and covers you up again, covers this part of your hands and keeps you a little warmer.

It’s got three pockets—two hand pockets right here and you have one chest pocket. The pockets are well insulated, so much so that sometimes I don’t even know I have keys or poop bags for our dog in there, or my cell phone even. The pockets are also water resistant. You can see that seem right there is sealed. So, I haven’t given it a test in any downpours, since we live in Colorado and it’s been quite a drought, but so far, everything about this jacket has been perfect. I’d imagine that it stays dry as well with these seam seals.

Anything I don’t like about this jacket? You know, not really. It’s great for hiking, great for snowshoeing, great for rock climbing. It looks sharp. I love how it looks. It’s perfect for a night out on the town and out here in Boulder and any other sporty kind of town. Yeah, it’s an awesome softshell jacket. I know they also make it in women’s and with a hooded version, but this is the non-hooded version and, of course, a men’s. I got it in medium so I can layer nicely.  Overall, I give it five out of five stars. Really awesome jacket, nothing to complain about with it, and I’ll be wearing it for a long time.