Reviews by User: caleb w. (2)

i've had mine for about a year now. overall i'm happy with it. i'm 5'9" and 152lbs with an athletic build. don't know what everyone's talking about when they say it runs small... the small fits me great, but this jacket has a cut somewhere between athletic and casual. the collar is a little bulky and doesn't seal up tight around the neck. the torso is just a bit roomy. The fabric is great, just now after a year of heavy use i'm finally seeing just a little pilling. The fabric does well in the wind. it's not as effective as gore windstopper, but it does have a much softer hand. it's very warm. with icebreaker 180 and this jacket i'm good down to about 35 F just standing around. cloudveil built this thing right, the stitching etc. is first-rate. the windproof flap behind the zipper is a nice touch.

i had a canadian made arcteryx gamma sv for five years. i wore it 225 days a year, beat the crap out of it, and it ruled. finally replaced it with the shift last week. my initial take on this jacket is that it's every bit as good as the gamma. the stitching is top-notch. i've had softshells made of different fabrics, including scheoller wb-400 w/nanosphere, and i think powershield is the best combination of breathability, stretch, and wind blocking. a couple of very minor quibbles: the shift has double stitching on the sleeves, the gamma has triple stitching. the sleeve pocket isn't very useful, but it does give a few style points over the gamma. the interior pockets are an improvement over the gamma and i think the overall styling is a little slicker. from a build-quality and performance standpoint, the shift is every bit a match for the gamma sv, and that's saying something. the gamma sv is widely considered the finest softshell ever made. a note on sizing: i'm 5'9", 155 lbs and the small size shift fits like a glove. i can fit a 200 wt. fleece under it and not feel too restricted. i wore a medium in the gamma and it fit a little looser, so i think the shift runs a little smaller. not much though. also, someone here posted that the shift is lighter than the gamma mx. that's not true. it's heavier. it's basically a warmer version of the mx, almost a perfect match to the gamma sv.