****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is a good jacket but has a few confusing features:The first thing you notice is the sleeves especially the forearms. They're narrow for a jacket. I wouldn't say tight or even form fitting. They sorta lean towards snug. By that I mean there's not a lot of air between your arm and the inside material. Tight fitting clothing means there's less internal volume to try and heat up making it ideal if working outdoors or wearing it under something else (say heavy weather gear). You certainly notice the arms when wearing short sleeve shirts and I'd wager it'd be much more noticeable in long sleeves.The other thing about the sleeves is the length. Initially I was a bit mystified as to why they were so long. Surely Americans couldn't be so long in the arms I wondered. Eventually I worked it out. There is a loop in the sleeve end for your thumb. Blaklader state this is for when putting on other clothing on top so your sleeve doesn't ride up. I suspect that in fact the end of the sleeve is intended to be some form of pseudo glove. When sticking your thumb through the loop, the sleeve covers most of the hand up to the knuckles leaving the palm and digits free for work requiring dexterity... Although I could be wrong of course.Also a bit confusing is the large rear pocket located in the lumbar of your back. It seems strangely placed and I'm not exactly sure what you would store in there. I would have preferred a small/large internal chest pocket instead of that. I would have also have liked to have seen the pen pocket moved from the right chest to the left arm. As it stands, its too small and in the way wrong place.The storm flap on the front zip is a welcome addition although it seems to open in the opposite direction to my other (non-Blaklader) jackets. I can't tell if this is an error, an American thing or a northern hemisphere thing. Certainly down under, storm flaps open right-to-left whereas this opens left-to-right . If you believe such things, this would designate it as an article of womens clothing.The advertising blurb makes a big thing of it being made of triple layer polarfleece. It is probably triple layer most places but I'd suspect there are spots that are only double layer.Having said all of that... I did like it... a lot in fact. It's thick, warm and cosy, Just the thing you want to be wearing on a cold and blustery day. It's only water resistant to the degree that Polarfleece is but you'd have to consider heavy weather gear for anything more substantial. All in all, a good thick jacket which I'd have no problem recommending to others.A word of warning: Just like all other varieties of Polarfleece, it is made of plastic (usually from drink containers). Plastic of course melts when exposed to flame. Whats worse, molten plastic sticks to skin. Under no circumstances should you allow it to get close to an open flame as it will melt, stick to your skin and then you would require surgery and probably skin grafts. This is especially important given the industrial environment this item is expected to be used in.
