What Are the Nicest-Looking Coats Under $300 (That Are Actually Warm)?

Uniqlocame up more than any other name in the making of this guide; its outerwear is reasonably cheap and will get you through the next cold front. This includes the Ultra Light Down Jacket. It’s made fromdownwith afill-power of 750+(as our writer Katherine Gillespie explains, that’s “indicative of how many cubic inches each ounce of feathers occupies,” and you want at least a rating over 550). It’swater repellent. It has an anti-static lining.Stacey Berman, a costume designer who’s worked on set in the Arctic Circle, will layer it underothercoats to stay warmer. And if she’s stuck on a crammed train, for example, she can fold it right up.

Uniqlo’s Pufftech isn’t unlike itsHeattech. “Basically, it acts as a liner,” says our senior writer Emma Wartzman, who adds that she wears it most of the time from October to March. Essentially, “anytime I don’t want to be weighed down with massive outerwear (which is, quite frankly, any time I can get away with it).” And if it’s layered, Wartzman will fold down the top corners of the collar and cuff the sleeves so it’s as though she’s not wearing anything underneath at all. It doesn’t bunch uncomfortably, either. Importantly, it’s “entirely inoffensive.”

“New York City winters have a way of humbling even the best outerwear,” saysJess Focht, a senior social-media specialist at Paperless Post. But the ColdControl Max Midi Puffer from Gap’s outlet store hasn’t been beaten yet. Focht got it last year after realizing her other black jacket just wasn’t cutting it anymore against the wind. It’s seen the lowest temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees to highs no more than 45 degrees. “I mainly wear it in New York but have kept it on during a long road trip back to Memphis, where I’m from, and have worn it during the winter there, when it’s chillier” (averaging around 35 degrees), she tells me. And while “this coat may seem like it’s solely for warmth,” she says, it “doesn’t feel like an outfit-killer,” going with the rest of her seasonal clothes.

Of course, I couldn’t not mention theAmazon coat. In 2018,New Yorkfeatures editor Katy Schneider interviewed several Upper East Siders who were the first to wear it, including Ana Maria Pimentel, the then-fashion director at Neiman Marcus, andFernanda Niven, a former contributing editor toTown & Country. It’s gotten aWikipedia pagesince. (Behind the Amazon coat is actually Orolay, a Chinese brand, who calls it the092.) Hannah Selinger, author ofCellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbellyand the forthcomingValley of the Moms, bought the original in olive green with the fur-lined collar back in 2018. At the time, admittedly, she was very pregnant and “needed something warm that would fit.” In fact, she wore it so often that she decided to replace it with the “upgraded” 092 Universe Shiny Down Puffer version. It’s cheaper than theoriginal, which retails for $164.99. “It’s a mid-length coat, and my legs are always cold in winter — and this is one of my favorite things about it (besides the fact that the two versions, combined, cost me under $200),” she says.

For some winters now, branded-content strategistMaria Del Russohas worn Everlane’s Quilted Liner almost exclusively until the temperature drops below freezing. It’s been everywhere, from around Park Slope when she lived in Brooklyn to the farmers’ market in the small New Jersey town she lives in currently. Last October, she even brought it on her honeymoon in Maine: “I wore it while we were hiking through Acadia National Park, while we slurped oysters in Damariscotta, and when we woke up early in the morning to watch the sunrise over the Penobscot Bay.” It can also pack easily. “Since it’s lightweight, if I start to get warm, I can wrap it around my waist without feeling like I’m carrying around an inflatable tube,” she says. Fair warning: “you need to wear ascarfwith it because the neckline does cheat down a bit, which can be uncomfortable when the wind is whipping.”

Our writer Brenley Goertzen triedEverlane’s new EverPuff, which the brand describes as its “most circular puffer” yet. It’s made from almost entirely recycled materials, including the filling, and features a 700 fill power (which falls between Lululemon’sWunder Puffand Aritzia’sSuper Puff, rated at 600 and 800 respectively). The coat has the kind of insulation that can handle “can’t-feel-my-face freezing temperatures,” as Goertzen says. (This is all the more convincing since she’s a Minnesotan who’s lived in Toronto and Pittsburgh.) Because of the oversize fit, she can bundle up withunderlayers, as well. “Perhaps most appealing of all is that it’s slightly less expected than a Super Puff or a Nuptse,” she adds.

Like Uniqlo’s Ultra Light Down Jacket, the Ultra Light Down Long Coat has a 750-fill rating, which means, as Gillespie writes, it “can compete with other jackets that cost six times as much.” Not to mention, “the DWR”—short for durable water repellent—”coating means it will stay relatively waterproof for a while. Don’t be tempted to buy a cheap synthetic parka for the same price.” And part of the appeal is the removable hood, which allows her the “freedom to wear cutebalaclavasand hooded scarves when I feel like it.”

“Nobody wants to own a puffer, but you pretty much have to if you live in New York,” says content creatorClaudia Williams. The Uniqlo Seamless Down Long Coat is her newest. Williams wore it in line to vote in themayoral election, and “can confirm it’swarm.” The only thing she wished it had was more pockets. “Because in the winter, my coat practically turns into a purse. I need a place for my tissues, my keys, my phone, my mittens, everything,” she says. But “it’s also water-repellent for those days when the weather can’t decide between snow, rain, or sleet. Don’t you just love winter?”

Leonora Epstein, who writes theSchmattanewsletter, thinks winters in New York are “torture” as someone from Los Angeles: “I don’t care how ‘mild’ you might say it is.” Hence why she needs “something that feels like you’re wearing asleeping bag.” This season, she might be getting a Uniqlo Seamless Down Long Coat for that reason. Especially as its hood “seems good for retreating into the world when enduring a crowded subway ride. (I sat next to someone yesterday who was flossing. Teeth. Not the dance.)”

And when Strategist writer Erin Schwartz went on the hunt for a puffer that’s “long, hooded, down-filled, neutrally colored, with the silhouette of a lobster in a sleeping bag,” the Seamless Down Long Coat was their winner. “It has an interesting design in which the down fill is contained within baffles not by rows of stitching, but by a heat-bonded tape,” Schwartz explains. “Combined with a shell made of a slightly thicker nylon than its competitors, the coat shows fewer puckers.”

Editor’s note: Some sizes are currently sold out, but you can sign up to receive an email when your size is back in stock.

According to Audrey Lee, a shopping editor, Alpha Industries’s liners are “deceptively warm.” Not only does the “insulation properly shield you from cold winds” (and frostbite when you have only asweatshirtlayered underneath), the material is equally thin and substantial. She compares them toUniqlo’s ultralight down jackets. This is an upgraded version of the one that Lee first picked up during her college bar-hopping days in upstate New York more than six years ago and still wears to concerts in the winter. (Or “on crisp spring nights in late Aprilwhen all you need is a light jacket.”) Because of the scoop of the collar, you can wear it with a hoodie or scarf without your throat feeling suffocated, she notes.

Out of the half-dozen puffers our senior writer Liza Corsillo tried fromQuince, this was her favorite. “I was not expecting to like it as much as I do, mostly because it looks like a pretty basic puffer in the product photos online,” according to Corsillo. But it’s nearly identical toAritzia’s Super Puff(and available in every shade from “hot fudge” to “deep orchid”). Plus it comes with a removable hood, snap covers that match the rest of the puffer, and inner sleeves with slits for your thumbs (like fingerless gloves, which helped when she went on a Citi Bike ride on a windy day recently). “It’s very puffy, but it doesn’t weigh a lot and I don’t feel swallowed up or like I’m going to knock stuff over,” she adds.

Here’s a dupe ofToteme’s scarved jacketfor about $1,000 less. The resemblance wasn’t lost on creative strategistCarrie Carrollo, who had seen Toteme’s “infiltrate the New York influencer sphere” before getting an ad for Quince’s almost exactly a year ago. Some reviews suggested it runs big, but she kept the larger of the two sizes she ordered (a small over an extra-small) and recommends getting your usual size instead of sizing up. While she thinks it can be worn in as low as 35 degrees, 45 to 60 degrees is “the sweet spot, depending what you have underneath.” Carrollo bought it almost exactly a year ago in anticipation of a trip to Japan. And in the span of two weeks, the coat saw “three season’s worth of weather” (and trying to get a claw-machine prize in Akihabara). Made from an unlined merino wool, it can handle short periods of rain or snow without pilling, Carrollo notes.

If you didn’t know, theSuper Puffis trademarked. In the family is theSuper Puff Long($350), andSuperSnug Puff($275), andSuper Puff Shorty($235).Ruby Buddemeyer, the director of copy atStarface, has the latter. “I’m short and really went back and forth on the lengths since Aritzia offers a few, but ultimately decided the Shorty was the most wearable for me,” Buddemeyer says. Admittedly “a wimp in the cold,” she’s survived 15 degrees weather in it. (For comparison’s sake, the original Super Puff is engineered for a temperature as low as -22 degrees with a 800+ fill-power to the Super Puff Shorty’s -4 degrees and 700+ fill-power.) It’s been reliable through snow and rain for over four years now.

My search for anadult-size Samantha Parkington-ish coatled me to Damson Madder’s Pearl Hooded Puffer. It’s the only puffer I’ve willingly put on in years, and it’s the coat I wore most often last month. Because of the combination of zippers and scrunchie ties on the front placket, I don’t feel the worst of a cold front, and it’s best whenever the temperature’s between 32 and 45 degrees. For $240, you also get a removable front hood (which folds down into ascarf) and avest(all you need do is you can detach the sleeves, and reattaching them is fairly easily. And while themulticheckI tried is sold out in most sizes, it now comes in leopard.

Patagonia bills this as one of the softest down jackets it has produced, with the combination of a 100 percent polyester shell and a blend that includes duck, goose, and waterfowl feathers that’s reclaimed from its down products as the insulation. “It’s the comfiest down coat I’ve ever owned,” says recipe developerAnna Stockwell. “My husband actually kept stealing mine so I had to get him his own too.” As Stockwell remembers, it was on sale a few years ago. Today, it retails for $269, which is still less than Patagonia’sNano Puff Hoody($289) andDown With It Parka($349). And like its name implies, it “doesn’t do that annoying loud swishy thing when you move,” she adds.

Last year,Aisha Joshi, the editor atProduce Partiesand writer behind theClose Friendsnewsletter, got a version of this year’s Scarf Detail Quilted Liner Jacket from Cos. This year’s version doesn’t have the sameturtleneck, but that detail sometimes makes her overheat anyway. (“And duh, the scarf is so cute.”) It’s the “perfect traditional weather jacket,” whether with along-sleeve teewhen the temperatures are in the low 60s or her warmest sweaters in the 30s (more often than not, she has on when temperatures are in the 40s). And while it’s usually her running-errands and walking-to-the-gym jacket, it’s lightweight enough to wear on different flights.

Buddemeyer spent averycold winter in New Hampshire last year, and when she wasn’t wearing essentially a glorified floor-length sleeping bag, she was in this. “I have a memory of checking the temperature, deciding it wasn’ttoocold and my North Face would suffice, and I ended up getting stuck outside in a snowstorm. It wasn’t built for the snow, but I actually stayed totally dry.” Buddemeyer believes it’s the “middle ground between lightweight and warm.”