My Hunt for the Best Long Down Jacket Under $300
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your account’s‘Saved for Later’section.
Comment
Welcome to Coat Week on the Strategist, where we’re asking everyone — from New Yorkers to people living in the coldest parts of the U.S. — about their favorite coats and trying out every puffer we can. For more, head over to ourCoat Week hub.
In the dead of winter, when New York’s streets become wind tunnels and the frigid air wicks the moisture from your face within seconds of stepping outside, you start to see rows of people on the subway wearing the same puffer. It’s long, hooded, down-filled, neutrally colored, with the silhouette of a lobster in a sleeping bag. The puffer is overkill for anything but the coldest months of the year, but during those months, it’s a lifesaver.
Although the puffers look similar, and you can find a lot of solid options for around $200, at the Strategist, we can’t just leave it at that. ForCoat Week, I enlisted the help of my colleague Amelia Jerden, who has tested dozens of down pillows in her capacity as the Strategist’s sleep writer, to find out which long down puffer coat is the absolute best. (Amelia tested the jackets that only came in women’s sizing; I tested those with men’s sizing.) After test-driving them all in chilly weather, we have a clear favorite.
The one that didn’t cut it
New! You can now save this product for later.
I am nothing if not an L.L.Bean fan, but the company’s down parka impressed me least out of the group we tested. It’s warm and well-constructed, with afill powerof 650, but is missing some details that make the difference between an okay and a great parka when you are cold and annoyed. It was the only jacket we tested without a tight-fitting cuff inside the sleeve, which means that you’d need to wear gloves to create the airtight seal that keeps a down jacket warm. It also had the stickiest snaps of the coats we tested, which are annoying to handle with gloves, and the hood is removable, but the tab that hides the line of snaps to reattach it doesn’t lie flat. Still a solid coat, but not the best bet for your money.
The runners-up
New! You can now save this product for later.
New! You can now save this product for later.
Both Amelia and I really like the REI Campwell parka, a coat with a fill power of 650 that’s warm, reliable, and well-designed. It has tight-fitting internal cuffs to keep your wrists warm, zippered pockets and side vents, and cushioned snaps that open and close smoothly. It was the only coat we tested to reinforce the front snaps with a line of grosgrain tape, which will improve their durability over time.
One caveat, though: The hood isn’t removable, which limits its versatility. “When I wear the REI coat with something dressier, I wish I could take the hood off,” Amelia says. If that feature is less important to you, though, the Campwell parka is a great pick.
New! You can now save this product for later.
Par for the course for luxury dupes retailerQuince, Amelia liked this long down jacket, but it has a few quirks that kept it from our top spot. Its fill power of 700 is the second-highest on this list, and it’s the only jacket to not only have internal cuffs, butthumb holeswithin them, a small detail Amelia adored. It has “the best color options” of tasteful neutrals, oatmeals and taupes and olives.
Amelia’s biggest quibble was its cut: The coat is long, but the cut is quite straight, so “it did feel a little tight around my hips,” she says. “If you have a pretty narrow and straight frame, this may not be an issue, but I’d advise anyone who is a bit curvier to check the dimensions before purchasing or go up a size to make sure it won’t feel too tight on your lower half.”
New! You can now save this product for later.
Lands’ End’s 600-fill-power puffer is “a fantastic coat,” Amelia says. It reminds her of the REI Campwell parka — warm, well-fitting, with useful details like fleece-lined pockets — but this onedoeshave a removable hood, plus a removable, washablefaux-fur lining. “The hood on this jacket is much smaller than the Quince one — I can’t as easily fit it over my head with a hat on, but it fits comfortably without one,” she says, so if you prefer a roomy hood, Quince may be the better bet. Another mark in Lands’ End’s favor: Its parka comes in the largest size range of the coats we tested, with petite, tall, and plus sizes.
The winner
New! You can now save this product for later.
New! You can now save this product for later.
The Uniqlo seamless down jacket checks all our boxes — it has a removable hood, an interior pocket, storm flap, and tight-fitting internal cuffs — and has two things that set it a step above the other coats we tested. Itsfill powerof 750 is the highest on this list, which means that it’s both very warm and very lightweight. (According to Strategist associate editor Jeremy Rellosa, you usually finddown fill powerin the 700-800 range from high-end brands like Arc’teryx,Patagonia, andthe North Face, so you’re getting a great deal with Uniqlo.)
It’s also the best-looking of all the puffers we tested. 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. Combined with a shell made of a slightly thicker nylon than its competitors, the coat shows fewer puckers from stitching, which has a sleek, minimalist appearance. And the lack of stitching eliminates tiny needle holes that can leak air — it doesn’t just look good, it also keeps you warmer.
More From The Strategist
- The Strategist Fall 100
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
- The Strategist Summer 100
- I Replaced My Tretinoin With This $30 Retinal Cream
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
