EE Torrid APEX Jacket 3,000+ Mile Review

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** Stuff/Gear I Mention in this Video **

EE Torrid Apex Jacket - https://enlightenedequipment.com/torrid-apex-jacket/

EE Torrid APEX Pre Review - https://youtu.be/yhkHBXWBD2E

MH Ghost Whisperer Jacket - http://amzn.to/2y8Gs3g

PCT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2018/09/20/darwins-post-pct-thru-hike-gear-list/

Pinhoti Trail Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2018/02/11/darwins-2018-pinhoti-trail-thru-hike/

AZT Section Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2017/09/22/darwins-2017-azt-section-hike/

AT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2016/05/03/darwins-2016-at-gear-list/

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Tags: Enlightened Equipment,Torrid APEX Jacket,EE Torrid,UL Hiking,UL Backpacking Gear,UL Gear,Gear Review,APEX Insulation,Hiking,Hiker Trash,Backpacking,Thru Hike,PCT Thru Hike,Pacific Crest Trail,Post Hike,Pinhoti Trail,AZT,Arizona Trail,BRP,Blue Ridge Parkway

Video Transcription

after basically living in it for the past year and having over 3000 trail miles on it I'm ready to do a final review of the enlightened equipment torrid apex jacket [Music]

if you guys remember last year I did pick up two versions of the torrid APEC jacket by enlightened equipment both a tindy version in the 70 prototype version ever since that video came out the 70 has now become available and I have spent the last year basically living in this thing and putting over three thousand trail miles from sections of the Arizona Trail to a thru-hike of the pen hodie trail to a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail and a bike tour of the entire Blue Ridge Parkway so I thought like it was finally time to give you guys my final thoughts and let you know how the jacket is held up and what my thoughts are after having it for this entire year now just as I explained last year I am NOT sponsored by enlightened equipment in any way and this is not a paid review they did however supply me with a tin diversion and a 70 version of this jacket mainly just for testing purposes so I'm not gonna go too far into the specs of the jacket if you guys want to find out more information about all the specs I'll put a link to the video that I did last year up here in the corner you can go watch that and see all of my pre thoughts and all of the full specs on the turret but one thing I did not talk about last year in my review was going in to depth on the specs about the 7d version so the 7d torrid is made of a seven denier nylon on both the exterior and the interior now like most of enlightened equipment stuff it is a custom-made jacket and if you wanted to you could go with a 10 d outer and then 7 d inner or 20 d and tindy however you want to however this jacket in particular is 70 on both the outer shell and the inner liner my version has the hood but you can get a version with the collar this is a synthetic insulation jacket which means it has no down hence why it has no battles but it does have two ounces of climate shield apex insulation and the reason it doesn't have baffles is because it's like a big sheet of insulation right now if I held this up to the light you could see it's one solid sheet going all the way down the jacket which is nice because it does help keep

drafts my version of the jacket with the 7d on both the inner and the outer with the hood comes in at exactly 7 ounces on my scale and the retail for this version is 205 dollars all right so now with all those basic specs out of the way let's dive into some of the things that bothered me last year and my thoughts on them now and then some things that I have noticed about the jacket over the last year one of the first things that kind of bothered me last year in my review when I first got the jacket was the fact that they put these little shot cords for the hood on the inside of the jacket versus the outside of the collar and I kind of complained that they were poking me in my neck a little bit when I first got it however over the past year I haven't really noticed that bothering me at all I don't know if it's because the jacket was new or it's just because I wasn't used to it but after having it for a year sleeping in it multiple nights on the trail and having it completely zipped up even with my hood on these have never really poked me in the neck and if they have I haven't really noticed so it hasn't really bothered me that much the next big thing that was a concern of mine and something that I didn't really like was the fact that the jacket could not stuff into its own pocket down jackets that I've had in the past like the Ghost Whisperer down jacket or the Marmot down jacket that I used to own you could take them turn them inside out and put them in their own pocket kind of creating like a little pouch and like a pillow now back on the Appalachian Trail in 2015 I used my down jacket as a pillow completely stuffing it and then putting it behind my head every night now that I don't do that and I do actually carry an inflatable pillow on the trail I've noticed that there hasn't been one single time over the past year that I wish that I could have stuffed this in its own pocket typically if I'm not using this jacket I just jam it down on my pack and I actually use it to fill spaces so there's nothing loose in my pack so I take back what I said about not being able to stuff in its own pocket that has not become a problem for me and then the last thing that I didn't really like about the torrid last year was the fact of the bottom now it does have an elastic band on the bottom which kind of keeps it cinched to you but one thing that I wish that it had was a bungee cord

that I could draw it even closer or loosen it up maybe having the bungee cord in the pocket so I could just pull it when it was cold outside now that is something that still kind of bothers me about the jacket even though it has that elastic band that keeps it pretty cinched down

I've noticed that there's times on the trail whenever it starts to ride up on me and I just wish that I could cinch it a little bit tighter on those days when I know that I'm gonna be wearing it when I'm hiking all right so next up let's talk about some of the particular things about this jacket that I've noticed over the past year of using it almost every single day on the trail number one really pertains to the fact of it being made out of 70 now I love the 70 material for tons of different reasons one it's really lightweight - it feels really nice and soft against your skin sometimes with 10d fabrics and 20d fabrics I feel like well it feels like synthetic material against my skin where the 70 tends to have a little bit of a softer feel so I really like it on the inside of my quilts and really like it on the inside of my jacket however one thing that I have noticed is if I'm sweaty or even a little bit wet from rain and I go to put my arm through the jacket this 7d really sticks to your skin it almost becomes like it's adhesive and it just completely sticks to your skin and I've had times where my arm has actually gotten stuck in the sleeve and I've had to kind of go in and dig it out and then when my arm does come out a lot of times we get what I have affectionately called the 7d tulip which this thing all the material just kind of sticks out the sleeve and then the other big thing that I have noticed about the jacket is the fact that over the past year the loft of the apex insulation has definitely went down it's a lot flatter than it used to be this jacket used to have a whole lot of puff to it and over the past year it is definitely broke down and it just doesn't have as much loft now that being said I don't feel like I've really lost any warmth in it this jacket still keeps me warmer than any other down jacket or any jacket that I've ever owned which completely still blows me away to this day that it's so warm but unlike down you can typically take a down jacket and you can wash giving the down fluff again where I don't think that you can do that with the apex insulation so I guess that is one drawback of going with synthetic is over time it will eventually break down and I don't think I don't think that there's a way to rejuvenate it and give it its its fluff back so overall how has the jacket performed over the last year it's performed amazingly what I really loved about this jacket and now going forward any synthetic jacket is I can wear it in any environment in the past when I've had down jackets and I've been in a rainy foggy situation I haven't wanted to wear my down jacket because once down gets wet it's really hard to dry out it doesn't retain loft so the nice thing about this synthetic jacket is I can wear it out in any conditions and I don't have to worry about it losing warmth and I don't have to worry about it getting wet and then overall how is it holding up well it's held up great aside from the loft going down a little bit I just have a couple little spots where the stitching is starting to come out and I think that's to be expected with any jacket I've never had a down jacket or synthetic jacket for that matter that hasn't started to break away especially after 3,000 miles but overall the construction and the 7d material has really blown my mind about how tough it is I've walked through briar patches I've rubbed up against trees I put a lot of wear on this jacket and it's still holding up great and as far as some of the seams that are popped open that's really just my fault and not doing maintenance putting a patch over that or sewing it back up and fixing it all right guys so if you want to find out any more information about the enlightened equipment torrid any of the specs any of the different builds the colors all of that I'll put a link down in the description box so you can go check it out for yourself if you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a ton of new photos lately of some of the things that snows and I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past types if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Applause]

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