Outdoor Vitals LoftTek Jacket Overview/Review

Description

Just as a heads up, these review units were provided for free by Outdoor Vitals, but this is not a sponsored video and they had no input on what we said in the video. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be updating this in the comments as I get more time with it. And the Kickstarter page and all the specifications of the jacket are here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outdoorvitals/lofttek-adventure-jacket

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--OUR CAMPING GEAR!--

Virtus Knives - http://www.virtusknives.com/store/

Condor Bushlore Knife - http://amzn.to/1JaBBv7

Equinox Egret Tarp - http://amzn.to/1BIqkmW

Eureka Casper Sleeping Bag - http://amzn.to/1BXhlxH

Buck 119 Knife - http://amzn.to/1TrKgQY

Mora Craftline Q Knife - http://amzn.to/1TrKffT

Katadyn Water Filter - http://amzn.to/1onus3P

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All of the musical compositions or arrangements and footage in this video are original, and were composed, recorded, and captured by Andrew Lin, Bryan Lin, Robby Huang, and Thomas Sinard

Featuring drums by Nate Laguzza

Original content and music is copyright Adventure Archives (c) 2018

Tags: bushcraft,backpacking,hiking,camping,wilderness,survival,outdoors,travel,outdoor recreation,prepping,nature,4k,wild,survival skills,ray mears,les stroud

Video Transcription

so today I'm gonna be doing a review slash overview of the outdoor vitals lock tech jacket for this jacket right here outdoor vitals contacted us and asked us if we want to do a review on it and since we're not a review Channel I only do reviews on things that I've either used the crap out of and have a lot to say about or something that I'm really interested in and the thing that interested me about this jacket is how lightweight it was how small it was and the fact that you were supposed to be able to use it in cold weather even when it's wet and cold I've been using the jacket for the past week or so but today it's thirty six degrees Fahrenheit is a miserable day it's kind of raining so I thought today would be a good chance to test it with an actual pack walk around see how the sweat manages see how I handle the cold and also be comparing it to my much larger down jacket that I got last year which I've had lots of use with but let's go test it out so I've been using this jacket pretty much non-stop for the past week partially because in my office I've turned off the heat because I wanted to get a good idea if the jacket holds up well in cold weather but I've also been using it just when I do my daily activities going to store go in the gas station or whatever I do and I think the thing that surprised me a lot is how good the insulation is for a jacket of this size unfortunately I've never used a down jacket of this size but Brian and Andrew are gonna chime in a little bit later they've been using a large size of this this is a medium and they're gonna give their thoughts compared to the one that they normally use but the insulation works really well it feels kind of like a down jacket at least the one that I have to wear once your body heat gets going it traps the body heat really well but so far it's actually holding up pretty well as far as warmth I'm somebody who gets cold really easily and just doing that half mile or so has worn my body up enough but now I'm gonna do another half mile and my big down jacket that I know holds up really well except for it's usually too hot when you start hiking so let's see how that one handles compared to this one and while we're at it I'll show you the feature that actually convinced me that this would be worth reviewing which is that the whole thing can you do it pulls in on itself it's a really weird cool mechanism actually just take one of the pockets like this is the left pocket you reach in and then you basically stuff everything into the pocket like so [Applause]

this is all in real time so I just want to give you an idea of how long it takes to bundle it up although you'll probably do it slightly faster than I did because my hands are not cooperating with how cold it is right now okay but it packs up into something like this which is really cool I actually just went on a trip to Mexico and we left from here in Indiana so this would be a great jacket to have because you could wear it and then as soon as you're done you can pack it up and then use it as a pillow on the plane anyways let's go test out this down jacket with another half mile and see how comparison it is so this jacket is the REI storm hinged jacket it's got 850 fill down it's definitely warmer which i think is to be expected with all the extra insulation and bulkiness it's also waterproof well while I'm not wearing this one talk about a couple of features I think the main thing that's so interesting to me about this one is that it's so lightweight and packable I'm not sure I would trust it for really frigid conditions like right now it's 36 I get cold really easily as I said and I would much prefer to have a jacket like this and slightly warmer temperatures like the 40s or 50s this would be fantastic it's got a hood like all jackets do armpit holes open up one weird thing is that they got these little things there so the there's like a little dangly there that's not a big deal but it does look kind of weird I mean I've used this jacket so much this feels like a glove so let me switch back to this again do another half mile then I'll give some final thoughts and impressions okay so I just did another half mile definitely not bad it is not going to be a replacement for a big down jacket like this especially in cold weather like this but as an all-around jacket for like maybe like maybe like 45 degrees and up this could be a great jacket and also going back to the part that I find the most interesting that you can pack it into that little ball I can see this being a replacement for my pillow because it's always good when you can double up in uses on any type of camping gear but I can see this being my pillow but also as my warm jacket like especially if you're camping like in the fall or the summer where you want to have those type of warm clothes but you also don't want to have to like bring a full jacket like this but yeah the insulation seems pretty good even for somebody like myself who gets cold all the time I can still survive in this type of temperature of 36 degrees I would normally still bring something heavier like this and also like I said I don't have the ability to compare this to down jackets in its same class so I'm gonna cut over to Brian and Andrea and they're gonna give you their thoughts on their down jackets that they use compared to this one which is synthetic well the first thing I should say is that this is a large and typically large jackets fit me pretty well but this one is pretty snug especially down by the waist here it doesn't have any elastic at all and actually the back is also a little tight if I move my arms like this so for a large I would say doesn't feel like a large so if you get one you know take that into account but I can zip it up all the way and it's actually about I'd say 35 probably low 30s right now and it's windy pretty cold and I'm standing here and I actually feel pretty good I also really like that it does have a hood a lot objects you get don't have a hood included in that and keep you nice and warm it feels snug enough to keep like your ears warm than your neck warm but it doesn't kind of pull too low over your eyes yeah the thing I do like about is that does have these finger holes for your thumbs and like I said it's a large but I mean it still feels really small for my thumb but it actually feels thinner than your typical down or synthetic jacket that you might see and like I said initial impressions are it's pretty warm I've been standing here this whole time with it on and I feel pretty good so I would say this is a pretty good jacket the only downside is I need a size larger so this is the down jacket that I usually wear when I go out camping and I really like it it's it's very warm and it's very light the one downside is right now I'm standing here and my ears are getting kind of cold because I don't have anything protecting them but yeah this jacket it packs down pretty light

and just it really doesn't weigh that much at all so by comparison my down jacket was medium and this is a large in terms of mobility on me it still it feels pretty good but it feels like more or less the same as the other jackets medium you can definitely tell it's thinner but honestly for for a synthetic jacket it is really warm usually I'm used to synthetic jackets especially ones that are this thin being a lot less warm than down but and then obviously it's got a hood so like the biggest advantage of that to me is the fact that I can cover my ears up and keep them warm so one thing is that my down jacket has a pocket on the inside of it which i think is kind of nice I just think it always has more options it also has another pocket here in the digit of the pockets on the side whereas this one it only really has these pockets on the side this feels like it's about the same weight as my other jacket but the fact that you can pack it into the pocket is a huge advantage and again for synthetic I'm really impressed with how warm it is so so now I'm gonna go back home I'm gonna get this thing real wet and I'm gonna see how the insulation works even when it's really wet okay so it's definitely still insulated like I can feel the warmth but the parts where it's wet obviously that's still very cold like my elbows now are quite freezing but just standing here how is the insulation I mean it's 36 degrees outside right now I still feel pretty warm so yeah I mean in a survival situation if you got completely wet like this you'd probably still survive and I would not recommend it insulation holds up when wet right so I probably shoulda fun doing this next section before I got this jacket all wet but when it comes to form up vs. function for camping gear as long as something doesn't look like horribly garish and like bright neon then I'm usually okay with the way it looks this jacket looks pretty good there are thumb holes to keep the jacket up I am not super confident in the ability for these to hold up especially since the review unit that I got already had like some stitching loose right here I'm assuming

just like a one-off thing and that the actual ones I feel be selling won't be like this but they also do have a lifetime guarantee but that is a little concerning and also just the general sturdiness of the thumb thing I not sure I would trust that quick interjection on that thumb hole issue they actually emailed me back after I told them about it and they said that it shouldn't be an issue going forward on any of their other jackets however I'm still really concerned about the long-term longevity of these things the it just doesn't seem like it would be that stable so I can actually guarantee that I would probably never use this thing so it probably won't be much of an issue for me but if you're somebody who would you should know that in advance the caller here when you zip it all the way up it's usually like right in your neck I don't know if there's some way you could design around that so that that doesn't happen but in general when I've been wearing it I've been keeping it open like this because I don't like the feel of that like I mentioned earlier these things dangle not a huge deal I don't know what else you're gonna do but they open I rarely use these type of things I don't really feel like they do that much but yeah but overall I'm pretty positive on the jacket I think part of the reason why I call this an overview and not a review is because I've not spent as much time as I normally would with full review but part of the reason I want to do that is because their Kickstarter is still ongoing and the Kickstarter prices kind of complicate matters because the early early bird that they had which is no longer available had this jacket at a hundred dollars at a hundred dollars I could recommend this jacket like super easily the retail prices jacket is gonna be 150 now 150 is still not bad I can still recommend it at 150 it's just not quite as easy to recommend and be like go go out and get this jacket it's great hundred dollars super insulating small packs up but they still have earlybird versions that you can get for $129 which is I think this is still a pretty good price but it really depends on what you already have what you're willing to spend anyways I think there's about two weeks left on the Kickstarter right now so the jacket is much more easy to recommend at those prices as for myself I can see myself using this quite a bit I probably will continue to use this quite a bit and then when I have further thoughts I'll post in the comments below with

further thoughts but overall recommended pretty good jacket still insulates when it's wet it's really uncomfortable right now because it's wet but I'm nice and warm at least so I'm gonna take this off thank you for watching see you guys in the next one