The Outdoor Research Polartec 200 Fleece Hoody is a warm and highly breathable mid-layer full-zip jacket with a zippered chest pocket, kangaroo-style handwarmer pockets, stretch cuffs, and a hood. It’s made with Polartec 200 fleece and can be worn over a baselayer or under a hard shell or rain jacket when you need extra warmth. While it’s soft and luxurious to wear, make no mistake, this is an insulating mid-layer designed for active use that is highly efficient for wicking moisture out of your baselayer while enveloping you in a cloud of warmth.
- Gender: men’s (women’s available)
- Length: Hip
- Pockets: one chest zippered, two handwarmer pockets no zipper
- Hood: Over-the-helmet, non-adjustable
- Cuffs: Stretch
- Fleece: 200 weight (gsm)
- UPF Rating: 30
- Weight: 17.4 oz
The Outdoor Research Polartec 200 Hoody is wicked comfortable with a soft fleece interior on the inside and exterior. It has a zippered and fleece-lined outer left chest pocket that’s large enough to swallow a large smartphone. Two deep handwarmer pockets in front swallow your hands and protect them from cold or wind, while stretch wrist cuffs allow you to pull up the sleeves if additional ventilation is needed. The hood is quite large because it’s designed to be worn over a climbing or skiing helmet, but it provides good insulation when worn under an adjustable hard shell hood.
The Advantages of Fleece
Fleece has many advantages as a mid-layer garment, worn as an outer layer in warmer weather or as a mid-layer in colder conditions. First, it’s hydrophobic, so it actually repels water, absorbing less than 1% of its weight in water. It also retains its insulating properties when it gets wet and dries very quickly. Fleece is soft and doesn’t itch. It’s machine washable and easy to care for and can last for decades of hard use.
One of the things I like best about this OR Polartec Hoody is that OR tells you exactly how heavy the fleece is (200), in grams per sq meter, abbreviated as GSM. Listing fleece garments (and wool garments, for that matter) by the fabric weight used to be the norm across retailers and manufacturers but is now rare, making it very difficult to tell how warm a fleece garment will be or how it compares with others – the higher the GSM, the warmer it will be. At best, retailers will classify a fleece as being “light,” “medium,” or “heavy,” which is probably why retailer return rates are so high.
| Ultralight | Lightweight | Midweight | Heavyweight | Windproof | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight (GSM) | 40-90 gsm | 100 gsm | 200 gsm | 300 gsm | Any weight |
| Polartec Nomenclature | Polartec Alpha Direct | Polartec Thermal Pro | Polartec Thermal Pro | Polartec Thermal Pro | Polartec Wind Pro |
| Patagonia Nomenclature | n/a | R1 | R2 | R3, R4 | Retro-X |
| The North Face Nomenclature | n/a | TKA 100 | TKA200 | TKA300 | Windwall |
A 200-weight fleece like the OR Polartec 200 Hoody represents the middle ground in terms of warmth and breathability. This makes it a good outer layer in cool weather, but it is not very wind-resistant, so it’s best layered under a windbreaker, a hard shell in those conditions.
But one of the things I like least about this OR Polartec 200 Hoody is the hood since I rarely wear a climbing helmet, and I don’t downhill ski where one is required. While the hood works well if you have a hard shell with an adjustable hood, as a hiker, I’d prefer an under-the-helmet hood or one that was adjustable so I could shrink the volume and face opening to human size. Unfortunately, that is not an option, although OR also sells a hoodless Polartec 200 Jacket, which would be my preference since I already wear a fleece hat when hiking in cooler weather or winter.
Recommendation
Net net. If you want a helmet-compatible mid-weight fleece, the OR Polartec 200 Hoody is a good option to consider because it’s warm and breathable. But if you’re a hiker who never needs a helmet and wants to use this hoodie occasionally as an outer layer by itself, I’d opt for the hoodless OR Polartec 200 Jacket or a midweight fleece from another manufacturer.
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