Lowe Alpine Mutant Jacket First Look

The first thing you notice wearing the Mutant - great name, again - is that people slaver all over it: 'Nice jacket, yum!'. Gawd, even a fashion industry friend remarked on it. And yes, it does look stylish in muted (ahem) slate grey and modishly loose bomber-style cut.

We can't tell you much about the fabric itself, except that it's a joint nylon polyester production and is, near damn it windproof. It also has a certain amount of two-way stretch and a nice, soft, almost cottony feel and texture. Straight out of the box, it's also very water-resistant. Even moderately heavy rain was beading and running off, whether that will fade with use we don't know yet. Overall it's a very nice fabric and seems very breathable with it.

But is it soft shell?

The jacket's designed as a technical garment with all the classic Lowe Alpine features including a big, roll-down, helmet-sized hood, with peak, articulated 'reach-high' sleeves, seamless shoulders, huge pit-zips and more. We're not totally convinced by the cut though - it looks great in a very North American way, but despite the stretch in the fabric, the cut isn't as snug as other soft shell we've tried like MHW\s Velocity or Patagonia's Speed Ascent jacket and the sleeves are loose enough for Sli Stallone's mighty appendages.

That said, there's not much billowing with a pack and harness in place. What we did find was a small amount of hem lift when reaching right up high - possibly because the OM test shoulders and slightly wider than average - despite the length of the sleeves. Better with a belt to hold the lower part of the jacket in place and there's not much lower face protection form the hood.

We'd like to see the hem shockcord locks moved from the front to the side of the jacket where they're less likely to get caught up in abseil or belay devices too.

Things we do like are the extended pit-zips which vent most of the trunk area when open and Lowe's great new 'gum-drop' zip-pulls and cuff tabs, which are, well, gummy and easy to grip. We also like the fabric for its combination of sofness, breathability and water and wind resistance. Lowe Alpine say it's durable as well, but it's hard to tell at this point. It certainly doesn't feel fragile.

Know more or want to?

If you'd like to add your own experiences of this product check out our user review system and post your opinions to the world. If you have questions you can mail us direct, ask Richard Gear or try a posting to our gear forum.