John Burley
Reviewed: 09 February 2007
A sheep in wolf's clothing!
Light weight, good breathability for a proprietary membrane, looks.
Totally unfit for purpose. Poor durability, Poor design, Poor cut, overpriced.
It appears that Columbia no longer make this jacket, though a Gore Windstopper softshell jacket of the same "Fast’n’Light" name seems to have replaced it in 2005. This is probably a good thing as it is a really poor garment in my opinion. I am not a big fan of Columbia products and would never have parted with the recommended retail price of 140 for this item. But as I found it for a ridiculous £11 in TKMaxx, I thought I couldn’t go wrong. It has given me the unique chance to really test out a garment that I would otherwise overlooked.
It sets out to be exactly what the name suggests. It is a proprietary membrane version of the Paclite jackets that have become popular amongst those shaving down the grams. As such, it succeeded in being very light and packable, it was waterproof and reasonably breathable and it looked the part at first sight. However, this jacket demonstrates that looking ‘fit for purpose’ and actually being ‘fit for purpose’ are not necessarily the same. So here’s what’s wrong with it.
Firstly the cut. Columbia, in their genius, realised that the easiest way to save weight is to use less fabric! I generally take a medium or large and was surprised when I had to take the XL for it to be long enough to pass my waist. I then had lots too much room around the midriff (and I am not exactly slender). This cut would be ideal if you were short and rotund, but not great if you really did want to move fast and light.
Then there’s the hood which is a total afterthought. The collar is quite nice, going high up the neck in a comforting way… but the hood is hopeless. Walking too fast in still conditions is enough to make it blow off my head. There’s obviously no volume adjuster apart from a useless bit of Velcro and the drawstrings never seem to manage to hold it around my face. It might work under a helmet, but I doubt this was by design. The pockets are in the right place (biking & harness use in mind), but somehow seem to hang strangely whenever there’s anything in them. The jacket appears to have reinforcement on the shoulders and sleeves, but a closer look shows that this is pretty much an identical fabric to the rest of the garment, just in a different tone. I noticed all this in the shop, but don’t forget… £11.
At the beginning, the DWR did work quite well, as water beaded nicely and dripped off the outside… but it was soon gone (the D of DWR not really applicable), even without washing. The Omnitech fabric was waterproof and reasonably breathable… but in less than a year of casual use, wearing it on my walk to work and for the occasional stroll, it has already started to delaminate and fragment. Very poor, and had I paid anything more than a pub lunch for it I would be sending it off to Columbia with a grumpy letter. I understand that lightweight gear is inevitably not going to be as rugged, but need it be so fragile too?
There are some good points – the front zip runs well and keeps the water out; the collar keeps the chill off your chin; it weighs much less than a full spec mountain jacket and packs away very small. Despite the cut problems, it looks quite nice even if the name Titanium Alloy on the sleeve just sounds silly.
But asking £140 for a jacket like this shows me that Columbia meant to put it up against the healthy competition of jackets that are meant to be used for ‘fast and light’ activities (adventure racing, light packing, mountain biking etc.) Perhaps they just made an honest mistake – their best wasn’t good enough on the day – but I feel it much more likely that they were out to make a quick profit using cheap materials and shoddy design. I got my £11’s worth… but only just!
[Note to Editor : As seen here :
http://cgi.ebay.com/COLUMBIA-TITANIUM-ALLOY-MENS-MEDIUM-OMNIT-TECH-JACKET_W0QQitemZ170070197702QQcmdZViewItem ]
