Lululemon has built a reputation for producing quality athletic clothing in flattering styles, extending to gear suitable for skiing and other outdoor activities. This review dives into some of their standout pieces, assessing their performance, features, and overall value.
Pack It Down Jacket: A Stylish Urban Specialist
The Pack It Down jacket is designed as a highly functional and stylish down jacket, perfect for urban environments and casual use in colder seasons. It's an excellent choice for commuting or slipping on after a yoga or HIIT class.
That said, the sewn-through baffle design does create cold spots without insulation, limiting the overall warmth of the jacket. At 15.5 ounces (for a size small), the Pack It jacket is quite heavy for the warmth provided. This is mostly due to the added features (such as a removable hood), lower quality down, and heavier fabrics.
Key Features and Design
- Material: The outer material is a wind and water-repellent polyester called Glyde, which features a durable water repellent coating. This helps keep you dry in light rain and resists the chill of a biting wind.
- Insulation: This jacket features 700 fill power goose down, comprised of 85% grey goose down and 15% grey goose feather. The feather component limits the compressibility of this jacket but also makes it more affordable.
- Warmth and Comfort: While the down may not be the warmest, its design adds significantly to the warmth of the jacket. The sleeves are a bit longer, helping to keep your wrists and hands warmer, and the cozy, fleece-lined collar helps trap body heat inside.
- Hood: The removable hood also allows you to retain more body heat on those extra cold days, though the hood is not adjustable to snug it close around your face when the wind is blowing.
- Pockets: The front pocket design is a standout feature. The scoop shape is very elegant and cleverly outlines the Lululemon logo in the stitching pattern on the jacket.
The Pack It Down jacket is not the most versatile down jacket, but it is well designed and featured to provide warmth and comfort in a variety of urban situations. It also has a high level of visual appeal.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
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- Stylish design with Lululemon flair
- Durable and water-repellent Glyde fabric
- Fleece-lined collar for added warmth and comfort
- Removable hood for versatility
Cons:
- Heavier compared to other down jackets
- Not the most compressible for backpacking
- Bottom hem lacks a drawcord, potentially allowing drafts
Performance in Wet Conditions
The water-repellent Glyde fabric sheds water very reliably. We walked in the rain and ran the jacket under running water to get the down wet, and couldn't.
The Lululemon Pack It Down jacket is a well-made, stylish, durable down jacket for urban use. It is excellent for commuting where you want something relatively light and compressible.
Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve: A Versatile Base Layer
The Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve is a versatile baselayer designed for running but suitable for various activities. It stands out for its comfortable fit and functional design.
Fit and Comfort
Lululemon sizes their clothes differently from most other athletic brands, and has even sizes from 4 through 12. The fit of the Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve is really great. Lululemon correctly describes the fit of the shirt as body-skimming, and it certainly has a tighter fit. The sleeves are slim, but since the material is stretchy and my arms are on the smaller side, I’ve never had a problem with the shirt feeling too tight.
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Given the Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve’s body-skimming fit, it can be difficult to add layers under the shirt. On a typical ski day, I wear the shirt under an Arc’teryx mid-layer fleece or a Patagonia R1 hoody and Patagonia’s Powder Bowl Jacket.
Key Features
- Thumbholes: The Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve has built in thumbholes, and unlike many shirts with this feature, they are actually really comfortable. The longer sleeves extend to my knuckles when using the thumbholes, and when I’m not using them, I just scrunch up the extra lightweight material around my wrists.
- Odor Control: The shirt is made from a seamless synthetic fabric that incorporates Lululemon’s trademark Silverescent technology with X-STATIC, which they explain inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria. Silver also gives the fabric thermodynamic properties-keeping the wearer cooler in warm temperatures and warmer in cold weather.
- Breathability: Around the shirt’s neck, under the arms and chest, and down the spine, the fabric has subtle, but larger diameter pores.
- Seams: The majority of the Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve is seamless, and where there are seams, they are flat and unnoticeable.
Durability and Care
The one downside to the Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve’s fabric is that it is extremely delicate, and as a result, can snag quite easily if you aren’t careful. If I am going for a trail run or mountain bike ride where I know there will be potential snags, I will choose a more durable baselayer. I wash the shirt with like colors using regular detergent and hang to dry.
Surge Jacket
While the Surge was the heaviest jacket in our test at 263g, it is fully loaded with features and style.
Key Features
- Weather-shedding: Nylon fabric with a DWR finish makes the surge jacket mostly water resistant, with the only leaking occurring around its untapped zippers and seams.
- Breathability: Lululemon incorporated a thoughtful zipper design to the pit vents of the Surge. The zippers are angled toward the shoulder of the user, as opposed to straight-lining into the armpit. Simply raising the arm of the jacket places the zipper on enough tension for smooth operation.
- Function: The Surge features the greatest storage capacity of any jacket in this test: two zippered hand pockets and two inner pockets. The right hand zippered pocket is equipped with a sewn sleeve for a smartphone. A small exit near the top of the pocket allows users to internally route headphones from device to collar. A horizontal zipper located on the back of the jacket’s high collar allows the user to roll and store the hood.
- Fit/Comfort: The Surge Jacket fit one tester larger than the average medium sized jacket, meaning the Surge best fits well-muscled runners. But, for smaller runners, the loose fitting sleeves and body comfortably fit over athletic clothing or an insulating layer, perfect for cold weather activities.
- Packability: The Surge does not have a pocket dedicated to self-storage, although some testers noted the jacket fit nicely in one of the jacket’s inner hand pockets.
Here's a table summarizing the key features of the reviewed Lululemon gear:
| Gear | Key Features | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pack It Down Jacket | 700 fill power down, Glyde fabric, removable hood, fleece-lined collar | Stylish, durable, water-repellent | Heavier, less compressible, no hem drawcord |
| Run: Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve | Silverescent technology, seamless design, thumbholes | Comfortable fit, odor control, versatile | Delicate fabric, prone to snagging |
| Surge Jacket | Nylon fabric with DWR, pit vents, storage pockets | Water resistant, breathable, great storage | Heaviest jacket, fit is larger |
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