In Review: Huckberry x Lululemon Down Jacket

Hululemonluckberry Navigation Down Jacket in Grey Sage – $248

About the Author: Jason P. spends his days working in the creative marketing department of a big telecom company. He also does a bit of real estate investing on the side. He believes in curating a timeless, classic wardrobe with subtle modern touches for today. He and his wife love hiking with their dog and shopping at local small businesses and antique stores when they travel. Jason is a practitioner of muay thai and traditional boxing, and his favorite drink is a hoppy New England IPA.

Good brands don’t stay stagnant. They cultivate a culture of innovation in design and construction and seek to bring forth incremental, beneficial changes to their product lines. Lululemon is one of the premier innovators in the activewear industry, while Huckberry has built a business on curating high-end men’s apparel and gear with a focus on form and function. Surely, a collaboration between the two is obvious. But is it a success? Many brands have tried collaborating on their individual success, only to find joint failure.

Huckberry and Lululemon have joined forces to build a well-designed winter jacket with relative sleek warmth. But, it won’t be for everyone. Read on to see if it’s a smart selection for your closet in this review of form and function.

Size medium on 5’7″/175. Not overly puffy. No mallowing here!

Form

First things first. Here at Dappered, we strive to help you look your best with smart-looking, timeless pieces. As expected with this partnership, this jacket doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it fine tunes a proven formula with great stylistic results. Down jackets, especially with these filled baffles, have a tendency to look over-puffed and make you look like a gigantic, mallow menace. Not so with this jacket, my friends. Huckberry and Lululemon absolutely nailed the fit. No billowing or overly-puffed regions to speak of, and it wasn’t too slim. Too slim that I resembled a lumpy sausage. The inclusion of stretch nylon and elastane on the outer shell keeps the jacket flowing with you, and allows for that closer fit without feeling constrained. Goldilocks.

Has some shape to it. A better than good fit. Moves great.

The sleeve length on this size Medium is decent for my 5’7″, 175 pound frame. I often struggle with sleeves that are too long for the torso sizes I need, but found this jacket to fit my arms nicely. For winter jackets like this, I don’t mind if the sleeves hit slightly past the base of my palm. If this doesn’t apply to you, you have about 1.5″-2″ of leeway before the sleeves might start to get a little short. Keep that in mind when you consider sizing. Same story for the overall length.

Sleeves and body aren’t overly long. Great fit.

Grey Sage is a perfect description for the color. Depending how the light catches it, the tones of green will be stronger or lighter. This is very clearly where the Huckberry aspect of the partnership comes into play, as the color is an exceptional representation of outdoors exploration and adventure. It reminds me of lighter-colored moss on trees. A lot of heritage outerwear brands will offer jackets like this in black, dark grey, a darker earth tone, and some bright color like school bus yellow or crimson red. While other brands – notably, Arc’teryx – are moving toward a wider color palette, options like this grey sage are still fairly hard to come by, and it is a MOST welcomed sight on this jacket. If you’re the outdoorsy type, and your aesthetic aim is to blend in to your surroundings, you won’t do much better than this. Unless you wear camouflage. But, don’t do that. If you’re a city dweller and want to stand out from the flocks of black and navy clad puffer wearers? This provides a terrific alternative.

Function

For all the proper styling, if any given piece doesn’t function as intended, you might end up in stylish discomfort. And discomfort often leads to a lack of confidence. With outerwear, particularly that designed for woodland or snowy adventures, a jacket should inspire confidence. Product tags claim this is a “High Warmth” jacket, filled with “responsibly sourced down or Primaloft insulation,” while the product page makes no mention of the primaloft? The features/description, at post time, also says “Cinchable hood keeps your head warm.” Not seeing a hood (it’s not hidden/stuffed inside the collar as some jackets provide). Something odd happened here when the words got put on their site.

Tags could be more helpful by providing specific temperature ratings or ranges for which the jacket was built.

On the tag, a convenient little graphic shows this is a middle-of-the-pack jacket with regards to warmth. This is all fairly vague and confusing, and a graphic showing a warmth rating around the middle is not what I would call “high,” so I put it to the test in as many varying temperatures as possible.

I popped on the jacket , overtop nothing more than this long sleeve tee, and took the dog for a walk in the early morning. I also had on pants. Make sure to wear pants outside your house.  The temperature read 18 degrees Fahrenheit, so I had my doubts as I stepped out the door. Thankfully, the jacket held up well over a 20 minute walk. However, the cold started creeping in and I was very chilly toward the end of the walk. This is not a jacket I’d recommend for extended use alone below 32 degrees. You’re going to want a heftier, insulated jacket rated for sub-freezing temps in those conditions.

Later in the day, a strong gust was aloft so I stepped outside to see how the jacket would perform in windy conditions. The product tags claim use of a “windproof fabric,” while again, the product page on Huckberry’s website makes no mention of such material. More inconsistency in the product description. Yet the website wins out, as this just did not feel windproof to me. Despite the temperature sitting in the mid-30’s, the cold air hit me fast and furiously and was more jarring than the 15 degree-colder temperature from the morning. You can use this as a base layer under a proper wind shell for blustery conditions.

Well, it is good advice.

In the evening, with the wind subsided and cloud cover providing extra warmth, the jacket offered ample warmth and movement as the dog chased and barked after phantom shadows in the woods. At a windless temperature of 34 degrees, this jacket found a sweet spot. For me, the ideal temperature range for this jacket is around 30 degrees on the lower limit and 50 degrees on the higher limit. As always, your mileage may vary.

Storage is basic, but thoughtful. Two zippered hand pockets and an interior zippered chest pocket provide ample storage for basic adventures or outings. A sturdy collar with Huckberry branding offers more warmth than a typical floppy collar. Nicely done.

With proper good looks, Huckberry and Lululemon stay on-brand with an ideal jacket for outdoor adventures in not super freezing temps with minimal wind. Some more specific data on what it’s good for (and what it’s not good for) would be appreciated, but free shipping and returns minimizes those risks.