Patagonia Dimension Jacket Review

Today I'm going to take a look at the first Patagonia product that I've reviewed.

The garment in question is the Dimension Jacket in the Alpha Green color.
This is a color that was exclusively available through the military line that Patagonia was manufacturing for a while.
The Dimension is a softshell, IE not a waterproof jacket, but instead a jacket that offer some mild insulation - in this case via the highly wicking polyester mesh on the inside - and good weather resistance by blocking wind and repelling most water.
All softshells - true softshells - will eventually soak through, but typically offer weather-resistance good enough to where it will be a garment you can use for 90% of the time with a hardshell really only being necessary during really, really bad weather, such as extended time spent in rainstorms.
And this is true in the case of the Dimension.
It has excellent water-repellency courtesy of Patagonia's own Durable Water Repellent treatment.
The dense and tough weave of the face fabric also serves admirably to cut the wind while at the same time having a decent amount of stretch, which helps the jacket move quite well with you.

Now on to the features of the jacket.
I'll start with the specifications as listed by Patagonia.

Details

• New, exclusive fabric features a stretch woven face bonded to a denier-gradient polyester knit mesh for warmth and wicking performance
• Deluge DWR water-repellent zippers
• 3-way, fully adjustable hood fits over a helmet, can be rolled down and secured; New internal casing allows clean, non-hanging drawcord hood adjustment; Hood drawcords, for hem and face, adjust from inside the chest pocket
• Front zipper is slightly offset at the chin, in opposite direction (left) of our Regulator® insulated tops
• Internal zippered mesh pocket
• Gathered elastic on sides allows trim torso fit and keeps the two mesh-lined torso pockets open for ventilation when unzipped
• Wrists adjust via perforated, anatomically contoured hook-and-loop closures
• A 6.6-oz. 50% nylon, 50% polyester stretch-woven shell bonded to a polyester knit interior; Deluge® DWR (durable water repellent) finish
• 652 g (23 oz)
• Imported

Ideal Uses

• Iced, Mixed, & Alpine Climbing
• Backcountry Riding
• Lift-accessed Riding
• Skiing and Snowboarding

I'll start by talking about the pockets first.
The Dimension has four pockets.
Two handwarmer pockets lined with a soft mesh, the openings being set high above the waist line, out of the way of a waistbelt and shoulder straps. They should also clear a climbing/rapelling harness just fine, although I've yet to wear the Dimension for that kind of climbing. These pockets are somewhat enormous and cover almost the entire front of the Dimension. They also house the drawcords for adjusting the hood and the hem, a system of adjustment I'll return to later.
The zippers are of the reverse coil type and are wind- and water-resistant. All the zippers are made by YKK. An interesting detail with the openings for the handwarmer pockets; they have on the inside a strip of covered elastic which, when the pockets are unzipped, hold the pockets open to facilitate venting your excess heat.
This works quite well.
There is also a Napoleon pocket on the left side of the chest which is also of a good size.
Finally, there is an interior zippered mesh pocket on the right side. Not big enough for a water bottle or anything like that, but a decent size for a few energy bars, iPod, cell phone, GPS or other like items.

The main zipper on the Dimension is a one-way zipper, backed by an internal stormflap that has a strip of webbing tacked to it, to prevent the zipper from snagging. At the top the zipper curves slightly to the side so that it doesn't rub on your chin. It also has a patch of fleece at the top to be more comfortable against your chin.

Patagonia refers to these zippers as "easy-glide" which I'm not entirely in agreement with. They work well enough, but can tend to bind up a little if you're not paying attention although this is primarily noticeable with the handwarmer pockets. I do like the zipper pulls. Cord with a plastic pull on the end that is heavily textured. It's simple but works quite well even with gloves.

Over all, I really like the pocket arrangement on the Dimension. It's almost perfect, frankly!

Looking further, we come to the cuffs. The cuff adjustment is accomplished with a laminated cuff tab made from a pliable and perforated rubber. This tab is curved to be more anatomically accommodating and the cuff is also partially elastic. This is actually a system I really like. Makes it easy to set the cuffs to a certain preferred tightness so you don't have to undo them every time you take the jacket on and off. I'm not entirely convinced that the anatomically curved cuff tab actually makes any difference, but it's not an impediment by any means.

Moving on to the hood things start to look a little less rosy.
I'm a bit torn on the hood of the Dimension.
It's certainly roomy! A member of a certain forum once referred to the Dimension hood as being big enough to wear a pith helmet under and I'm inclined to agree!
However, the adjustments are not all that great. You have three adjustments to the hood. The typical drawcord to cinch down the front opening around your face, an external volume adjustment in the back of the hood and another, rather finicky volume adjustment on the inside of the hood.
This is the one I don't really understand. It's almost impossible to adjust this without taking off the jacket, which seems like a strange design choice. And even with these three separate adjustments, I've never been entirely happy with the way the hood feels.
Also, the drawcord for the face opening used a pair of neoprene tabs to secure the drawcord, the problem with that is that it wouldn't keep it's adjustment at all. I ended up replacing them with barrel cordloks. The ends of the face opening drawcords are routed into the two chest pockets so you have to open the pockets to adjust the hood. I don't mind this much, although I've found that in order for that adjustment to work best, I have to grab on to the top of the zipper with my teeth so that I can more easily adjust the drawcord tension.
The hood rolls up as well, held in place with a velcro strap but this is really not comfortable and looks kinda stupid, so I never use that feature, instead preferring to just let the hood flop back on my shoulders.
Frankly, the hood is the weakest point of the design. It's not entirely useless, but it could certainly be done better.


The hem drawcord has similar problems, so I end up adjusting one side at a time.
The hem drawcord was also, for some odd reason made using a very thin shock-cord. So thin that it frankly worried me. I ended up replacing it with a heavier gauge of shock-cord and some new cordloks.

Another thing I've discovered that is frankly very strange is that in deep cold, such as in below 20 degrees, the fabric that the Dimension is made of becomes very stiff. So stiff that it crinkles and becomes sometimes difficult to move in. Now, this isn't so much an issue in the main body of the jacket or the sleeves, but with the hood it can be quite annoying.
Once you warm up though, it tends to mostly go away, but putting up the hood when you've had it down for a while can be a smidge uncomfortable. I don't have any other jacket that does this. Regardless of material.

Now, all this may sound like I don't like the Dimension Jacket very much and that's frankly not the case.
I like it quite a bit.
It's very comfortable, the cut is very good offering great coverage even in awkward positions with the sleeves being long enough to not ride up either. It wicks sweat very well and is very breathable, just a great jacket to wear during high exertion.
And it really does shed bad weather quite well. It also appears to be quite abrasion resistant, although I have found a small spot on one shoulder that appears to be wearing a little thin. That's not entirely unexpected given the very rough nature of the terrain that I use this jacket in though.
And the color is great. I can't begin to tell you how much I dislike the really bright and gaudy colors that is common fare with most outdoor gear makers. Seeing more and more subdued earth tones is a very welcome change! I'm also a big fan of there not being any logos anywhere on the outside of the jacket! Hallelujah! This is likely enough because it's from the military line, but nevertheless, it's a VERY refreshing change!

Overall, with the exception of some minor design quibbles such as the hood and some of the drawcord adjustments, I like it. I would suggest before buying one that you try out the jacket for yourself though or make use of the excellent return policy that Patagonia offers when you shop directly with them.
A quick, closing note on fit. I'm right over 6 feet tall and weigh about 205-210. I got the Dimension in XL and it fits me quite well.