The Marmot Project Alpha jacket

On test: Marmot Project Alpha Jacket
Price: £180
Weight: 439g
Fabric: shell, combination of panels of 100 per cent nylon; 53 per cent polyester, 38 per cent nylon, nine per cent Elastene. Insulation: 100 per cent polyester. Lining: 100 per cent nylon
Colours: sunset orange/slate grey
Country of manufacture: China

Polartec have been busy bees of late. The company, reborn from the embers of the old Malden Mills Industries in Massachusetts, introduced the highly breathable waterproof fabric NeoShell a couple of years ago and followed this up with its Power Dry High Efficiency for baselayers, again boasting great wicking properties.

And now, the company has produced its Alpha insulation and the Marmot Project Alpha is one of the first garments to feature this material.

Alpha was developed for US Special Operations and Polartec boasts a first with its insulation: puffy jackets that allow breathability.

Polartec Alpha was developed with US Special Forces

It said: “Here’s what you know: puffy insulation is warm and it’s lightweight.

“Here’s what you may not know: puffy insulation doesn’t breathe – it’s a vapour barrier. It traps body heat, keeping you warm in static conditions. But when you become active, moisture builds up and causes overheating.

“Unlike traditional synthetic fill or down, Polartec Alpha allows a free exchange of air to keep you warm.”

The secret is in its lofted polyester insulation layer, sandwiched between an outer with durable water repellency and a smooth lining.

And, unlike down, it keeps its insulation when wet and promises a quicker drying time when it does get damp.

So that’s all the technical stuff; how does the Marmot Project Alpha perform in the outdoors? We put to the test a sample provided by Polartec.

The first thing you realise is that this is not a bulky jacket. It’s about as thick as a mid-weight fleece, but much more compressible and a lot lighter.

The jacket combines three Polartec fabrics

The Marmot jacket is made from a combination of Polartec fabrics. The main front panels and back are manufactured from the bright silky Alpha material.

The sleeves are in Polartec Power Stretch Pro and the side panels and underarm areas are made from Polartec Power Dry, so the jacket is ‘zoned’ to allow different functions of the three materials.

There is a full-length front zip with a baffle at the back to keep out the wind, and the jacket has two angled hand-warmer pockets and one chest pocket big enough to take a mobile phone or GPS unit, all of which have zips.

The hem has a drawstring and the collar, which is lined with soft material, also has a drawcord to pull it tight to keep out the wind.

In fact, the windstopping properties of Alpha were the first thing I noticed. Worn over just a baselayer on a cold and breezy day on the hill, there was no wind penetration at all on the main body of the Alpha Project.

The sleeves, in different material, do let some air through, and the effect was a bit like walking with your sleeves up – quite a nice feeling when pushing hard up hill.

I would say, however, that the Alpha Project is not warm enough to rely on if you’re standing around on a cold, windy day without a shell on top.

The Marmot Project Alpha jacket worked well in a variety of conditions

But, as Polartec says, Alpha is designed for activity, and the breathability in a variety of testing conditions was very good. Temperature regulation felt fine and, even with a little moisture build up, there was no loss of heat.

The Marmot Project Alpha jacket is versatile. I tried it over just a baselayer moving quickly uphill on a cold day. In a static situation on a very windy day, it provided much needed warmth under a waterproof shell.

And in a very wet outing up our test hill, the Alpha Project worked brilliantly as a mid-layer, keeping me just warm enough under a shell on a stiff climb.

I’ve also had the jacket out in snow as part of a layering system over a base and mid-layer and again it performed well.

The beauty of the jacket is that it will pack down to about half the size of a fleece offering a similar amount of warmth, and it weighs less too.

The Project Alpha will be in the shops later this year

The manufacturing quality of the Marmot jacket looked and felt good and, as long as you don’t want to camouflage yourself, the bright orange theme is a nice look for 2013.

The Project Alpha isn’t due in UK shops until autumn this year, but it will find a place in my rucksack on lots of trips before then.

One small point: the Marmot Project Alpha medium jacket I tested was quite snug for its size, even allowing for my slight expansion over the Christmas period. Try for size before committing.

For more information on Marmot visit the company’s website. Information on Polartec’s fabrics can be found on its website.

Marmot Project Alpha Jacket

We liked:
Performance
Breathability
Warmth
Style
Manufacturing quality

We weren’t so keen on:
Lack of a hood