Columbia Men’s Powder Lite Hooded Jacket Review

The Columbia Men’s Powder Lite Hooded Jacket is an awesome coat for autumn and winter months. I fell in love with it because of its striking design and colouring. I think the three-colour design is really cool and definitely stands out from the crowd. There are other versions and colours of this jacket but I think that the combination of golden shoulders, ochre lower and blue arms is the best as it has a sort of retro vibe to it.

To compliment the vibrant colours of this coat, Columbia have given it chunky white zips. This continues the retro sort of feel of the jacket and makes the zips something of a feature rather than just a fastening. The chunky zips have a nice feel to them and don’t get caught or snagged easily like some others.

Columbia have used a waterproof and breathable outer shell for the Powder Lite Hooded Jacket. I’ve worn this out in lots of the bad winter weather and have been really impressed by how well it’s stood up to the rain and wind. Inside the outer shell, they have packed it with a super lightweight, synthetic insulation. This works really well and keeps you very warm but without weighing you down. This isn’t the sort of coat I’d take for really serious excursions but during weekend walks, I’ve found the breathability really good when walking up hills etc.

The Powder Lite has the conventional two side pockets which are perfect for keeping your hands warm or keeping your wallet and keys in. It also has a handy internal pocket on the left hand side – this is where I always keep my phone as it’s nice and safe but still easy to reach. All these pockets have the same chunky white zips as the main one on the jacket.

The inside of the jacket is lined with Omni-Heat. This quite jazzy looking material is thermally reflective. What this means is that the coat insulates you further by reflecting your own body heat back at you. The clever thing is that these tiny silver dots still let water vapour out; this is one of the fabrics which makes the Powder Lite so breathable. This is quite a striking interior and when off it, does look quite sparkly however, when you’re wearing it you only see the odd flash of the interior and it just looks modern and technical.

You can buy the Powder Lite, with or without a hood. I went for the hooded option as I think anytime it’s cold enough to wear a coat like this in Britain, it’s probably pretty likely to rain too! The hood is really nice as it has the same insulation as the body and arms of the jacket. This is excellent for chilly weather as when your hood is up it helps to reduce heat loss from the head.

In conclusion, the Columbia Men’s Powder Lite Hooded Jacket is an awesome coat if you are looking for something that stands out, looks brilliant and can stand up to what the wild can throw at it. I really like the design and the use of different blocks of colour as well as Columbia’s use of technical fabrics. If you’re after the jacket but in a simpler colour scheme then you can actually buy the Columbia Men’s Powder Lite Hooded Jacket in black from Cotswold Outdoor.