Designed By Adventure: The Trickshot Jacket and Pants
“Designed By Adventure.” At Outdoor Research, our products have been designed by adventure for more than 30 years, with features and fabrics imagined, tested and perfected in the wild. And like our products, our lives and the lives of our customers are sculpted by the experiences we have in the natural, unpredictable environments we love. We, too, are Designed By Adventure.
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Designed to roll with the punches high in the mountains, the Men’s Trickshot Jacket and Pants and Women’s Trickshot Jacket and Pants are built with a new, totally waterproof, amazingly breathable Pertex® Shield+ Soft Shell fabric — co-developed by Outdoor Research and Pertex® — that combats inclement weather while remaining comfortable across an incredible range of conditions and activity levels.
Below: The Men's Trickshot Jacket
“We’ve used Pertex® Shield+ fabrics for several seasons in hard shells,” says Outdoor Research Apparel Product Manager, Melanie Sirirot, the brains behind some of our most popular and award-winning outerwear pieces.
But while Pertex® Shield+ has proven itself as a supreme waterproof and breathable fabric technology in hard shells, “this is the first style using the Pertex® Shield + laminate in a soft shell package,” explains Sirirot. “We’ve achieved a soft shell fabric with a great hand and a very high performance spec — 20,000 mm hydrostatic resistance and 16,000 g/m2/24 hr MVTR.”
While these numbers might not mean much in an everyday setting, in the technical speak of textiles it means the fabric is fantastically functional. Simply put, this fabric is the lovechild of a breathable soft shell and weather-sparring hard shell.
This Pertex® Shield+ Soft Shell fabric is new this year to the industry; and, lucky us, Pertex® partnered with Outdoor Research as the exclusive company with which to launch the fabric. In other words, Outdoor Research is the only company offering the fabric this season.
Below: The Trickshot Jacket schralping fresh snow
“We’re excited to expand on the Pertex® products that do so well for us in hard shells and bring the technology to the soft shell category,” says Sirirot.
Building on a waterproof soft shell tradition
The idea behind the Trickshot builds on the tradition of the Mithril Jacket, a workhorse for winter conditions. The Mithril, a legendary perennial best-seller for Outdoor Research, is known for the soft shell construction and ability to protect against cold weather in heavy, wet snow — an inevitable for skiers, winter hikers and alpine climbers.
“The Mithril was the first waterproof soft shell from Outdoor Research,” says Sirirot. “People loved that it was waterproof but preserved the feel, comfort and quiet fabric of traditional soft shells.”
Designed expressly for big mountain skiing and ski touring, the Trickshot Jacket and Pants take the technology and functionality of the Mithril a step further, building on our solid foundation of waterproof soft shells.
Below: The Trickshot fending off falling snow
California native Molly Baker, an Outdoor Research ski athlete and self-proclaimed “modern ski gypsy”, travels all over the world for year-round doses of steep winter whites. Baker put the Trickshot through the wringer to test the performance on a few of her adventures. “Last winter,” says Baker, “I tested the Women's Trickshot Jacket from the moist, snowy Cascade Mountains to the interior, dry Canadian Rockies to a week skiing and living on a sailboat in Iceland.”
Besides loving the ultraviolet color, Baker says “the Trickshot is the perfect combination of a protective outer jacket — waterproof and windproof — with the flexibility and comfort of a mid-layer.”
This illustrates yet another one of the beauties of the Trickshot’s Pertex® Shield+ soft shell fabric: It’s as protective as an outer shell, but with the comfort and functionality of a mid-layer, complete with stretch that doesn’t restrict movement — a supreme downer when you’re in the midst of setting the skin track up or on a mind-bending descent that requires maximum concentration and agility.
“The stretch in the jacket allows ease of movement for moving in the mountains, which is uncommon for many waterproof shells, which tend to be stiff and loud,” says Baker.
The Trickshot comes replete with features like an integrated RECCO® reflector, a helmet-compatible hood, a zip-out powder skirt and our temperature-regulating technology, CrossFlo™ — a clutch features for dumping heat on hard bootpacks uphill.
“Plus,” Baker adds, “with articulated elbows and a relaxed fit, I find the style of the Women’s Trickshot sporty, but still feminine where it counts.”
Shop the Men’s Trickshot Jacket and Men’s Trickshot Pants, and Women’s Trickshot Jacket and Women’s Trickshot Pants.