I have owned this jacket for over a year. I own 2 aecteryx alpha SV and I gotta say, I would recommend this jacket over the other ones. Here is why: 1. I like the fit and style of this jacket. I honestly like it a little better than the arcteryx Alpha. 2. The outer layer on this jackets feels velvety and nicer than the paper-like feel of the arcteryx. 3. The material is less noisy than the one used by arcteryx (which can be a pro or a con depending where yiure hiking or trekking, sometimes I like noisy clothes while I'm.in bear country) 4. Water/wind proof: this is tricky. I gotta say, I feel like there is nothing better than goretex pro in an alpha jacket but honestly, having tested the best goretex jacket there is in the market and this one, I'd say, unless you're on very extreme weather conditions this jacket is much more than enough. The water and wind proofing is fantastic. If alpha sv from arcteryx is 10, this jacket is somewhere between 9 in terms of weather protection. So unless you're tackling the hardest of the hardest of environments this jacket will always be enough. 5. The price: in Canada I paid $950 dollars for the arcteryx Alpha sv. This jacket retails at around $630. 6. Arcteryx uses goretex which is not the greatest for the environment. I wish I would.have learned this few years back and I would have gone with this as my first option. I'm now trying to stay away from goretex whenever possible. And like I mentioned before, unless you're set to hike some of the highest peaks in the world or go in constant extreme snow or rain that goes on for days, I think this will meet your needs. Cons: the only thing I think this jacket could.do better is adding recco reflector or some sort of location devise. That is the only reason I have chosen my arcteryx (they only started adding recco to their alpha jackets in the last year or so) over this one when going in long and potentially dangerous multi day treks, it's not because of the reliability of thw weather protection but just because of the added feature that could save my life if I get lost or injured in a way that I cannot continue.
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