Synthetic Fleece. Is it like the worst fabric ever?

Pleather is worse.

Happy Dieting!

First, you need to tell us what the worst fabric ever is, then we can make a determination about the similarity of fleece to it.

Either that, or you can learn to write English.

It's abhorrent, much like your English.

Fleece under shorts FTW.

I have to agree, fleece is terrible

fabric thoughts. wooly sheep. wrote:

I can't stand fleece. Anyone else? Bad for the environment, wears uncomfortable, and looks bad after a few washes.

If you buy cheap stuff it's awful but if you want a warm jacket by a top of the fline fleece jacket from a company that specializes in fishing clothing or better yet mountaineering.

You get what you pay for.

Speak English you fat moran.

I sometimes wear a hair shirt. Uncomfortable as all get out, but it made focus on my sinful nature, rather than chasing nookie.

Fleece generally is inferior to down or synthetic insulation like Primaloft or similar. Fleece is heavier for a given level of warmth, and also much bulkier when shoving in a pack.

Fleece is very breathable though, and maintains its warmth when wet from sweat or precip, so these things make it good for an active layer that you'll end up sweating in.

These things all point towards lighter weight fleeces being more useful than heavier. A light weight fleece, like the Patagonia R1, can be nice as an active insulation layer (or alone as a heavy base layer) in colder temps, like spring/fall mountaineering on 4000m peaks. Mountaineering is really one of the few places this level of analysis means half a shit, because it's the only time you're probably going to be carrying numerous layers over many miles and thousands of feet of elevation gain, and using the layers to stay comfortable (and alive) in widely varying conditions.

The R1 style light fleece's breath ability is really nice for active climbing and hiking, although it also means if the wind gets too cold you'd need to put on a wind or rain shell over top, which of course makes your shell now the choke point of your breathability. In this case a light synthetic jacket can really be better than the light fleece. I particularly like the Arcteryx Atom LT synthetic jacket as a step up in warmth over the R1 weight fleece, at an actually lighter weight and smaller stowed size. It is less breathable of course, but still pretty breathable with its fleece side panels. I own both and for the aforementioned mountaineering use, I mostly take the Atom and leave the R1 these days. If it's warm enough that I need the max breathability of the fleece and can get by without the wind protection, I can usually just use a lighter base layer.

Heavier fleece makes no sense under any conditions, as it still will let the wind through, and will be waaay heavier and bulkier (like 2x or more) than a comparatively warm synthetic or down insulated jacket. Those jackets will typically block a good amount of wind with their integral shell too.

Get with the times wrote:

Heavier fleece makes no sense under any conditions, as it still will let the wind through, and will be waaay heavier and bulkier (like 2x or more) than a comparatively warm synthetic or down insulated jacket. Those jackets will typically block a good amount of wind with their integral shell too.

Heavier fleece is great, if you are counting "200" weight. Unlike the OP's experience, my most worn jacket of the last 20 years is a Mountain Hardwear Chill Factor fleece from 1997 that I still wear as much as anything newer that I have. It was my first fleece anything. Wears comfortable, looks great, probably hasn't shed too many microfibers too the environment because it still in decent condition. The inner face of the fleece in this jacket has a nice shaggy texture, and the outer has never pilled. They still sell this same model now, so it has stood the test of time. Unlike a synthetic fill (except Polartec Alpha, which is more like a fleece) or down, you can actually run in it due to the breathability. Wind doesn't always need to be blocked.

I do like my Patagonia R1 - works fine for running and skiing under another jacket, and the windproof Patagonia R4 is a great really cold temperature (below 10 F) running jacket.

What I don't like about synthetic fill stuff and light down sweaters and clothing like that is that the shells on them are generally too light if you need toughness. They just get shredded and are a huge waste of money if you have dogs that like to play rough and/or do outside work. My GF got a nice lightweight down jacket for Christmas one year, and within a month, it looked like something a homeless person pulled out of the dumpster.

noonn wrote:

Speak English you fat moran.

Whoah, heard you the first time. So angry. Do you work at Old Navy?

No.