I have been on a desperate search for "the perfect soft-shell" for about 3 months now. So I made a list of all the things that I wanted the jacket to have: Heavy fleece, windproof, water resistant, velcro wrists, hooded (but small hood because I don't wear a helmet for anything but motor-sports, and I hate having a useless hood, but as far as I know the hood does accommodate a helmet also), chest pocket, pit-zips, zippered pockets, full length zip, overall weight around 20 ounces, and in parenthesis was (possible snow-skirt).

I have been eying arc'teryx's Hercules for a while now because it is the only thing that came close to what I wanted, but I hated the jacket, it fit funny, and didn't have pit zips to shed some heat. So I pretty much gave up and was waiting for another jacket to come along, and then not even a week after I made the list POOF! The Stoic Welder Hi Softshell jacket shows up on SAC with every one of my requirements except a snow-skirt, which was the only optional requirement I had made.

Oh and for people looking it fits true to size, I have a Large and I am 5'10", 185lbs, 44 inch chest, 35 inch sleeve, athletic/built. And there is only enough room for a relatively slim base-layer, like a t-shirt and an ice-breaker merino wool long-sleeve and the like, but that is the whole reason I bought the jacket, living in Fairbanks, AK it is nice to be able to simply toss on the jacket over a T and head out the door when everyone else is running around looking like the Michelin Man and their down parkas.

Conclusion: Perfect for me, thanks Stoic and backcountry.com for their awesome service.

I know this is not going make Arc'Teryx fan's happy, but I have been wearing Burton shells for snowboarding for the last 10 years, none of them were as expensive as this jacket. The last 2 were gore-tex shells. This Arc'teryx shell makes no sense, I am 5'10", 190 lbs, athletic build, and have a 44 inch chest. The sizing chart says large is for a 43 inch chest, well I laid the jacket down flat and measured across the chest and it is 27.5 inches, multiply that by 2 and you have a 55 inch chest (My Burton Jackets, which people tend to say are baggy, in a Large, measure in at 50 inches, plenty of room for layering). No matter how much layering I do I would never fill this thing up and I live in Fairbanks, AK only 100 miles north of Denali. The sleeves at the bicep are 20inch in diameter, you can see in the picture posted by gwoodward896726 above, the fit is junk, it is bellowing out everywhere, I didn't see that photo until after I received the jacket. The hood is useless unless you are wearing a helmet, looks incredibly tacky while stuffed away and pushes on the back of your neck. The power skirt has no pant interface at all. The Jacket is stiff through out, the sidewinder zipper setup, kind of a neat idea, until you zip it a quarter of the way down and you have a massive flap hanging out in front of you. On top of all of this the powder skirt was frayed when it showed up, and there was a small stain on the inside of the jacket. Maybe I am missing something, but for 500 bucks it's going back. (Actually what makes this even worse is I picked this jacket up on tramdock.com for $235 and it is still going back).

Backcountry.com on the other hand is amazing.

I bought these to replace the stock hi-backs on my mission greeds, because I snapped one of them in the park, they are much better than the stock ones and they do not have the FLADs (forward lean adjuster)that fall off if you aren't paying any attention like the factory hibacks.