Spyder Ski Jacket Review
Ski Jackets
I’ll be starting my fourth season as a ski instructor this year and like with most ski schools, we have a uniform, you could say. Basically, we all have the same style of ski jacket and then we have to wear either matching ski pants or black ski pants. Our jacket is a Spyder ski jacket and I do like it for the most part.
Before I begin, one disclaimer. Our school had our jackets custom made. We designed them, so you won’t find them anywhere else but you will find the features our jackets have on other Spyder jackets, of course.
So our jackets are blue and gray with black accents and they look great. It’s the kind of ski jacket / uniform that’s cool and that you kind of want to wear because you know you look good in it. It’s warm, for sure. You can spot an instructor a mile away pretty much.
It has a detachable hood, which also fits around my helmet. I think this is an important feature. It really blocks the wind for you and when it’s snowing hard, I put it up. If I don’t, then snow hits the vents on my helmet and, even though it’s closed, it turns to water and leaks in. Not good. so the hood takes care of all that. When I ski in white-out conditions, the hood keeps the wind out and my head is nice and warm. The zipper from the front of the jacket goes up the micro-fiber collar and helps to close the hood and also provides some closure around the neck.
There’s a powder skirt and draw cord to help keep the powder from coming up. It keeps the breeze out and keeps the warmth in, too. It snaps up so when you don’t want to use it, it’s not in the way.
The cuffs are adjustable with Velcro. This is one of those “must have” features in my opinion and you don’t find really any ski jackets without this feature although some may have the elastic without the cuff adjustment. It fits nicely over your gloves to keep the wind and snow out. You can also tighten it around your wrist and put the glove over your cuff if you want. Do whichever you like best.
There are side vents but they have mesh. The mesh is supposed to keep the snow out, I guess, but it also makes it harder to close the vents because the zipper gets caught in the mesh a lot, which leaves the vent half open until you can find a warm place to take off the jacket and work on fixing it. My new, North Face ski jacket has no mesh so we’ll see how that works.
The best feature is probably the pockets. I like the placement of the pockets a lot. There are the normal hand pockets but also two other ones on your chest, one inside for your wallet, a mesh pocket inside and then one, big pocket along the back that is really like a mini backpack. I think that’s a great pocket.
Inside one of the chest pockets is a cloth on a cord for wiping your goggles. I think I used that once last year finally. So this isn’t a feature that I have to have but it’s nice.
I’ve tried waterproofing it but I haven’t gotten it to where it’s totally waterproof, so this is one complaint. When it gets wet, it’s wet. I guess this is unavoidable though, so I won’t pin this on Spyder. It does dry out within a reasonable amount of time – I’ll give it that.
Some of the instructors have a version of my Spyder ski jacket where the arms zip off, turning it into a vest. They seem to like that. We have a third version of the jacket which is thinner and is really more of just a shell. I had the choice and I wanted mine to be insulated. It’s warm. I figure that if it gets warm, like it did last spring, then I can open the vents, have the front open and just wear a t-shirt and I’ll be just fine.
When it’s cold, I’ll wear a mid-layer jacket under my Spyder ski jacket. That works well. It’s not too tight where I can’t do that or where it restricts my movement. There’s also not a lot of noise with it. So there’s no loud swooshing sound when I move in it, which is good.
The seams are also taped, so that helps keep the wind and snow out. You can really tell.
So all in all, I like it a lot. The only downside are the mesh liners inside the vents. Otherwise, it’s a great ski jacket and I’d recommend it to anyone since I’ve been wearing for 4 seasons now and it’s in great shape. And I’m easily wearing it skiing 3 times a week during the season. I would even wear it around town in the winter weather, too. So go get yourself a Spyder ski jacket and I think you’ll love it.
Other Spyder clothing I own are gloves and mid-layers (shirts). No problems there, either. It’s quality ski clothing, in my opinion.
You kind of get the idea that many other ski schools use Spyder ski jackets for their uniform, too. I know I’ve seen at least two other local hills using them and then there are names of Spyder jackets like “Spyder Alta Jacket” and “Spyder Vail Jacket” which seems to be named for those resorts. Why not? They’re great.
Really Cheap Spyder Jackets
The next thing to do, if you’re interested in a Spyder ski jacket is to find one you like and then find it for a good price. Finding one you like should be easy. They’re available in a lot of places – both at local shops and with online retailers. Your best bet to finding cheap Spyder jackets is to find a local ski shop and try some on. Find the right size and choose a style and color that you like. Remember to leave some room for extra base and mid layers.
Once you found the winner, note the price at the store and the name of the ski jacket. Your next step is to go shopping online for the best deal. Online retailers may charge shipping but they do not have the overhead of renting the retail space. Some online searches will get you some good results. If you know what size you like, then you could start shopping right now. For me, I was able to order a size large and it fit me just fine, like any other jacket would. I did not see any irregularities with the sizing, so go shopping!
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