If you are considering buying a new ski coat for spring skiing, do not do it. The ski coat, or 3-1 jacket, has been pushed by the industry for too long. The outdoor companies take advantage of consumers’ resistance to research and desire to purchase an all-in-one product. Sure, there is a powder skirt and the liner zips in … but there’s also a Goggle pocket? Who really needs those things? A well thought out three jacket system is a dramatically better idea for a number of reasons.
- Replaceability and maintenance:
Consider this scenario: you tear a hole in your 3-1 ski coat and you patch it. Patching works reasonably well for the most part, but it will never be as waterproof as the original shell. You can’t just replace the shell because it’s part of a system. The opposing scenario is that you tear a hole in your shell and you replace the shell, but you still have a good down or primaloft layer to use for your next setup. Replacing things one piece at a time is always preferable to replacing a whole system.
- Flexibility:
In a 3-1, you have three choices: liner, liner and shell or shell alone. This may seem flexible, but really, is it? Each of those things are a single weight, and you are stuck with those weights. Now, in a system involving your choice of base, mid and outer layer, each of those layers can be rotated out depending on conditions and required insulation, with the mid layer being the most frequently changed. The choices for midlayer are endless – primaloft, down or fleeces in varying fills and weights all serve to make your own personal system able to be dialed in for your body. It’s not just a one-weight-fits-all scenario.
- Quality
Are there good quality 3-1 systems out there? Absolutely. Are they the norm? Not really. From a company’s perspective, they need to hit the price mark around $200-300 for a good quality ski coat, which is about the same amount you’d spend on a gore-tex shell. If you spaced out your three purchases for your personal layers, you can make the case to afford good quality layers that will all work together better than the downgraded individual layers that outdoor companies have to include in their systems to hit their price point. The vast majority of the time, you will be able to purchase three layers of gear of much better quality than those included in a 3-1. Once you make the additional purchases, the cost of upkeep ends up actually being cheaper, as you can replace a single piece at a time to maintain the system you’ve designed to work for your body.
If you are not adverse to doing some research, and initially spending a little more money on buying individual pieces, you can really devise a much better custom solution to winter outerwear, than anything a huge outdoor company could ever devise as a one-size-fits-all solution.
