Patagonia and Malden Mills put their heads together and created a new weave of fleece that is a backpacker's dream: lightweight, warm & cozy, and well ventilated. This jacket is a great temperature regulator. The best thing I have to say, though, is about the fit: the W's jacket is well-proportioned to fit a woman's body. This gives the jacket a sleek profile and comes in handy when layering. I wore a long sleeve T and a thermal underneath, with a shell on top and I did not feel bulky...even under the weight of my pack. I'm anxiously awaiting the W's R1 Flash pullover to be released in the fall (currently only available in unisex, which is either too tight at hips or way too large in arms/waist for a woman to wear) when I'll have what could be the perfect insulating combo out there.

Customer Service

Patagonia CSR's always helpful. E-mail queries were responded to within 24 hours. Altogether a great company.

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Patagonia Retro-X
Various Malden Mills fleece pullovers

Any piece of clothing that survives a thruhike of the Appalchian Trail, and looks good doing it, is well worth the money. With outdoors stuff, you get what you pay for. This thing has no equal for what it does. I carried it with me the entire 167 days, from 7*F nights in Georgia, to 103*F days in New Jersey, to 30*F nights in Maine, the R2 has been there, done that, and got a picture. When you're standing on Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, and 4 people out of 10 have on a Patagonia R2...what does that tell you? That the people who are REALLY using gear are using this stuff. When it wasn't needed as a jacket (read summer) it was a pillow and an emergency piece of clothing. It is extremely breathable, a great benifit. When you start out in the morning, the fleece is warm as you start. As you reach a higher elevation, the wind picks up and cools you off, If it gets cold; you're carrying a shell anyways, right? I'm the first one to say that there's no perfect ANYTHING in this world, but this is about as close as it comes in fleece. I won't say that you'll be comfortable ALL the time, but then this is the woods you big babies, so suck it up and walk. Excellent jacket and workmanship.

Customer Service

Patagonia has nothing but love for this world. If you have a problem, they'll fix it.

-Hungry Howie & The New Sushi GA-mE 2000

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Patagonia Snap-T, micro-D's, expedition weight capilene; various TNF jackets; various Marmot jackets...I've gotten more use out of my Patagucci stuff than most of my other stuff combined. It's bombproof.

I can’t find a good use for this jacket. For those who always wear a shell, never get wind, and never break a sweat this will work for you. WIND, for those claiming that a shell is the fix for this are simply not addressing two factors. First this garment is hot; I can’t comfortably wear it indoors with anything else hot, so it’s not feasible to layer it with a wicking layer if you’re doing anything. Which would be great for sitting at a belay station or camp. BUT, which brings me to my second reason. The instant even if a slight breeze blows thru and I’m completely exposed to wind chill temperatures. It was like wearing a wet cotton t-shirt on cool breezy day, very irritating. I could not make this jacket work for me, when exposed to lots of sun between (snow or glacier travel) 20 and forty-five degrees Fahrenheit it was to hot (in it’s defense I had a black one). As soon as a breeze blew it was too cold, put on a shell it’s too hot. Generally I wear a wicking and/or mid-weight layer during a climb or high aerobic activities then add a down or shell at the belay station or as conditions change. My hope was after reading all the great review about moisture management of this garment particularly this weight that I could forgo the wicking layer and add just the shell and/or down jacket when I got chilly. I’m not even going to get into the panels which had contrasting insulation values, so my back is sweaty and my side are freezing. I can’t use this item. This Jacket might work for you if you never take off your shell!

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None

The R-2 Levitator is a very warm piece of insulation. I know that people complain about wind passing through the Regulator fleece but they are intended to be worn under a shell in the real world. When worn under a shell the R-2 is super toasty, moves moisture very well and weighs next to nothing. The fit is trim yet the R-2 is nicely articulated and has statiegically located stretch panels so there is no binding evident. I just returned from a overnight trip in the San Juans and experienced the first real "winter" storm with snow and winds gusting to over 60 mph with temps in the 20s and can say that the R-2 is sufficient in these conditions and clearly in even colder weather as well, (worn under a light shell) The Regulator fleece is so well designed that I've bought it in all three weights and won't be wearing any other fleece again...

Customer Service

Patagonia is a beautiful company to deal with. I returned an item (unused) recently because it wasn't well suited to my needs and they were very good about it, giving me a full credit, no questions asked.

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There isn't really anything quite like the Regulator fleece...

I got a great deal on this from ebay. It was brand new with tags still attached. I love Patagonia products, but don't like their Patagucci prices. As far as the product, this fleece is awesome. It is very warm for its weight and packs down smaller than 200 weight fleece. Only weakness is it has absolutely no wind resistance, less than standard fleece, so you will need a shell in the wind.

Customer Service

Patagonia has super customer service. I returned a jacket I had purchased for $79 at their outlet for a warranty issue. The jacket had been discontinued and they gave me a gift certificate for the full $135 retail value of the jacket. Pretty cool!

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REI 200 Polartech Pullover-Nice product for the price, but the Patagonia Pullover is much better.