Patagonia R1 Hoody Review

Warmth
The R1 Hoody is our testers’ go-to midlayer for outdoor adventures of all types in all seasons. It is a lightweight fleece that is warm enough, but not too warm. That’s why we love it. It serves equally well when used as a baselayer on ultra frigid gram counting adventures, when tossed over a t-shirt for the mid-summer bike ride to happy hour, or on a casual evening walk around the neighborhood.

We reach for warmer hoodless fleeces on cold climbing and skiing days (<15 degrees F) because they can be warmer for their weight, and we regularly pair them with a full face, sometimes windproof, balaclava. However, our tests show that warmer fleece materials are frequently too warm for active use in three-season conditions. We've found that there's no need for a heavyweight fleece because other types of clothing, such as down and synthetic insulated jackets, are more efficient insulators- they provide more warm per unit weight and per dollar. Therefore, we believe that the R1 fleece's type and weight represents the best of the available options for the widest range of applications.

Comfort
Without increasing warmth, it doesn’t get any more comfortable than the R1 Hoody. The fleece is lightweight so you feel like you're wearing a really warm shirt rather than a jacket. Also important: the quarter-length zipper eliminates the rigidity of full zip models, and the hood fits over and warms your head like a dream come true.

The Hood
The hood is worth elaborating on because it is the second best fleece hood we’ve ever tested. For many years this jacket had the best fleece hood we had used. Other companies (including Outdoor Research, Wild Things, Mammut, etc.) released and revised their lightweight fleeces but they never put enough attention to the most important part (the hood)and the R1 Hoody’s hood reigned on as the leader in comfort and warmth. Then in 2013 Arcteryx released the Fortez Hoody which has a hidden, integrated balaclava, which is a unique and innovative feature. The Fortez Hoody provides excellent visibility for 90% of the time you need a hood and it lets you pull a black balaclava over your face, and customize its position over your mouth, nose, or neck, in a way that bests the R1 Hoody. We prefer the Fortez’s hood because it is more versatile, provides more coverage especially for the nose, and because it allows better visibility. (The R1 Hoody’s chin covering material can flap about annoyingly and can need to be tucked into the sides of the hood to remain out of your field of vision.) But, even though the Fortez has a slightly better hood we still LOVE the R1 Hoody’s hood.

Weight and Packed Size
Our men’s medium model weighs 12.8 ounces and compresses to slightly less than one liter in volume. Although fleece is not superbly warm for its weight (down and synthetic insulation are warmer per unit weight/volume), its warmth when wet and comfort next-to-skin make it a material that we almost always carry with us.

Wind Resistance and Breathability
All R1 models have very poor wind resistance and excellent breathability. The material dries very fast, which is a huge advantage for high exertion activities and three-season backpacking.

Style
It’s not form fitting, it doesn’t have seams at the edge of the shoulders that make you look like a burly man, and the material is obviously technical in nature; the R1 is not at all stylish. Yet, for experienced users, the fleece is attractive in that when you see someone else in it you can appreciate how comfortable they are. And that is attractive. The R1 Hoody is a staple in climbing circles from Denali to Camp 4, to Patagonia, and across the ponds. Despite its OK aesthetics we all wear it everywhere.

Limitations
The hood could cover the nose slightly more, but otherwise this piece is nearly perfect. Our testers have owned several different iterations of the jacket the current one is exceptional in both design and in durability. As illustrated in the photo below, there is little that can wrong with the jacket.

Best Application
Ice and alpine climbing.

Value
The R1 Hoody is worth its weight in gold. It’s one of those pieces of gear that improves your comfort and performance by a significant margin, and it’s very challenging to put a monetary value on such a benefit.

Other Versions
Patagonia also offers the R1 Pullover and R1 Full-Zip, but we highly recommend that you go with the Hoody. As you can see in our ratings the other R12 models score considerably lower in several categories.

Environmental Responsibility
The R1 has a lower environmental impact than other similar fleece jackets because the fleece is made of recycled soda bottles and Patagonia strives toward low impact manufacturing processes. The company also donates a small share of their profits toward grassroots environmental efforts that work to preserve and restore our planet’s natural areas and threatened species.