May 13

May 13 Goldwin Hunting Coat (2019)

Goldwin Hunting Coat (2019)

Type: Trench / Use: Lifestyle / Face: Nylon / Insulation: n/a

Technologies: G-TEC Nylon Stunner 3L Membrane

In the 2003 film Lost in Translation, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson find meaning over drinks in a Tokyo bar. Goldwin’s lifestyle line is as artful and ambitious as the Park Hyatt Tokyo. It is also, occasionally, lost in translation.

Perhaps that’s how a beautiful, anime-inspired city trench ends up labeled as the Hunting Coat.

Functional and fashionable, Goldwin’s premiere non-GORE city coat is a stiff, knee-length shell that belongs in a cyberpunk police chase. I wouldn’t take it further than a city park, let alone on a hunting trip. But wow oh wow is it special.

Allow me to translate.

First and foremost, the Hunting Coat is a full-length rain jacket. The weatherproofing comes by way of Goldwin’s proprietary G-TEC 3L fabric, your standard nylon-and-polyurethane-membrane sandwich. Great at keeping drops out. Decently breathable. What else would you expect from a giant sheet of waterproofing? Tech specs are sparse online, but if I had to guess, it’s somewhere in the 20K/10K range: pretty, prettttaaay good, but not superlative.

Compared to other giant sheets of weatherproofing, though, the Hunting Coat distinguishes itself through pure handfeel. Rigid in form but smooth to the touch, it’s two sigma less crinkle-swish for all the same benefit. What makes coats like Norrøna’s oslo so cool on paper can also make them a little harsh in the real world – and just like on the Hooded Spur, it’s pure textile care that sets Goldwin apart. Subtlety is often the shadow of protection. Here, it is not.

On the features side, there’s a standard if high-quality assortment of bells and whistles. An extended double-zip cocoons you in Hunting Coat. Five chest pockets (four front, one Napoleon) keep your totebag safe at home. Also, there’s a bicep pocket. You know, for hunting.

Hunting what? If I had to guess, it’s space pirate bounties.

While the Hunting Coat’s substance may steal the show, its blocky, near-future styling might literally steal your eyeballs. There’s a lot going on here Influence-wise: mil-surp pockets and riveting meets outdoors materials on the stance and pattern of a noir detective’s hooded mac. The taped-up zipper of the Napoleon pocket. The over-snapped front yanked forwards in time. Surrounding them both, the sheen of matted-out techwear. It’s Scanners-style sensory overload. But design-wise, they distill it well.

Love it or hate it, Goldwin took a big bite with this one. It’s all done tastefully (peep that minimal seam-taping on the inside), and I personally like the look. It’s just that… well, they may have overshot.

Without going turbo-weeb, wearing the Hunting Coat feels like anime cosplay.

Between the tech-armored front and dramatic sweeping profile, one gets the feeling it all came from that unique blend of fascination and caricature that defines series like Mobile Suit Gundam. This is the protagonist’s coat – what the cyborg detective wears as he surveys Neo-Tokyo, or shit, like just about anything in Advance Wars. It was meant to be a cinematic piece and you feel it in every step. Slogging through rain, you are the hero, with a big, idiosyncratic statement coat to prove it. That’s just not always what you’re looking for at 8am on a rainy Monday.

I like the piece as a whole. I think Goldwin nailed the materials and colors on what is, in a vacuum, an impressive functional city coat. What I don’t like is just how hard I have to dress into it. If you drop $2k on an ACRONYM coat, you’re signing up for a life of #techwear. $540 isn’t insignificant, and Goldwin doesn’t do single-serving. Yet, here’s a jacket that feels less versatile than it wants to be. That demands certain pants and shoes to pay off its look.

Like any good anime, it’s great if you lean in. I style mine with Dickies work pants and Hoka Tor boots for a modern utility look that plays off the coat’s rigid militarism. It’s phenomenal on rainy days, and works out nicely when worn open. Where it starts to lose me is when you try to extend it. Worn over a casual sweater and slim-fit chinos, there’s just too much going on to look put together.

Overall, the Hunting Coat is a gorgeous if overbuilt techwear trench with a defined style. If you play into that style (what some might call “Japanese outdoors inspo”), it will reward you with its pure ambition. If you don’t, it’ll just look out of place. Simple as that.

To weave a metaphor: The Hunting Coat is Scarlett Johansson. Given the right backdrop, it is magnificent down to the textural level. But in the wrong premise, nothing – not even the knowledge that what you’re looking at is really nice in a vacuum – will make up for it. Don’t make it something it’s not, or its anime roots will clash. Play into its strengths, however, and you’ll be rewarded. Lost in Translation or Ghost in the Shell. The choice is yours.