Patagonia Frozen Range Parka (2019)

Type: Parka / Use: Lifestyle / Face: Polyester / Insulation: 700 fill recycled down

Technologies: 2L GORE-TEX with recycled polyester face fabric

What defines a lifestyle brand?

Is it a price point? A theme? Distance from reference?

Perhaps, it’s up to the wearer.

Patagonia is a beloved American gear maker – mission-driven, sustainably-minded, with a long history of outfitting the outdoors. It started as a one-man show making rock screws. It has grown to make some of the most hardcore gear in the business. It is also a lifestyle brand.

Looking purely at the numbers, Patagonia’s most popular products are fleeces. Legendary fleeces, yes, but still fleeces. The Synchilla Snap-T, the Retro-X, the Rhythm Hoodie… for indoor cats, these are substitute sweatshirts, not breathable mid-layers. The brand seems to have always tacitly acknowledged this: in the 80s, campus-side outdoors stores sold tens of thousands of Snap-T’s to college kids, many of which might only hike to the quad. But the catalogs still showed Half Dome. Frankly, why wouldn’t they?

Thirty years later, the story rolls on. On one hand: Bears Ears and the Grade VII Parka. On the other: the Midtown Uniform. While Walt Whitman could certainly quip on the topic, it’s difficult to see a modern Patagonia – one now reshaping fleece into chore coats that “aren’t for camping” – as a contradiction.

Thanks to the wearers, the ship has turned. Patagonia is a lifestyle brand.

And guess what?

When they lean into it, they’re great!

The crown jewel of Patagonia’s not-listed-under-a-sport collection is the Frozen Range, er, range. The men’s side includes a 3-in-1 jacket and an all-in-one parka. Since unzipping a liner is the Transition lens of outerwear, I went with the parka.

Patagonia’s Frozen Range Parka is a GORE-equipped capitol ship – a gigantic, downy heat machine with enough bells and whistles for two Siberian orchestras. On the outside, a 75d recycled poly face sits between a GORE-TEX membrane and a PFC-free DWR. On the inside, a flockton of recycled 700 fill down joins a melted butter lining, somehow cut from a recycled poly ripstop. Oversized slash pockets with a soft flannel lining heat up the biggest, coldest hands. A snorkel hood and hidden-zip placket tie it all in a bow.

Sustainability aside, there’s nothing terribly novel about the Frozen Range. Marmot has the Mammoth. Arc’teryx has the Camosun. Most outdoors brands make a top-of-the-line GORE/down lifestyle parka for somewhere around $600. While it may not be reinventing the wheel, Patagonia’s entry stands out from the range (last one) for a truly #lifestyle reason.

It just looks good.

Patagonia’s design team threaded the needle: this is a stealth ship, care of Yvon. Oversized buttons and a ruddy clay brown call to the brand’s Western heritage. Matte poly shell and a furless snorkel hood tie it to the moment. As design themes go, “old-new” has an appetite for destruction, especially on tech pieces. The Frozen Range didn’t just crush it – it even worked a chest logo into a category known for debranding.

I am blown away by the piece itself and enjoy wearing it. That said, it’s far from perfect.

While the fashion is there, some functions are questionable. Storm cuffs without some manual fastener are a miss. For gloves and thin wrists alike, one size does not fit all. The snorkel hood is often too much. Crossing streets with it zipped, I feel baby bird vulnerable.

There’s also what could be called a Napoleon pocket… on the inside of the storm flap. What is that pocket for? Who is that pocket for? Reader, I know not.

All in all, these are minor critiques. The Frozen Range is an excellent thing. I’ve worn it over a t-shirt in 20 degree wind. I’ve worn it with sweaters to shrug through snowstorms. At $700, it certainly validates the Patagucci jokes – but hey, that’s showbiz.

When Patagonia embraces its lifestyle role, great things are possible. The Frozen Range Parka distinguishes itself in a crowded category. It’s not novel. But it is really, really good.