Dec 30

Dec 30 The North Face L5 LT Summit FUTURELIGHT (2020)

Alex Rakestraw

Active, Shell, Review

The North Face Summit L5 LT FUTURELIGHT (2020)

Acronyms AND a long name? Go on.

The North Face Summit L5 LT (2020)

Type: Shell / Use: Active / Face: Polyester / Insulation: n/a

Technologies: FUTURELIGHT 3L - 20x30D 81g/m2

Price: $449.95

Hardshell? Softshell?

¿Porque no los dos?

Nestled somewhere between a burly alpine jacket and a limber composite is The North Face’s L5 LT Summit FUTURELIGHT, a pliable, packable weather barrier that breathes like a snorkel. It’s an objectively impressive jacket. We’ve tested other high-output shells at the $450 price point, and in nearly every dimension, the L5 LT comes out on top. Athletes and threadheads will love what’s arguably the best FUTURELIGHT shell out right now. Unfortunately, what should be an instant classic is held back by a problem as old as time: a simple hitch in patterning.

What makes this genre-crossing athletic jacket both peaks and valleys? Well, let’s start with the tech.

As the name suggests, the L5 LT is cut from TNF’s FUTURELIGHT, the brand’s air-permeable waterproof membrane fabric.

FUTURELIGHT is an electrospun membrane. While traditional waterproof/breathable membranes like GORE-TEX are made by putting tiny holes in a solid material, electrospun membranes are woven from the ground up like a spider’s web. The holes in a spun membrane are on the same microscopic (i.e. smaller than a drop of water) scale as those in a traditional construction, but the material they’re a part of is made porous to begin with. The result is a barrier layer that air can flow through much more easily than the alternative.

Like other membranes, FUTURELIGHT still requires a face fabric and a lining material to work as intended. Here, it’s faced by a soft and stretchy, DWR-coated 20x30 denier recycled polyester. This is far from the most durable-feeling fabric on the market. But in outdoors testing, it handled a few “oh shit” moments well enough to believe that it could deal with a lot short of direct pokes.

On the inside, there’s a soft poly lining. The next-to-skin feel is comparable to the standard Shakedry piece: a little plastique, but otherwise, fine and free.

The L5 LT is a simple piece on paper: agile face, breathable membrane, soft lining, call your mum. Consider its slight tonnage (11.8oz) and included stuff sack, and it starts to look less like a slimming of the L5 Proper and more like a Summit-branded bag shell (with a higher price to match).

Throw it on however, and this simple shell becomes anything but.

Functionally, the L5 LT is the most user-friendly hardshell I’ve tried on to date, if you can even call it “hard.” This is an alpine jacket that wears like a beach pullover. Features are slim thanks to the “LT” edit - for example, there’s only a chest pocket, stuff pocket, hem cinch, and hood pull. But any misgivings over lack of slashes look puny in the face of the LT’s pure comfort. Imagine a 3L performance piece with no high-strung face fabric fighting your body and no tapered seams made restrictive by bulk. It just moves.

If you’re used to the swish-crinkle heft of a typical GORE layer, this jacket will feel like a revelation. Despite what we’ve been conditioned to believe, it doesn’t take ceramic plating to keep out the rain. You’ll feel exposed at first by the lack of a 100-denier turtle shell. Then, you’ll notice how comfy it is - how nice it feels, how quiet it is. It keeps rain off for hours. It blocks wind, despite blowing readily in it. I’ve worn the L5 LT in 40mph winds on exposed ridgelines and felt the same chill I would in a Beta SL.

The difference is, I had the LT on for the whole hike up.

If the L5 LT is your first experience with air-permeable membranes, a lot of the difference you feel will be exactly that: the pleasant sensation of air allowed to move. I’ve tried on other air-permeable jackets, and compared to them, the L5 LT is a similar sigma away. The FUTURELIGHT membrane used here feels like it was tuned for exceptional airiness. In addition, the light face and thin backer maximize air flow, creating even better conditions.

The headline to all these functional footnotes is this: it’s very, very nice.

The L5 LT could replace all your wispy nylon athletic jackets and your standard about-town layer, as long as you’d let it. Take all the athleticism of the Eigen Comp, port it to a bonafide 20K/20K shell, and let it loose on the world. Hiking uphill in 40° F weather, cycling Williamsburg Bridge in 50° F… the L5 LT handled both with aplomb.

I even walked away impressed with the face fabric. Carrying two 25lb IKEA totes two miles, one on each shoulder, didn’t leave a mark. Not exactly a torture test, but given what those handles do to my hands (and the week or so I brought it around Colorado with a hiking pack on), any apprehension I had about about the thin outer is squashed for the present.

Best of all: it packs down to the size of a YETI. I find myself cramming it into a tote bag for long days out, or unpacking it from a stuff sack when I wanted to “just pack one bag.”

In so many ways, the L5 LT is almost the perfect urban crossover shell.

But try as I could, I couldn’t get away from its central failing.

Man, the fit on this thing is just plain weird.

My biggest frustration with the L5 LT is its hood. As other reviewers have noted [add in OGL review], the specific way the hood was cut all but guarantees that, in high winds, water will cascade directly onto your chin, then into the garment, then onto your clothes.

This is what we in the waterproof jacket blogging game refer to as “not the point of a waterproof jacket.”

I think a lot of the fault here lies in an over-reduction of structure. The top of the zipper has a tendency to fall forward, putting the brim of the hood behind the furthest-out point of the jacket. I have to believe this could be fixed with some different cuts and seams.

While the hood is the most acutely-felt of the jacket’s fit mishaps, it’s not the most visible. The same things that make the L5 LT so great - flexible fabric, packable structure, minimal hardware - combine to make its profile rather unflattering for casual wear.

Is it straight cut or slim? Featureless or reserved? Soft shoulders and a jutting hood makes for a clumsy introduction. Pack anything bulky (ski skins; a flask) in the single enveloping chest pocket, and the whole silhouette goes top-heavy. Then, there’s the typical light/stretchy jacket issue: the L5 LT will take the shape of your midlayer.

Throw in a slightly overlong athletic cut, and the whole jacket becomes a liability for anyone who doesn’t want their tech jacket to only wear like a tech jacket. I had legitimate trouble styling this with anything but other outdoorswear. It just looked out of place in a way that my Snow Peak and Haglofs light shells did not. Through one lens, that’s the point - this is a specialized, top-tier athletic jacket with a function story that makes it truly exceptional. Through my lens, however, it’s an unfortunate black mark on a piece that, as far as products go, looks great in a vaccum.

Finally, I had an annoying issue with the hem cord. The hem cord is so long - how long is it?

Ok.

The hem cord is so long, the movie got two parts. (Ooooooooh)

HOW LONG?

So long, there’s a third round of drink service right before you land. (Damn)

HOW LONG?

So long, it hangs out from under the jacket even when fed through the cordstay. (Ouch)

The braided hem cord on this one is too long and too poorly behaved to be a part of a $450 jacket. When cinched, it plays a game of peekaboo only boardwalk moles and your grandpa’s boxers would find admirable. The hem cord alone isn’t a dealbreaker. But it is annoying. Especially since the L5’s aesthetic straw to play is “monastic function piece,” and a dangly bit at the hem line throws that all off.

So where does that leave us?

Unfortunately, with the following:

The L5 LT Summit FUTURELIGHT is exceptional, but also, a disappointment. It’s light, comfortable, packable, and as weatherproof as anything (hood problem notwithstanding). That said, some glaring (and correctable!) faults leave me wearing it less than I’d otherwise like.

If you’re looking for a high-spec technical jacket to replace an old piece or slim down your closet, go for the L5. I promise you, it really is a paradigm shift in comfort and breathability. Skiers, climbers, and urban commuters will love it for that alone. However, those with an eye towards style (or extended plans in the wet) should wait for some updates.