Oct 12

Oct 12 Veilance Eigen Comp Jacket (2020)

Veilance Eigen Comp (2020)

“Siltstone” colorway appreciation post.

Veilance Eigen Comp Jacket (2020)

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

Technologies: GORE-TEX Infinium Windstopper 3L

Technical fashion leans heavily on the world of cyberpunk, a literary-cum-visual style that emerged as a reaction to the contrasting technical progress and social decay many saw as emblematic of the 70s and 80s. The typical cyberpunk character is a technically-skilled loner who sees their convoluted world for what it really is. Their names - Deckard, Case, Dredd - indulge these cinematics. Half man. Half machine. Just unfamiliar enough to keep the near-future out of the present.

Eigen Comp is not the name of a sci-fi detective. But it could be.

But it could be.

Megopolis is littered with wasted potential. Every night, half of it gets wasted all over again. Eigen Comp isn’t one of those: solid job, life full of purpose, knows their place in this whole thing. Not the type of character you’d find snorting cyber-coke off a cyber-hooker on the wrong side of town.

That might be their problem.

This isn’t the place for- er, sorry.

So this isn’t the place for another techwear jacket review written as neo noir monologue. While Vancouver transplant William Gibson certainly influenced Veilance, he never clad a character in a faded sunset composite jacket. Yes, dear reader, Eigen Comp’s eternal life is now in the hands of a niche outerwear blogger with a marketing strategy job.

How cyberpunk is that?!

Very.

Anyways, on to the clothes.

The Veilance Eigen Comp Jacket is a slim, stretchy windshell made from a composite construction of stretchy nylon double weave and GORE’s Infinium Windstopper tech.

3L Windstopper panels cover the bulk of the jacket. The little brother of capital-G GORE-TEX, Windstopper is basically just GORE-TEX with bigger micropores and untaped seams. These expanded pores are still dramatically smaller than a droplet of water (1.4bn per square inch of membrane), but not as small as those found on mainline GORE-TEX (>9bn per square inch). As the name suggests, they’re still great at keeping out gusts.

The reason to use Windstopper is a little more involved than “GORE branded windbreaker.” Essentially, using it (vs. big GORE) is a bet on use case. Those micro-ish pores make Windstopper garments not waterproof and breathable, but highly water-resistant and breathable, like, for real. Windstopper with a DWR coating and taped seams can comfortably handle an hour of anything below a true downpour. While that may not meet consumer information standards of “waterproof,” for city folk (especially those on bikes), it meets 99% of needs.

Covering that last 1% comes with a big hit to breathability, and in practice, comfort. Is that certainty worth it? The consumer psychology answer says “yes.” I’m here to tell you it’s more like a soft “perhaps.”

Function-wise, the Eigen makes a compelling case for how technical lifestyle shells should be made. It’s almost as if the “pinnacle urban techwear” positioning of Veilance was applied on a microbial level. Instead of outdoors coat components shaped into city gear, there are different parts in different places by design.

The 3L taped seam Windstopper is a capable barrier that wears with ease. It may feel fragile compared to N100p GORE Pro, but it won’t leave you clammed up in fall showers and allows for more realistic urban layering options. If you’ve ever worn second-guessed a rain jacket since you were wearing a sweater, you know how important this is. The strength and hydrophobia of a full-bore GORE has always been overkill for cities since, you know, awnings exist. The Eigen’s construction presents an alternative.

On that note, it’s worth noting that the reason the Eigen wears so well isn’t because Veilance were first to figuring out Windstopper is less sweaty on the subway. Intentional design choices make the whole much bigger than the sum of its parts.

For example, only the shoulders and torso of the jacket are actually made from Windstopper. DWR-coated nylon stretch panels cover the back, sides, and cuffs. It’s an efficient choice: put the weather protection on the bits that face weather. But that efficiency enables so much else. Putting stretch on the back of most surfaces in an Arc’teryx 3D-patterned garment makes the Eigen properly mobile. Not mobile for a technical shell. Mobile for a long sleeve tee.

I am not kidding when I say that the Eigen makes movement as intuitive as not wearing a jacket. There’s no second guessing a reach like there is with GORE proper. No weird shoulder bunching. No grabbing past your cuff. You go. It follows. Pair that composite stretch construction with a soft, even silk-like nylon face fabric, and the whole package carries a grace that is completely unexpected from a $600 tech jacket.

It’s a thin, high-fidelity zip-up hoodie with a gorgeous tactile finish that, worn with just a t-shirt, makes a great layering piece down to 55 and windy. Oh yes - and it’s also a raincoat. (As long as you’re not out too too long.)

Moving on to the aesthetics of the Eigen, it feels like a waste of words to describe how a Veilance piece wears well and styles easily with a variety of complements. Let’s instead leave it short: it’s real nice, that. On this specific Veilance piece, I loved how the subtle two-tone and complex lines of the hybrid paneling were massaged into a sinewy, even extraterrestrial look.

That said, I couldn’t help but want something more.

Strip away the cool construction notes and unconventional design - even that sublime 22nd century “Siltstone” colorway - and the Eigen Comp is a trim $600 featureless light shell. My size Large hits me right on the waist. There are zippered hand pockets. Thanks for playing Yes, It’s A Jacket.

I am all for doing simple things well, and believe me, Veilance does them in spades. But it’s Veilance, man! Save-your-pennies, IG-story-unboxing Veilance! At some level, you are buying the Eigen Comp because it is a fashion piece, and therefore, should stir the soul or inspire metamorphosis or whatever the fuck reason we all lust for nice clothes.

The thread-the-needle use case story is darn cool. The result of it is a model of jacket construction that I wish more would adopt (especially the use of a taped seam 3L Windstopper). And as an everyday function piece, I like it a lot - almost on par with my feelings towards the mainline Atom LT.

There’s just something truly remarkable missing to seal the deal here. Maybe it’s a spindly Klattermusen-style hood. Maybe it’s broader shoulders. I don’t know.

Fact of the matter is: $600 is a steep price for a jacket that, while uber-functional in an urban setting, doesn’t have the Sexy Superlative Performance Storytelling (TM) to put it in line with the mega-shells that haunt its cost bracket. On the other hand, it’s cheap for a Veilance piece - albeit, one that doesn’t telegraph “this is a different perspective on modern dress” quite like its cousins.

I love the Eigen Comp for its ambition, and its subtlety, and its sheer willingness to make an urban technical jacket that follows the priority those words imply. It’s just hard to get excited for those qualities in a luxury fashion context without… well, we’ll leave it to the poets.

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Eigen Comp isn’t one of those: solid job, life full of purpose, knows their place in this whole thing. Real stand-up type.

Only problem is - that’s not what the other guy’s expecting.