Helly Hansen Workwear Men's Alta CSA Hi-Vis Insulated Waterproof Winter Parka

Cost is very comfortable and very warm and lightweight

Purchased the jacket in fall of 2022 in preparation for a framing job I was on that would continue into February. The jacket windproof rating on this jacket is legit. It's been amazing at blocking the wind, along with the waterproofing. Having to deal with wet snow i always remained dry. Matched with a thin baselayer sweater and a thicker sweater as my mid layer, this jacket had me absolutely toasty in the - 40 weather I was working in before Christmas in Alberta. Ive recommended this jacket to a lot of people and will continue to do so. With the proper layers, it's excellent. The only incident I have had with the jacket was climbing through a truss and caught my arm on the edge of a gang nail and ripped a 1" slit in the arm. But I simply put some clear gorilla duck tape over the slit and that fixed that. Can't recommend enough.

I was looking for a hi-vis option to wear outdoors for aviation in Canada. It needed to be insulated enough to shrug off the cold for short periods of time (perhaps 10mins max at -40ºC ambient), but not so warm that I overheat when I have to be inside for periods of time. I go inside and outside a lot, and hi-vis is mandatory on the apron. This was one of the only good options I found available for private party purchase in Canada. There's a lot of mediocre product in the workwear category, and I wanted something that was a step up in quality. I picked the 260 Hi Vis Orange colourway. It is a very bright orange, the reflective tape works well and does illuminate when lit. The liner is black. For build quality, materials, and hardware it is definitely better than the average. It has bar tacks at stress points and a YKK VISLON main zip. The interior is soft polyester and mostly quilted vertically with just a few horizontal quilts. There is a fleece neck liner, and every component is stitched instead of glued. The hook and loop patches are cross sewn and perimeter sewn. The insulation is by Primaloft, and it seems to be a polyester sheet synthetic that is hung internally. It is not super warm, and you definitely get chilly fast below -20ºC, but that is appropriate for what I wanted to do. Snaps and toggles seem to be generic and their quality is lower, the snaps especially (for attaching the hood) are on the poor side. The collar and hood can also bunch up at the back of your neck in annoying ways, a bit too much stiff fabric back there, but not a huge issue. There is hook and loop (generic Velcro) on the cuffs to adjust them. All of the zips come with orange cord pulls, but they are not tied and the implementation is kind of lazy. You'll want to implement your own pulls if you're going to use the jacket with gloves on. There are toggles for closing down the hood opening, and they work kinda okay, you can mostly close out the wind. There is a hook and loop tab at the back of the hood for changing the hood size for smaller or larger heads, it is also kinda okay, and you can somewhat size the hood. The hood is removable with snaps + hook and loop, it's kind of a process and you aren't going to do it on a whim. There's a hem toggle on one side only. There are straps on the front of the shoulders that hold clip-on items like radios, I use them for my radio and they work well. Pockets: This is the largest issue. The chest pocket is tucked behind the storm flap alongside the main zip. If you're not careful you can grab the pocket zip when reaching for the main zip if they're at similar heights. Normally this would be a good spot to store your cell phone or a snack or something, to prevent it from freezing. But this pocket is on the outside of the insulation, so your stuff will freeze anyways. The hand pockets aren't really hand pockets. They're oriented vertically, and the flap is fixed on one side. So you have to tuck the zip way back into the fixed corner of the flap to open them up, and it's just kind of a hassle. The pocket liner also is not especially well fixed into the pocket so it likes to pull up. They're just difficult to use, especially with gloves on. You definitely cannot put your hands into them either. The hook and loop patches used to hold the flap down grab on to lighter stuff, no good. The jacket fit is pretty square and the pattern is simple, not especially articulated. It's well sized to accept some layers, and the interior is smooth and slides over fleeces and stuff nicely. Branding is minimal, one compact HH logo on the lower right near the hem, and another one on the brim of the hood. There's various safety ratings on the care tag (CSA Z96-2015 Class 2, BC MOT Class 2). Also on the tag are the waterproof and breathability test standards it complies with. It doesn't seem very breathable, but that's normal, insulated shells never are. Note: while this jacket rates itself as class 2, I'm pretty sure it complies with CSA Class 3. Machine wash, tumble dry low, easy to care for. The big disappointments for me are the pockets and the hood. This jacket would be miles better with just a couple changes: 1. Add a crown adjuster to the hood. 2. Move the chest pocket to the inside of the insulation. 3. Redesign the hand pockets. Make them easy to access, change the entry angle, let you put your hands in them, pin the liner down better, don't stitch down one side of the storm flap. Overall the jacket is doing what I want.

Pockets in horrible spots and not warm enough for what is advertised it’s a rain jacket pretty much.