ProView – Cotopaxi Men’s Teca Calido Hooded Jacket

The brand new Teca Calido Hooded jacket from Cotopaxi dresses its wearer to impress. Its style and color will get you noticed from across the room or across the glacier; its insulation will keep you toasty warm whether you’re headed to work or headed to the crag, and you can do all this while feeling good about yourself and the impact your jacket has on the earth and the hands that made it.

I have a confession to make; I’m not the most adventurous dirtbag around. I don’t need the warmest, lightest, uber-gear to bivouac just under the summit of the next peak I’m bagging. Don’t get me wrong; I love to geek out on gear with the best of them, but that’s not the kind of stuff I actually use day to day. I live in, work in, and love the Southern Appalachian mountains, and I work a (mostly) normal job. 

This is why I love the Cotopaxi Teca Calido, it is the perfect jacket for my everyday life that can pull double duty on early morning bouldering session, mid-morning snowball fights, and late nights around the fire. 

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Fit/Comfort

The Teca Calido Hooded Jacket is designed for comfort. The fit is pretty roomy, but not ridiculous. You can easily wear a midlayer or flannel underneath it without punishing the zipper. I love the fit for a frontcountry jacket. Sure there are other jackets that have stretch panels and laser cut action gills for crushing boulders with your bare (or bear) hands, but this jacket is really warm when you are just chilling and it’s cold outside. This jacket has a relaxed fit that is made for relaxing.

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The only time this jacket gets uncomfortable is when you start moving too much. It’s very warm and lacks breathability. I tried riding my bike when it was in the high twenties with this jacket and a light mid-layer underneath and overheated in less than 10 minutes.

Look/Style

Do I even need to write anything here or can we just put a few pictures? As a 33 year old father of 3 I don’t claim to have any style, but this jacket is pretty dang cool. A lot of warm synthetic jackets suffer from looking like the technical wizardry that they are made up of, but not the Calido. 

There is this trend in outdoor companies to make “trail to town” clothes, stuff you can climb in all day and then wear to the bar. I think the Calido is the opposite of that. Cotopaxi has made a stylish jacket for outdoor-folk, like you and I, to wear to places like the grocery, work, and the pub, and then still wear to the climbing gym or on a winter hike. Cotopaxi has perfected the “town to trail” market

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Features

A kind of party piece on this jacket is it’s reversible. The color on the inside of mine is exactly highlighter yellow, so I don’t see myself rocking that very often, but still a cool touch. Also, the pockets while wearing this jacket normally are great, but the reversible side pockets don’t work very well. They were going for having a hand pocket and dropin pocket, but if something is in the drop-in pocket then you can’t really use the hand pocket and vice versa.

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The hood is a little too roomy for my liking especially when wearing a headlamp. It is so big it falls over and there is no synch cord for the hood.

Weight/Packability

This jacket is light enough. Compared to my Rab Xenon X its pretty beefy, but it’s not a heavyweight and it’s still plenty warm for its weight. It has a chest pocket that double as a stuff sack, but it is pretty difficult to squeeze the jacket down to that size. Once it’s packed down it’s almost exactly the size of a nalgene, but let’s just say, the zipper isn’t happy about it.

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Function/Performance

The Teca Calido Hooded Jacket performs really well as a casual, primarily frontcountry jacket. Like I said earlier it is more than capable of handling moisture, hiking, and plenty of adventure, but if you are buying insulation for an expedition this jacket is not for you. This jacket is really warm, but definitely lacks breathability.

Durability/Construction

I’m not sure the weight of the fabric used in this jacket, but I’m sure it will take a good beating. It’s not very lightweight so it can stand up to a lot. I haven’t noticed any depreciation in loft after a few months of wearing this jacket and stuffing in my bags over and over. I’m not always the most confident in recycled insulators, but whatever Cotopaxi used in the Calido is really awesome.

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Friendliness to the Earth

Cotopaxi takes the cake in this category. As a company they give and work to alleviate poverty, fight malaria, get kids in school, increase literacy, and promote a culture of volunteerism amongst their staff and their patrons. They truly are making a difference. Plus, the Teca Calido is made of all recycled or repurposed materials. Cotopaxi is one of the only brands I know of that you can buy really functional gear while making a real functional difference in the world.

The Final Word

If you are looking for a super-technical, lightweight, summit machine, this jacket is not for you. But if you are looking for a really warm jacket, that looks good and as Cotopaxi would say, “Does Good”, then this is the jacket for you. Many jackets cost a ton, aren’t made ethically, and don’t work well in everyday life. The Teca Calido Hooded jacket gives you a ton of warmth for the money, is made of recycled and repurposed materials, supports a company that is seeking to end extreme poverty, and you can throw it on everyday knowing that it will work in just about any situation.

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