What is a hybrid jacket?

Hybrid jackets are a category of jackets that have been rapidly gaining popularity in recent years. Thanks to its construction, it offers benefits that other jackets can hardly combine.

Nevertheless, the term hybrid jacket is still relatively unknown to many adventurers.

So in this article, we'll closely examine what exactly hybrid jackets are.

What does the term hybrid jacket mean?

Hybrid jackets combine different materials and technologies into one construction, resulting in a highly versatile product that can offer functionality that a single material could not. Such a jacket is often composed of multiple panels, with each of these panels offering its own specific functional features.

In practice, this can mean, for example, that the front and back of the jacket are covered with windproof material in the torso and filled with down or synthetic insulation, which serves as reliable protection against cold air and wind, but in the armpits and sides the windproof material is replaced with fleece material, which offers greater breathability and is more elastic, allowing greater freedom of movement and providing extra ventilation.

Why are hybrid jackets so popular?

Versatility: A key benefit of hybrid jackets is the wide range of activities you can use them for. The jacket's ability to keep you warm and wick away sweat very efficiently at the same time makes it great for even the more intense activities in the winter season, and in the transitional periods when the body doesn't generate as much heat, it's again great for hiking and leisure activities.

Excellent thermoregulation: Warm padding keeps you comfortable, breathable panels wick away moisture when the warmth under the jacket is too much. So the jacket effectively keeps you in the ideal climate at all times.

Freedom of movement: Ordinary jackets can't offer the elastic properties of materials designed for other types of products. With hybrid jackets, however, stretch panels are found in the exact places where the material desires to stretch, allowing the jacket this desirable and otherwise unattainable flexibility.

Protection against the rigours of the weather: The hybrid jackets have a softshell material with a water-repellent finish in places where raindrops fall, which reliably protects against wind and light rain. The fleece panels, which do not handle water very well, are hidden from contact with raindrops.

Part of a layering system: The hybrid jackets work excellently both as a outer layer and as a mid-layer under a hardshell jacket.

Our hybrid (not only) jackets

In our portfolio, you'll find two jackets that can be described as hybrids - the women's Rossa model and the men's Arth model. Both are among the most popular products in our range, combining durable outer material, Primaloft synthetic filling and fleece panels from Polartec.

Hybrid construction isn't necessarily limited to jackets though, so you'll also find these two models as vests, and we've also used this clever construction as the basis for our Rossa hiking skirt.

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