The Reaper
05-09-2006, 13:57
I recently purchased a Cold Fusion Tactical Jacket from Beyond Tactical.
http://www.beyondtactical.com/tops.html
The unique thing about BeyondFleece and the military production counterpart, BeyondTactical is that they make a variety of garments from a number of different materials, to your custom size requirements, with the options you specifically want. More about that later.
Bill Harsey lives in the area and was kind enough to stop by and check the business out for me. He was impressed by the layout and the machinery, so I knew that the company was serious.
The owner, Scott Jones, was very accomodating and spoke with me several times. He was frequently returing emails on Sunday, so he must be pretty dedicated to his business. He offers a Pro discount to military and industry professionals.
Beyond has some wild materials from a number of manufacturers to choose from, everything from high speed fleece to a Swiss wind-stopper fabric. I ordered a catalog with small fabric samples, Scott rushed that out to me. Order one here if you are interested.
http://www.beyondfleece.com/catalog_request/
The website has a number of options beyond the basics for each of the garments, each has a separate price, so it is sort of like ordering a car, in that respect. You want Pit Zips, you add them as an option. Lots of things to choose from, mix and match as you desire. As I discovered, you can turn a $169 jacket into a $300+ version pretty quickly.
Scott will make your garment to a standard size, with general guidelines like how snugly you want it to fit, whether you like the sleeves longer or shorter, or how long you want the jacket cut. You tell him what jacket size you wear, what you weigh, and how tall you are, and he extrapolated the perfect sized based on that info. You can also send him the custom measurements you want, along with the above info, and his machines cut your pattern to fit your needs. According to Bill, Scott has a CNC fabric cutting machine that he feeds the dimensions into and it does the rest. He does use human sewers, though. I do not think that Scott maintains any rack inventory at all. Everything is custom made, just like at some high-tech tactical tailor shop.
Given the competitions' factories wherever the cheapest labor can be found, and green, often bordering on socialist corporate policies, an American made product from a pro-American company is a rare thing and must be applauded.
They claim a production time normally in the two to four week range, and you can check the progree on the website. Mine was delivered almost to the day he said that it would.
In my case, I chose the Cold Fusion Jacket, base price $169, in Obsidian Black, weighing 22 ounces. The material is Schoeller's WB-400 bretahable, water repellent, wind blocker fleece. This is a high-speed, low-drag Swiss made fabric that frankly, sounded too good to be true.
http://www.beyondtactical.com/coldfusiontacticaljacket.html
To that, I added:
Body Color Obsidian Black (N/C)
Side Gear Pockets ($25.00)
Pit Zips ($15.00)
Left Internal Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Right Internal Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Left External Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Left Bicep Pockets Left Bicep Pocket ($15.00)
Zip Off Hood ($30.00)
Left Bucket Pocket ($10.00)
Thumb Loops
This made my $169 jacket $309. The only things that the base model includes are the handwarmer pockets and shock cord drawstring at the bottom. I am surprised that the pit zips are not standard, I would not buy a jacket today without them. At least one interior pocket included would have been nice as well. In retrospect, I would add (as a minimum) the pit zips, one external pocket, one internal pocket, one bucket pocket, the zip-off hood, and the thumb loops. That would knock the price of the jacket down to a bit more reasonable $254. When you consider the prices of comparable jackets from Patagonia or Mountain Hardware, that is not an unreasonable price for a tailor-made jacket. They pick up the cost of UPS Ground delivery as well, saving some more money for you.
I am a non-standard size, and furthermore, could not find a jacket from anyone else cut the way I wanted it. All of the other off-the rack jackets were too short. I wanted a parka length jacket which was cut full enough to allow me to carry concealed underneath. That also makes it more comfortable as I carry my modular portable fuel storage unit with me. Finally, I needed the sleeves extra long for motorcycle riding. Scott assured me that he could take care of all that. He gave me a delivery date, I gave him my credit card info, and sat back to wait.
The Big Brown Truck arrived right on schedule (though the web site indicated that it had not been sewn yet. Must have been a software glitch). The jacket fit pretty well, though it was a little larger than expected and it was a couple of inches shorter than I had asked for. Material looked very nice and the sewing was acceptable. Inexplicably, they left off the pen pocket that goes alongside the sleeve pocket. I contacted Scott and he offered to add the pen pocket if I would send the jacket back. I opted not to spend three weeks without the jacket, as it was the end of the winter and I wanted to try it out. The lack of attention to detail was a bit surprising though.
How did it perform? Well, the material lived up to the billing, it is comfortable from the mid-70s (with the optional pit-zips) down to the 30s, when layered properly. It is water repellent, blocks the wind, and can be quite cozy. The options are well-done and it is very flexible. It would be a great jacket for early or late skiing. I wore it on a weekend camping session, to the mountains for a few days, and in a few rainstorms. It did everything as advertised, or better.
As a tactical garment, there are a few issues. First, the material is fleece on the inside and a smooth poly type material on the outside that has a sheen under light. That means that it will reflect quite a bit of light if illuminated. Water tends to bead up and sparkle on it as well. Also, the zippers, for some inexplicable reason, have metal pulls. This is unsat on a tactical jacket as well, as they tend to jingle like the ice cream truck when you are moving about. The worst are the pit zips, where the metal pulls jingle against one another like the clappers of a bell. This is a jacket oriented and marketed as a tactical item, in use by the SEALs, but which has noise and light discipline problems built in. I mentioned these issues to Scott, expecting to be told that mine had slipped out of the civilian side of the house, only to be told that he had taken the reflectivity issue of the material up with the manufacturer, and that he was aware that the YKK zippers they use were noisy. This was not exactly what I expected to hear.
I had considered roughing up the material with a piece of sandpaper or something to reduce the shine, but surmised that it would likely compromise the water-repellency. I hope that Scott finds something a bit less shiny for tactical garments. I am also in search of some 1/2" seam tape to replace the metal pulls with. Frankly, the zippers need to come from Beyond with plastic pulls, coated metal pulls, or with fabric pulls attached. 550 cord or seam tape would work better than the short pulls, and be silent. These were surprising gaffes in what was otherwise an outstanding product. As it is, this is a great casual wear, three-season, non-tactical jacket, made to fit you, with the features you want, at a reasonable price, as long as you do not go crazy with the options.
In summary, I heartily recommend Beyond as a great custom American-made outdoor jacket at a decent price. I would not select the Cold Fusion as a tactical garment until the material issues are addressed. You might also want to order early to allow time to return it if there are fitment issues or QC problems like missing options.
Hope that this is of interest.
TR
http://www.beyondtactical.com/tops.html
The unique thing about BeyondFleece and the military production counterpart, BeyondTactical is that they make a variety of garments from a number of different materials, to your custom size requirements, with the options you specifically want. More about that later.
Bill Harsey lives in the area and was kind enough to stop by and check the business out for me. He was impressed by the layout and the machinery, so I knew that the company was serious.
The owner, Scott Jones, was very accomodating and spoke with me several times. He was frequently returing emails on Sunday, so he must be pretty dedicated to his business. He offers a Pro discount to military and industry professionals.
Beyond has some wild materials from a number of manufacturers to choose from, everything from high speed fleece to a Swiss wind-stopper fabric. I ordered a catalog with small fabric samples, Scott rushed that out to me. Order one here if you are interested.
http://www.beyondfleece.com/catalog_request/
The website has a number of options beyond the basics for each of the garments, each has a separate price, so it is sort of like ordering a car, in that respect. You want Pit Zips, you add them as an option. Lots of things to choose from, mix and match as you desire. As I discovered, you can turn a $169 jacket into a $300+ version pretty quickly.
Scott will make your garment to a standard size, with general guidelines like how snugly you want it to fit, whether you like the sleeves longer or shorter, or how long you want the jacket cut. You tell him what jacket size you wear, what you weigh, and how tall you are, and he extrapolated the perfect sized based on that info. You can also send him the custom measurements you want, along with the above info, and his machines cut your pattern to fit your needs. According to Bill, Scott has a CNC fabric cutting machine that he feeds the dimensions into and it does the rest. He does use human sewers, though. I do not think that Scott maintains any rack inventory at all. Everything is custom made, just like at some high-tech tactical tailor shop.
Given the competitions' factories wherever the cheapest labor can be found, and green, often bordering on socialist corporate policies, an American made product from a pro-American company is a rare thing and must be applauded.
They claim a production time normally in the two to four week range, and you can check the progree on the website. Mine was delivered almost to the day he said that it would.
In my case, I chose the Cold Fusion Jacket, base price $169, in Obsidian Black, weighing 22 ounces. The material is Schoeller's WB-400 bretahable, water repellent, wind blocker fleece. This is a high-speed, low-drag Swiss made fabric that frankly, sounded too good to be true.
http://www.beyondtactical.com/coldfusiontacticaljacket.html
To that, I added:
Body Color Obsidian Black (N/C)
Side Gear Pockets ($25.00)
Pit Zips ($15.00)
Left Internal Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Right Internal Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Left External Chest Pocket ($15.00)
Left Bicep Pockets Left Bicep Pocket ($15.00)
Zip Off Hood ($30.00)
Left Bucket Pocket ($10.00)
Thumb Loops
This made my $169 jacket $309. The only things that the base model includes are the handwarmer pockets and shock cord drawstring at the bottom. I am surprised that the pit zips are not standard, I would not buy a jacket today without them. At least one interior pocket included would have been nice as well. In retrospect, I would add (as a minimum) the pit zips, one external pocket, one internal pocket, one bucket pocket, the zip-off hood, and the thumb loops. That would knock the price of the jacket down to a bit more reasonable $254. When you consider the prices of comparable jackets from Patagonia or Mountain Hardware, that is not an unreasonable price for a tailor-made jacket. They pick up the cost of UPS Ground delivery as well, saving some more money for you.
I am a non-standard size, and furthermore, could not find a jacket from anyone else cut the way I wanted it. All of the other off-the rack jackets were too short. I wanted a parka length jacket which was cut full enough to allow me to carry concealed underneath. That also makes it more comfortable as I carry my modular portable fuel storage unit with me. Finally, I needed the sleeves extra long for motorcycle riding. Scott assured me that he could take care of all that. He gave me a delivery date, I gave him my credit card info, and sat back to wait.
The Big Brown Truck arrived right on schedule (though the web site indicated that it had not been sewn yet. Must have been a software glitch). The jacket fit pretty well, though it was a little larger than expected and it was a couple of inches shorter than I had asked for. Material looked very nice and the sewing was acceptable. Inexplicably, they left off the pen pocket that goes alongside the sleeve pocket. I contacted Scott and he offered to add the pen pocket if I would send the jacket back. I opted not to spend three weeks without the jacket, as it was the end of the winter and I wanted to try it out. The lack of attention to detail was a bit surprising though.
How did it perform? Well, the material lived up to the billing, it is comfortable from the mid-70s (with the optional pit-zips) down to the 30s, when layered properly. It is water repellent, blocks the wind, and can be quite cozy. The options are well-done and it is very flexible. It would be a great jacket for early or late skiing. I wore it on a weekend camping session, to the mountains for a few days, and in a few rainstorms. It did everything as advertised, or better.
As a tactical garment, there are a few issues. First, the material is fleece on the inside and a smooth poly type material on the outside that has a sheen under light. That means that it will reflect quite a bit of light if illuminated. Water tends to bead up and sparkle on it as well. Also, the zippers, for some inexplicable reason, have metal pulls. This is unsat on a tactical jacket as well, as they tend to jingle like the ice cream truck when you are moving about. The worst are the pit zips, where the metal pulls jingle against one another like the clappers of a bell. This is a jacket oriented and marketed as a tactical item, in use by the SEALs, but which has noise and light discipline problems built in. I mentioned these issues to Scott, expecting to be told that mine had slipped out of the civilian side of the house, only to be told that he had taken the reflectivity issue of the material up with the manufacturer, and that he was aware that the YKK zippers they use were noisy. This was not exactly what I expected to hear.
I had considered roughing up the material with a piece of sandpaper or something to reduce the shine, but surmised that it would likely compromise the water-repellency. I hope that Scott finds something a bit less shiny for tactical garments. I am also in search of some 1/2" seam tape to replace the metal pulls with. Frankly, the zippers need to come from Beyond with plastic pulls, coated metal pulls, or with fabric pulls attached. 550 cord or seam tape would work better than the short pulls, and be silent. These were surprising gaffes in what was otherwise an outstanding product. As it is, this is a great casual wear, three-season, non-tactical jacket, made to fit you, with the features you want, at a reasonable price, as long as you do not go crazy with the options.
In summary, I heartily recommend Beyond as a great custom American-made outdoor jacket at a decent price. I would not select the Cold Fusion as a tactical garment until the material issues are addressed. You might also want to order early to allow time to return it if there are fitment issues or QC problems like missing options.
Hope that this is of interest.
TR