I bought this jacket for my husband a few seasons ago, so maybe it's been improved. Unfortunately, his stays mostly in the closet. He says it's uncomfortable because the waterproof membrane of the outer shell doesn't breathe. He also has trouble with the fleece sleeves of the inner jacket--difficult to get on and off. This is the only Bean purchase I ever made that has disappointed me.
The TEK 2.5 outer-shell is superb; the Polartec you cannot even blow warm air through. The Problem? Too narrow in the shoulders! Athletically built men, wide across the shoulders, will have issues with the narrow upper portion of this 3-in-1 coat. I had to trade up to a XL just for the right shoulder room; I'm 5-8 but have a 49" chest and a 34" waist. The Large size was too restrictive. This is the only problem aside from the coat being too tough to get off with the Polartec fleece grabbing you. My suggestion on future improvements would be to allow an extra 1-2" in the shoulders for all sizes of this coat. I live in Indianapolis; we had -25 F chill factors last year in February and this coat was plenty warm in the blizzards we had occasionally.
Overall I like this jacket. But I have problems with the hood. First, there is no "bill" or anything that sticks out in front; as a result, in the rain, my nose gets soaked and has water dripping from the tip. Furthermore, the way the hood is constructed, the only way I could find to keep it from dropping down over my eyes was to draw the drawstrings tight enough to snug the top down on my forehead. The result of that is to push my glasses down off my ears and nose, so I was forced to take off my glasses while wearing the hood. If you don't wear glasses this won't be an issue, but if you do, it probably will bother you. I'm considering asking for an exchange if I can find a jacket with a better hood.
I have owned this for a couple months now and have used the fleece and shell together and separated. All ways function well. The only drawback is in the rain 50 degrees or more the shell doesn't seem to breath however this is when I am hiking and working a little more than normal. The shell is waterproof and both the shell and fleece feel very windproof.
