Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody Review

Through our multi-season testing of the Patagonia Nano Puff, we loved its wet-weather performance the most. While its face fabric doesn't fight the rain and snow very well, its insulation will still provide warmth even when it gets wet.

Warmth

The Nano Puff is what we'd consider to be a midweight layer, offering some warmth across all four seasons, but you won't want it as your primary insulation for the coldest days.

The Nano Puff is made with 60-g PrimaLoft insulation. In dry conditions, this offered a decent amount of warmth that kept our testers happy in mild to moderately chilly temperatures. Where the Nano Puff stood out the most, however, was that there wasn't much of a decrease in heat retention when it got wet. It's important to keep in mind this jacket needs a shell over it in sustained rains or snows, but if it gets damp from a brief rain or some minor leaking from your outermost layer, it won't cause your core temperature to plummet. Some testers love to wear the Nano Puff as a mid-layer under their ski jacket.

Comfort

This Nano Puff layer offers a relaxed fit and a classic polyester build that's comfy for all-day use. While some of its competitors have brushed interiors or more modern fabric designs, this layer, in some iteration, has been keeping its wearers happy for a long time.

While this layer has the same polyester fabric on the inside and out, Patagonia only used the quilted pattern on the exterior, offering smoother and less-frequent stitching on the interior. The fit of this layer was refreshingly roomy, with articulated elbows and more space in the shoulders than previous models. We never felt like our movements were encumbered. The Nano Puff was on the shorter side in hem length, though this will depend on how one chooses to size it, and the hood is a closer-fitting design that's best worn under a helmet or over a thinner hat.

Weather Resistance

While the exterior of the Nano Puff isn't particularly resilient to precipitation, Patagonia still finished the layer with a DWR treatment that worked well enough for light rains. However, its synthetic insulation did well even when wet, boosting its overall scores in this metric. This should be considered a worthy insulation companion in damp climates, where traditional down can become useless if it gets wet.

Patagonia has done a great job of reducing the PFAS chemicals that were historically found in DWR treatments for beading and repelling water. In the Nano Puff, this PFAS-free DWR performed well in brief drizzles. In prolonged rains, we found the PrimaLoft insulation to be dependable as moisture made its way past the face fabric, and we were still cozy when the jacket got damp. However, if you get soaked to the bone, you're going to end up cold, so keep that in mind when you're deciding whether to toss that rain shell in your bag.

Portability

The Nano Puff isn't the most packable jacket that we've tested, but it's good enough for many applications, and when considering its weather resistance performance, you might still find it to be worth the weight.

In a men's small, the Nano Puff was measured at 12.4 ounces. Overall, this is a decent weight, but the PrimaLoft insulation isn't quite as compressible as some of the competition. It fits in its own internal chest pocket and has a carabiner clip loop to attach to your backpack's hip belt or climbing harness, though it's nearly twice the packed size of the ultralight competition.

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Breathability

This wasn't the most breathable layer in the review's lineup, but in wintry conditions, we stayed comfortable in the Nano Puff and kept it on for cold-weather hikes and climbs.

The Nano Puff uses some fairly large sections of synthetic PrimaLoft insulation, so there are fewer gaps in the insulation for body heat to escape. Fortunately, this specific insulation still offered some breathability and the relaxed fit gave a bit of airflow from the wider hem. As is the case with any insulation, the colder the temperatures, the more likely we could keep a layer on, even in higher output settings.

Should You Buy the Patagonia Nano Puff?

This is a fantastic jacket for its versatility and resilience to moisture. The Nano Puff's insulation is dependable and is substantially warmer than traditional down on wet days. If you're needing the most breathable or most packable jacket out there, we'd steer you elsewhere, but this classic synthetic layer is a time-tested garment for a wide array of uses.

What Other Insulated Jackets Should You Consider?