Western Rise AirLoft Shirt Jacket Review 2023
An iterative edition to the WR AirLoft family.
Western Rise AirLoft Shirt Jacket Review Introduction
Western Rise was looking to develop a jacket that was great for travel, being outdoors, around town, etc…that had all the qualities of your favorite outdoors jacket. But, maybe didn’t LOOK like your outdoors jacket. In this way, it might be more low key and better in more situations (though admittedly that is up to the individual at the end of the day). Hence the birth of their AirLoft jacket. I reviewed the original hooded jacket (AirLoft Hooded jacket review) and honestly? I think they succeeded on that ethos.
They then proceeded to release a vest version. Which, over here in North America, is a much beloved but confusing uniform for the tech fella and middle aged salesmen everywhere. I’m having some fun with “vests” and not AirLoft here, folks. But seriously, Americans love the form factor so it made sense to release one. Next, they released the AirLoft Shirt Jacket. An even more streamlined version that looked to make more sense for urban environments while keeping the same properties as the original: lightweight, stretchy fabric, light water resistance with DWR, etc. But, does it?
This is my Western Rise AirLoft Shirt Jacket review. For my testing I’ve honestly been wearing it a lot. I wore it from about 18C down to near 0C, and it was my main cool weather jacket from October through most of November in NYC. I also took it with me to Lisbon for 4 days as my only jacket on that trip.
As always for full transparency, I did ask Western Rise to send me a piece for review and they were kind enough to say yes. That said, they had no input into the review itself or my comments on the jacket that you see here. This is not sponsored. I do use affiliate links which help to support the site if you decide to use them to make a purchase, but you’re under no obligation to do so and there’s no additional cost to you. Thanks for stopping by!
Read to the end for a discount code - just in case there are no sales going on!
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AirLoft Shirt Jacket Overview
The AirLoft line is intended to be a high performance jacket, using high performance fabric, that regulates temperature and helps you keep moving. By building in stretch it helps to do that more than a traditional puffy jacket might (as those are rarely stretch). That said, the goal here was to also find an insulation fabric that could compete with the other lightweight puffy jackets of the world that are ubiquitous on travelers. Freedom of movement is always a good goal.
The other goal here was to be able to provide a tailored, more urban styled silhouette to help you blend in a little more with the non-mountain hiking folk that dwell on the concrete. This is where the styling comes in. This metaphorical “freedom of movement” is important when you just want to blend in as a minimal, low key person about town.
Material stats from the site:
Exterior Fabric: 100% Primeflex® 50d 102gsm Polyester
Interior Fabric: 100% Polyester
40g Toray 3DeFX+® Active Insulation in Body
40g Toray 3DeFX+® Active Insulation in Arms
It retails for $199 USD as of Dec 2023 and comes in black, blue gray, and navy for color options. Mine is the navy option. Note that WR is having more sales these days, so if you’re reading this in December you might have some luck.
AirLoft Shirt Jacket Features
Just a shameless plug for the original Portuguese tarts. Phenomenal.
While this is a minimalist jacket at its core, there are some solid features to discuss. I’d expect nothing less from Western Rise.
Let’s start with the insulation because I have to be honest, this is some cool stuff. It’s Japanese developed material from Toray - not a new company in the industry. I’ll link to their page about this product specifically because they go into a lot more detail. But, this insulation is one that allows for temperature regulation, lower weight needed to keep warm, and deals with humidity better inside the jacket created by your body. This means you can expect better comfort when you’re being more active. Link to the science mumbo jumbo here. Also, here’s a shot of the insulation itself below. Cool stuff.
In terms of the finished jacket however - you get the above performance features joined up with 4 way stretch, very breathable, and quick dry outer fabric. Lastly, they’ve topped it off with a lightweight DWR that is going to help repel light rain. It’s not going to help you in a heavy rain, but I can in fact say I was caught in some light showers.
Inside the jacket you’ll find a small hidden pocket that’s great for keys, your phone, etc. The zipper is a little light on this one, but it’s handy nonetheless. You don’t notice this pocket at all.
Last feature to mention, since this is a travel site, would be that it’s keeping its overall weight down. It feels really lightweight in the hand. I don’t have a published total weight, but anecdotally I can say that it is in fact light.
The Fit of the Western Rise AirLoft Shirt Jacket
Utilize park benches as often as possible when needing a shot of you wearing the product.
Fit is always important. It’s why we keep something we order. On clothing I like to always put a section for this. So for the record, I’m 5’6” and about 150lbs or so. I had a SM.
Here are a few boring, in the apartment shots to just give you a straight up product fit look. Next up further down you can see a few in-the-field shots in Portugal.
Overall, I like the fit on this one. It’s casual, but more streamlined and doesn’t look athletic (like a hoodie) or outdoorsy. It looks like a proper city jacket.
Additionally, in the men’s small, I think the sleeves are a good length. They won’t be too short on slightly taller guys, but they aren’t too long on guys like me either. The cuffs are a solid look, too.
The Look
I’ll try not to be redundant here but I’ll just say this jacket works as a casual urban jacket (I wore it to multiple dinners out, including a one Michelin in Lisbon - which if I’m honest you coat check at the door so it doesn’t matter). It fit right in for the regular dinner spots.
I wore it over a Western Rise X-Cotton shirt during the day in Lisbon. As well as A StrongCore long sleeve T while flying. For dinners, it was always with a button up. Sometimes I had tennis shoes, sometimes proper shoes. Sometimes my Onitsukas. Again as a casual urban jacket, this fits right in for most things.
Now of course you can wear it outdoors! Especially with the humidity management it’s going to be fine if you’re going on a day hike. It’s great for car trips, as well.
The Good
Fabric Macro.
Let’s close out “The Look” by adding it here. If it wasn’t clear, I got a lot of wear out of this jacket. It was my most-worn casual jacket this fall. I wore it to work a lot, out and about around NYC, and of course traveling as mentioned. It’s just up-leveled enough to be a jacket that can cover a wide variety of situations for you, which is why it’s good for traveling.
The techy-ness of it. True to WR’s roots this jacket is loaded with techy features and cutting edge fabric. I think that’s what you want from a brand like this. Give me the stretch, the improved humidity management, the quick dry, etc. They pack a lot of that into this one.
The cuffs! Oh man did I like the cuffs. I didn’t HATE them on the Hooded version, but they definitely looked a little “over casual”. Not bad or anything, but not as leveled up as these. The previous leaned more leisure while these lean more urban. The metal buttons add to that.
Warmth performance. I wore this in a wide range of temps to test it out, and probably colder than it’s meant to really be. I felt it was awesome in the fall-temp range and if you want to layer like a good traveler, you can stretch it pretty far towards 0C. Lisbon actually got up to about 20C while I had it on and while I was warm and eventually took it off, I wasn’t dying by any means. I was also just trying not to over-sweat in my shirt, lol. But there you go.
The Bad
I’m kind of struggling with this one. The jacket doesn’t have a lot going on in terms of “extra” stuff, so I don’t have much to pick on. And because it ended up becoming one of my favorites this season, I’m hard pressed here. Even the pricing is in line with the outdoors brands.
I truly do try and find some criticisms (constructively) on the items I review here, but I really don’t have much.
One thing I guess - is follow the care instructions. This fabric is techy stuff, and you need to treat it as such. They do note to be careful of oils, and that does apply to skin oils as well (think on the collar with heavy wear). I’ve washed it once so far as directed so you’ll want to monitor the oil absorption around you wrists and collar.
Final Thoughts On My Western Rise AirLoft Shirt Jacket Review
To just come out with it, the Western Rise Airloft Jacket was one of my favorite “cool to slightly cold jackets” in my personal collection this year. And it will stay that way.
It’s a perfect casual jacket for walking around, wearing to work, and especially traveling with because it’s light, very functional, and frankly doesn’t make you look like you just got off the mountain. Don’t get me wrong I have those outdoorsy jackets, too. But I just loved being able to look like an everyday citizen while wearing this.
This is a jacket that you’ll feel comfortable with for most of the scenarios out there short of truly formal occasions. I liked that very much about it. I also liked that they added bits like the buttons, chest pocket, and updated the cuffs to be more elevated.
Mostly, this jacket was just “easy”. If you know what I mean. And sometimes, I think that’s the most important quality of all.
As always with most brands, I’d suggest buying directly through their website for best service. In case there are no sales going on - use WANDER15 for 15% off your purchase! (Cannot be combined with Sales)
Wander more - and wander smarter everyone.
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