The North Face  Apex Bionic 3 Jacket - Men's

I was looking to replace my North Face Bionic 2 as it was getting old and the Velcro and zipper were getting a little wonky. I think I am on my third and have always loved them. That ended when I tried on this terrible jacket. It feels flimsy to start with, no longer has any way to tighten around the wrists and, worst of all, has a really bad fit through the chest and shoulders. It’s now tight and restrictive. It’s going back and I’m not going to bother with North Face again if this is the direction in which they are heading. Also, “Made in Nicaragua?” Read the room North Face! I’d rather not buy products made in an anti-US dictatorship.

The clean lines of this jacket give it an elevated look. The heather gray material and the subtle TNF logo make it the best looking soft shell I've tried. Unfortunately, TNF has removed any way to tighten the end of the sleeves. No Velcro. No elastic. This means it fits like a suit coat. The sleeves fall right past my wrists, leaving only the end of my fingers exposed. I would need to have the jacket altered before I could wear it. It's a dumb design that makes this jacket impossible to recommend.

Very nice jacket. The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is that it could be better. But that's no knock on it. It's impressively warm for its weight but I think that has more to do with how well it blocks wind. It also repels moisture well. The only real thing of note that surprised me was that it has basically zero stretch to it. So it can be a little awkward when reaching or other movements similar to that. But that's relatively minor.

It runs large and is a little stiff, and I’m not confident the fleece lining will last, but otherwise decent if you can get it on sale. FWIW, I usually wear medium but the small fits me perfectly, with adequately long sleeves, though I won’t be able to wear a sweater underneath. I’m 5’11”, 180 lbs, and wear 38R suits, BTW.

Nice looking jacket, but it’s tight across the shoulders like a suit jacket. If I bought a large, the sleeves would be too long, so I’ll reserve this one for city nights.

I love my new North Face Men's Apex Bionic 3 Jacket! I live in San Francisco and it's light enough but strong enough to use for our cold spring/summer nights

I have an old version of this jacket. The new one is comparatively terrible. The fit went from being good (room enough for a fleece underneath, but not baggy) to being super weirdly baggy. It's substantially longer than it used to be, the arms are longer, and the fit around the chest is much looser. As for the feel of the jacket, I'm afraid I have to agree with the reviews about how rough it is. Yes, my old jacket has been washed a number of times, but it was never anything like this rough and stiff. The material is different. Just as an example, the inside of the collar used to be lined with soft fleece - no more. The zipper is also substantially worse. It's now a thinner and presumably cheaper zipper, which is catching and not sliding smoothly on a brand new jacket. My old jacket zipper works fine after a number of years of hard use in the back country and front country. I might live with these flaws if this were a really cheap jacket, but it's not. This is getting returned. If you don't know what North Face used to make, you might accept this jacket, but there must be something better out there. There used to be, and North Face used to make it.