Customer Reviews The North Face ThermoBall™ Full Zip Jacket

I was excited about this item and I had asked for it for Christmas. I was quite disappointed. It is very thin, has almost no insulation, and offers very little warmth. It is mostly a styling exercise. It is good looking. However, the item does not really fit correctly, the sleeves are too short. Although North Face offers XL, 2XL and 3XL sizes - apparently being very interested in cultivating the grossly and morbidly obese image for their product - they offer no Tall sizes and the sleeves are too short. I suspect that if you are of a more or less athletic, basketball build sized like I am, you are not what they have in mind. I would not buy a North Face product again.

I was really hoping that the black version of this would be more of a "matte" material than a shiny one. Unfortunately, it was just shiny enough to look like a Glad garbage bag. If you've seen enough North Face jackets like I have, you know that they occasionally come up with some really shiny black ones. This is one of them. I do love how it is lightweight yet warm, and the diamond quilting is a nice touch. However, I can't get over how shiny it is, so it is going back. The other colors might work, but I'm really looking for black, so the search continues. (I also have the Thunder jacket. Just to compare - the Thunder is thicker and warmer, but similarly lightweight.)

First look, I liked the ThermoBall jacket. When I tried it on I was so confused. This is the 3rd TNF jacket that I have ordered this winter that was too small in the hips? What is up with that? I'm small and slender in the hips, and I have a larger chest (32D). Really the jacket was roomy from the bust up and too tight in the lower half/hips. So the hips were so tight that when I moved around the bottom moved up my hips to a place of lesser resistance. I'm 5'4", 108# -- ordered both S and XS. Small too roomy, small too tight for comfort.