Customer Reviews L.L.Bean Baxter State Parka

I bought this coat for my older son about 8 years ago and it was awesome. Super warm, good looking, definitely a keeper. So when second son needed a warm coat I got him the same thing. But it's no where near as nice as the first one. It's SO much thinner. How can this possibly be an LL Bean Baxter State Parka? Cost-cutting that ends in poor quality is not the way to keep a business afloat. Returning.

Got this parka and then returned it. It's way too big and bulky. Parkas don't need to be so big and bulky. They can be warm, insulated and still have a tailored fit. I can't recommend this to anyone.

Nicely styled, Exceptionally generous and practical pockets. Sized very inaccurately. I never wear less than a medium but the small was still a bit too roomy letting body warmth escape too easily. Very good for moderate temperatures (above 40F). Certainly does not provide the warmth of older Bean cold-temperature parkas. I can't understood that this is described as Bean's "warmest". I wish my old Bean coat was still being sold! Customer service made every effort to help with this poorly described product.

The coat fits well and is plenty warm. The main left and right chest pockets are located on the lateral aspect, and are very difficult to access unless one is double jointed. I don't understand why the pockets were not made to be accessed medially - i.e., from one's chest. The poorly accessible pockets are a feature that makes the jacket annoying to wear and would keep me from purchasing the coat again.

Tried this Baxter coat on in a LT size. Sleeves were 2 inches to short for a tall coat. Sleeves on a large tall coat are usually 37 inches, for a tall shirt sometimes 36 inches. The large tall Baxter coat has sleeves maybe 35 inches. Fabric of the coat was also stiff and uncomfortable unlike high quality down coats from other manufacturers. Unfortunately I am unable to find a good quality down parka temperature rated to below zero F from any manufacturer in a properly sized large tall. I really had high hopes for this coat but was thoroughly disappointed.

I've purchased 4 coats from LL Bean in the past two years. I've been happy with three of them. The Baxter State Parker was a huge disappoint. My main reason for buying a parka was to have a coat with a hood to wear during snow and windy conditions. Here are the two problems. When fully zipped up the neck was very tight to the point of being uncomfortable to wear. In addition, when the neck is fully zipped up the hood will not close or fit around the neck piece. Worse, I discovered when I took the hood off the coat, it would barely fit around my chin to the point where the Velcro could not keep it closed. Its as if the hood came from a jacket for a child or very small person. At this price point, one would expect a parka to have a functional hood. For me, it is essentially an expensive long coat. I already have a hoodless down jacket and don't need another.

After more than 12 great years (!/?) with my last Baxter State Parka it was finally shot and time to replace it--which I did without hesitation given my prior experience. Unfortunately, as with some other more recent updates, the new version is very poor relative to its predecessor and quite unsatisfactory overall. The new hood is horrible relative to the prior model. The hood is shallower with much less down and the "fur" ruff is thin and only on one side. It no longer has velcro closure tabs to create a near snorkel. In use it is very ineffective. Instead of a very warm almost complete snorkel with very effective blocking of wind and snow, there is a shallow, under-insulated hood with no blocking on much of the side of one's face, let alone a nice air pocket protected by the fake fur. Its adjustability is also far less and less effective. Next throughout the jacket the loft appears to be less than half the thickness of my old and now somewhat compressed jacket. The arm insulation is paper thin. Everywhere there are small relatively thin packets of down created with sown through seams which at each sew through point can make contact with the shell. There is no way this jacket insulates anywhere nearly as well as the older one which felt both heavier and exhibited more loft. The front pockets are almost too thin to fit one's hand into, at an uncomfortable angle and height, and they are not warm in any way. There are no longer seals inside the cuffs. In short there is less insulation, less effectively constructed, less useful design of the pockets, no internal sealing of the cuffs and a very poor hood (designed perhaps for those who don't use them and want to remove the hood and minimize the fake fur etc.). A major downgrade from the prior model in every functional respect. If one says that the fashion trend requires slimmer, less bulky coats, one only has to look at the success of Canada Goose and its (somewhat) outrageous price increases to see the opposite. I hope bean will go back to making a truly effective parka.

My wife bought me this coat as a Christmas gift. I chose it due to the styling and features. On receiving the coat, it looked beautiful and seemed very well made. The sizing was good and the coat was definitely warm -- perhaps too warm! However after wearing the coat a few times this winter, I became extremely frustrated with the coat, the the point where I would wind up wearing a much lighter weight coat and being cold rather than dealing with the frustrations. I want to give the coat 1-star, but that wouldn't be fair, because it is a very warm coat and perhaps others wouldn't be as frustrated. So what's so frustrating about the coat? 2 things that I'm surprised weren't caught before production. First off is the waist cincher. The coat is rather shapeless and oversized by default, but it claims to have a waist adjustment. It took me about an hour to figure out how to adjust the waist. Why? Well normally most parkas have the adjustment toggles in obvious locations: either on the outside of the jacket, or on the inside of the jacket. However in some baffling design decision, the adjustment toggles on this coat are hidden on the inside of the external chest pockets!!!??? Not only that, but they are extremely difficult to adjust due to their awkward location. Very bizarre. Last but certainly not least is the fact that while the jacket is oversized, the neck is WAY too tight. When you put on the coat you feel like you have plenty of room, but as you start to zip up the coat you fear for your life. God help you if you are wearing a scarf or a heavy sweater. It literally feels like you will be choked to death. I don't understand how in the world this got decided. I am of average weight and even I felt way too confined and uncomfortable with the zipper all the up. Such a shame. This parka had a lot of potential. However the two design decisions I describe above make this a flawed and uncomfortable coat. I hope they can revisit these decisions and improve it in a future version.

I live in a high mountain valley in east Idaho. Climate change is here and it's rarely below zero any more, but sometimes it is. For a while, I've needed to replace an old Eddie Bauer Expedition Parka and thought the Baxter State would fill the bill for those fairly inactive times when outside in zero degree weather, but needing fabric tough enough to haul wood. I was excited when the parka arrived, but was quickly disappointed. It wasn't any thicker than my down sweater and no matter what the insulation, thickness counts. It's only real warmth would be from the wind cutting ability of the outer layer of fabric which, while important, isn't enough. In addition, the outer fabric, while probably tough, was stiffer than a new pair of Carharts and unlike cotton, wouldn't soften. What in the clothing trade would be called a hard hand. Felt like putting armor on. There were a couple of other things I didn't like, but worst were the hand-warmer pockets. They sit high, putting arms in an awkward position which would quickly turn uncomfortable.

2nd time I've ordered this jacket. I live in Chicago where temps are regularly between 30 and -30 F. The coat holds up all the way to the lower temperatures but the quality of the components leaves much to be desired: specifically the zippers and the faux fur. I returned the first coat because the zipper - with its incredibly fine teeth - always gets caught on the coat itself. This led to a rip in the coat from the zipper teeth and and down stuffing coming out. I ordered a 2nd coat and upon first wear the zipper snagged. Why pay $$$ for a coat that you can't zip up easily or at all? This coat needs larger teeth (see Carhaart coats) if its actually going to be used in cold weather environments and take lots of wear and tear. Also, the faux fur looks terrible and the zipper that connects it to the hood doesn't lay correctly, giving the impression I have a poorly fed squirrel sitting on my head at a jaunty angle. Please fix the zipper and faux fur in future models

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR AND WHAT YOU GET WITH THIS COMPANY!!!! Website does not specify what type of down nor how much down is in the insulation. My coat's label states 80% down, does not say what type of down nor what the other 20% is. When I bought my coat just under 1 month ago the website said insulation was 100% goose down in 2 sections of website.

Has anyone out there that has bought this coat looked at the insulation label vs what the website states? It is not 100% goose down. The label just states 80% down.

Purchased this Parka in high hopes of using it over many years. I'm 6'5" 250lbs XL Tall fits me in everything Bean offers. The sleeve and body were the perfect length, chest and waist enough to fit a heavy sweater or Bean's Sweater Fleece Pullover underneath. But the neck was so unbelievable tight that you could barely even zip the parka up all the way. Such a shame I have to send it back, I REALLY wanted to keep this parka :(

This parka is very close to being decent. It is certainly warm but lacks a few design features for it to be truly functionable. First, it needs a bigger hood. I am a dog musher and the hood blows off when I'm traveling down the trail. Because of the hood's lack of size it makes it nearly impossible to close up the ruff to block the wind. Then there is the ruff issue. DON'T USE FAKE FUR. The first thing I did was throw that piece of cloth away and replace it with a decent piece of REAL fur. For someone who really relies on a parka for survival at 40 below for multiple days outside, fake fur is useless. Also, when I am fully dressed for the trail, I can not zip up the parka all the way. With neck gators and everything else that I wear to block the cold it lacks the room to zip up. I own the largest size, XXL Tall so this would not be an issue but it is still a problem. I actually had to sew on a wind block flap with fleece on my face side to close it up when in use. I am thinking of having a new hood designed for it as well so I can feel confident on the trail with this parka. This is a great coat for someone who wants to not spend a lot for warmth and is looking for something to wear from time to time without their life depending on it. But if you want something that you plan to live in for multiple days in the wilderness, look else where.

I had the rugged ridge and gave it a one star about two weeks ago because I could feel the cold come through the shoulders, arms and back. Mind you, LLBean admits they made it "lighter" - perhaps it's too light. So I returned it last week and bought the Baxter. As mentioned in my rugged ridge review, I live on a large hill and there is usually a bit of a breeze. So I walked the dog this morning a little before 7am. According to weather.com it was 28 degrees in my area (positive 28). Now I only had a regular business shirt on underneath with a t-shirt but I could feel the cold thru the shoulders and arms: not as much as the RR but it was still there. Now, I like the coat and will give it a shot this winter but it is only 28 outside. How this is rated to -145 is beyond me. Luckily it never gets that cold here in Ct but it does get to zero with negative wind chill. The jury is still out and I am hoping my gut feeling is wrong. The Baxter is unquestionably better than the RR - but HOW MUCH better we will have to wait and see.

Didn't like the fit. Coat was returned. Returned it. Didn't like the way it looked. How many more letters do I need so that the review will post?

Air leaking thru the coat, bought this coat over 10 years ago, zipper was unrepairable,so I tried another Baxter coat, much inferior coat.

Huge, very bulky and WIDE. Fits like a marshmallow. Was a size large. I'm 6'1" 190lbs

The Baxter State Parka came full of promise and failed to live up to any expectation. The wind in central New York went through the parka like a warm knife cuts effortlessly through butter - I tried the parka on for size when it arrived, I stood on my porch in the north east, the wind blew right through the parka and it failed to keep me warm. The parka feels thin and lightweight when you hold it. The zipper is plastic and clearly would not stand up to the riggers of taking the parka off and on numerous times a day. This is one item of clothing that probably needs to head back to the drawing board and needs to be designed from scratch starting with increasing its down fill, improving its ability to be wind proof, improving its ability to retain heat, it feels like it needs a fleece lined inner - and a much better quality zip. I never went into the rain or snow so cannot tell you if it was waterproof or not. I returned it very disappointed. It looks good, but I felt let down by the marketing speak that was used to describe it and the product quality.

First the good. I have been a loyal ll bean customer for decades. Many of my beans items still hold up to this day. Now the bad :( this parka has a terribly weak zipper for a 300$ parka. Im a medium usually and the medium was wayyyy too big . If you get this size down !

I wore this coat for the first time this week in the Alp's. The coat is shedding down feathers all over my inner shirt and sweaters. Very disappointed. I will be donating this $300 coat to charity.

My son didn't like this jacket because it was too heavy and bulky.

Poor quality. I have photos but they won't let me show(upload)) them. This is an expensive insulated coat that one would expect to last longer than three seasons. I will say that the coat does keep you warm but the quality is terrible. There are holes, tears, velcro straps that have fallen off. I won't buy from LL Bean again. If LL Bean were about quality, they would not fear letting photos of a three year old product be shown

This was returned and received I have yet to have my card credited.

The color is great, material seems good but the hood does not fit properly. The fur lining also looks like an old wig - awful. I also found the strings for the waist in a super awkward place. Not only is it not practical but once you pull on the strings, the front of the jacket wrinkles in a very unflattering way. I really was looking for this coat and wanted it to fit, but I am sending it back. It's awkward and stresses me out.