(Oh this’ll be a fast one)
SO. For the longest time I’ve been lusting over their website (mostly Montec over Dope Snow) and I do love their jackets. I love their design, their colour, etc. I’ve been eyeing on a jacket at the start of this year and the only thing that was stopping me was my fiscally-responsible side of me, nagging at me “you don’t need it”. Turns out when the season started, I immediately did NOT want to buy one at all; naturally, automatically, I didn’t have to mentally punish myself ๐
Why? They’re everywhere. Everyone’s wearing them now omfg.
So to answer your question, are they good? Well, I never got to the point that I bought one, but a lot of people are buying it. When I see them, they don’t seem to be struggling with it or getting cold with it. Take it as how you want it.
[added: Nov 2022] Our review for Dope Snow Adept W Snowboard Jacket is now up and available!
To put into context, in the last 3 times that I went snowboarding, here’s I would say the rough stats of jacket situation:
- 6 out of 10 people are: wearing any jacket. We’re talking about people who either don’t really care about style or they did/do but they bought their jacket 3+ years ago (I belong in this category hehehe). They can also be people who don’t really care about style or not shopping for snowboard-specific jacket. So we’re talking about black, puffy and/or ribbed jackets possibly entry-level Columbia / The North Face jacket (nothing wrong about these, but we’re focusing on style in this article)
- 4 out of 10 people have new jackets.
I go to Mount St Louis and Blue Mountain and it’s been busy as hell in each visit. It’s like Christmas week every time.
I’m happy that more people are loving the sport but…ugh. haha
“How do I know which jackets are new?”
Like I said, I’ve been online window shopping since November and I’ve visited every website (snowboard-specific) of most brands to see if they have very cool, irresistible jacket that I would like to surrender my money to ๐ . I don’t know all jackets but I visually know most jackets (of the awesome brands I’m into) of this season. I’m talking about jackets from like Burton, Volcom, Patagonia, Air Blaster, The North Face, etc (and other brands I do not wish to disclose and end up like Montec :P)
People with new jackets this year
I would then say that in the “people with new jackets” category, I would say 60% of them have either Montec or Dope Snow. Within their brand, I would say it’s 4:1 (e.g.: for every 5 people I see with their jacket, 4 of them are sporting Montec, 1 for Dope Snow)
(look at that, I used all means of expressing fractions haha)
And not just to pick on these brands, the next most popular jacket I see are the Burtons (~10%) ๐ . I’m talking about you people who owns the either:
- unisex solid light blue with a darker blue patch on one side of the chest or the
- unisex solid light pink AK jacket
I see you people ๐. Not gonna lie though, I find them epic as well and if money wasn’t an issue I would’ve bought one early on as well and I would’ve been part of this statistic hahaha
The rest of the percentages are accounting for “others” or jackets that are probably new that I don’t know about haha
Wrap Up
Maybe they (Montec / Dope Snow) are great. Definitely a lot of people are wearing them now. I don’t see people taking them off because it’s too warm and I don’t see people shivering with it. It’s better than the past years I guess wherein you don’t know anyone who wears it and you can’t find people in Google or YouTube talking about them.
If you’re like me and you’re after uniqueness, then I guess they’re a victim of their own success. That’s a good thing for them! Having same colours though, it’s fine I guess and inevitable. Having the exact same jacket with people on the hill? Ew. gtf away from me lol
[added: Nov 2022] Our review for Dope Snow Adept W Snowboard Jacket is now up and available!
