The Best Kids Raincoats, Sweaters, And Vests For Back To School Season
Stay warm while looking cool. Feel free to use that one on your kids.
This roundup is just one in Fatherly’s exhaustive Back To School Product Guide. Check out our lists for everything from your kid needs, from winning math to standing at a bus stop on the rain (which is what you used to do, only uphill both ways).
It used to be that dad got the cool technical clothes and the children got a “gently used” hand-me-down kids raincoat from a distant cousin. Just in time for you to be a dad, those days are gone! From Patagonia to North Face, there’s a smart-looking, high-performance kids clothing, including kids boots and outdoor wear, for any weather. And yeah, you can still get yours.
Best Coats for Little Kids (<5)
Hatley Submarines Raincoat
“We all play in a yellow raincoat covered in other colored submarines.” Not exactly the catchiest hook. Keep working, Ringo. This kids raincoat will be here to protect your preschooler from any deluge until you come up with just the right lyric.
Patagonia Baby Down Sweater Vest
Nothing says, “I look like I just came from yoga but totally didn’t” like Patagonia’s premium European 600-fill-power goose down kids sweater vest. Now your kid can match mom’s favorite look, or dad’s if you replace “yoga” with “the gym … or anything active.” Or you could actually take them on a real-life hike — outside! This puppy is tear resistant, windproof, and water-repellent.
North Face Toddler Canyonlands Hoodie
The growing theme here seems to be that things could have turned out so much differently for you if you had totally slick-looking, high-performance technical apparel in your school days like today’s youth. If you’d only had this stretch heathered hardface fleece kids coat from North Face, you’d have been super cool and snuggly warm.
Best Coats for Big Kids (>5)
Patagonia Kids Torrentshell Jacket
When the weather turns to the “waking up in the darkness and hiking uphill to school both ways in the pouring rain” stuff of your childhood legends (seriously, how was every day a monsoon?), wrap your kid in this coat. The 2.5-layer fabric in this kids coat combines a waterproof, breathable barrier with a durable water repellent finish, while the hood’s built-in visor resists rain and gale. So your grandkids can one day hear those same tall tales.
L.L. Bean Trail Vest
L.L. Bean calls this lightweight kids vest their “trail model,” and with its cozy fleece and reflective 3M Scotchlite back patch, it very well might be fit for exploring nature. You, however, are free to call it the “waiting at the bus stop model,” which likely more accurately reflects its true day to day function.
Best Coats for Adults
Arc’Teryx Veilance Actuator Jacket
When brands like Arc’Teryx pair up with brands like J.Crew, only good (and expensive) things can happen like this rain shell/ windbreaker combo that is cool even if no one knows what an “Actuator” is. And as you brag about your fancy new all weather-capable coat, be sure to ask your friends if they know about Gore-Tex.
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