The Obermeyer Brigitte ski jacket is loaded with fun and unique ski features that will help you perform well on the ski hill and feel comfortable on the chair lifts. It is warm and comfortable, and it's durable water resistant coating seems to work pretty well. Size this jacket down for a cute, form fitting look.
Obermeyer Brigitte Review
Our Verdict
The Obermeyer Brigitte ski jacket is loaded with fun and unique ski features that will help you perform well on the ski hill and feel comfortable on the chair lifts. It is warm and comfortable, and it's durable water resistant coating seems to work pretty well. Size this jacket down for a cute, form fitting look.
Our Analysis and Test Results
We're not so much into the buttons, but we love that the Brigitte is loaded with fun ski features.
Performance Comparison
Warmth
The Brigitte kept us warm on cool days at the mountain. It has a warm, soft micro fleece chin guard when we zip it up all the way, and cozy wrist gaiters to stop drafts from creeping up our sleeves. We did not notice any drafts coming though the zipper when travelling at high speeds or in high winds. Obermeyer uses more insulation in the core area of the jacket and less in the sleeves where it is less important.
Water Resistance
We were pleasantly surprised at how well the Brigitte held up during out water resistance tests. Water beaded right off of the Polyester Mini-herringone fabric. Obermeyer uses a proprietary DWR that seems to work well — at least on a fairly new jacket.
Ventilation
We were disappointed to find that the Brigitte does not have any pit-zips and therefore very little ventilation. The jacket has synthetic insulation which inherently has better wicking capability, and the jacket's shell fabric may have the ability to breathe. We like the mesh backed pit-zips of the Arc'teryx Meta.
Ski Features
The Brigitte has several little surprise ski features that took us some time to discover. Luddites that we are, it took us a while to figure out what the strange object was in our pocket — turns out it is a mini stylus for using our smart phones without taking off our gloves — genius! This is the first jacket we have tested that has one of these, and we love it. We also like the small interior chapstick pocket, the goggle chamois in the interior pocket, and the media pocket with a headphone port. It also has a powder skirt and cozy fleece-lined hand warmer pockets.
Style
We give Obermeyer points for trying, but we're not in love with the style of this jacket. The buttons on the front don't quite work and seem strange. The green color we received also seemed a bit drab, and we feel like it looked a bit frumpy. We like the contrasting color liner, but you don't really see that when you're wearing it. We think the most stylish jacket we tested was the Orage Lou Lou.
Comfort and Fit
The Brigitte is a comfortable jacket, and feels nice when you put it on because of its silky liner material and cozy wrist gaiters. The jacket fits a bit large and you could consider sizing down to have a more form-flattering fit. It moves well with with the wearer when skiing.
Best Application
We would wear this jacket to cruise groomers at the ski hill. Because of its lack of ventilation, we would not want to work up a sweat, either on a powder day or spring skiing, so if someone is looking for a more performance oriented jacket, we would recommend something like the Arc'teryx Meta.
Value
The Brigitte is a great value at $259. If you're looking for a jacket to cruise around in mellow terrain at your favorite ski hill, and potentially wear around the ski village for après ski, the Brigitte will do it for you.
Conclusion
The Brigitte is loaded with fun ski features and is surprisingly waterproof. We think that Obermeyer missed the mark slightly in the style department, but this could be a good jacket for someone who likes the buttons, and wants something to cruise around the ski hill in.