First Class Merino Hoodie | Men | Black

I’d been eyeing this hoodie for a couple years now, and kept passing it up due to uncertainty over fit. I love how it looks on the male model, but I would never wear a hoodie as short and fitted as it’s shown on the female model. I didn’t find the size chart particularly helpful, since it combines a garment measurement (length) with a body measurement (width). Having the garment measurement for chest would have helped me decide sooner. I’m smaller than the 0 range, and sized up to a 1 to make sure I didn’t get that short, fitted look. Turned out to be just right, a nice loose fit that isn’t sloppy or too long, in a wonderfully soft fabric. But I almost sent it back anyway, because the pockets are strangely designed. They’re smaller than I would have expected, and the usable pocket space is split across both sides of the zipper, rather than the zipper closing the outermost edge of the pocket like every other zippered-pocket item I own. Since I’ll probably be wearing it under a jacket or thicker hoodie with more sturdy, well-designed pockets, I ultimately decided the positives outweigh any pocket weirdness.

This was my first purchase from Aviator (after which I made other 2) and I was so happy when I received it. This is a high quality product - I was impressed by how this wool feels in hands - very smooth, soft and quite dense at the same time, so it's not the same feeling that you'd get from a basic merino sweater. It's light and packs really small compared to usual hoodie made of cotton, and on top of that - it doesn't wrinkle and doesn't smell. It fits nicely, has some cool functional features and just looks cool. Unique and versatile piece, not only for travels. For me it's 5/5

Design:

This piece just looks cool - it's simple but different from many other black zip-through hoodies. It's neither very thick nor thin so you can use it as an underlayer or wear it on its own. I'm in love with that mitten cuff with a thumb hole feature, it's something special and actually useful. The hardware is nice in terms of both look and function. The hood is unusually big, I get that it's made like that on purpose, I'm just not sure about how often I would use it to cover my face. You can tighten the laces though and it will become smaller, but here is my main complaint - those laces are SO LONG, that when you want to tighten them, their length becomes just ridiculous, and also, when you walk wearing it unzipped, those laces are dangling like crazy in every direction, so I personally would make them shorter (maybe I'll actually do that). The pockets are quite small (and to my taste are…