READ: Your Guide To The Layering System | Fleece Buying Guide | Polartec Explained
Fleece jackets vary a lot in weight and feel. High-pile fleeces like the Patagonia Retro Pile are thick and soft, and they're the warmest choice for winter and camping. Mid-weight fleece jackets, such as The North Face Glacier or the Patagonia Better Sweater, are the ones you'll wear day to day, from dog walks to the office. Technical fleeces from Rab and Mountain Equipment are thinner and stretchier, and this is where you'll often see Polartec® fabrics. Polartec® grid fleece lets sweat out when you're walking uphill, then holds onto your warmth when you stop for a break.
A microfleece jacket is the lightest type. It's thin enough to wear under a shell and small enough to fold into a daypack as a spare.
Through autumn and winter, a waterproof jacket and fleece worn together will keep you warm and dry, and you can take the jacket off when the rain stops. If you'd rather buy both at once, a 3-in-1 jacket with fleece zipped inside the shell gives you the two layers in one.
We stock full-zip, half-zip, quarter-zip and hooded fleece from Patagonia, The North Face, Rab, Ayacucho, Fjällräven, and Mountain Equipment.
Shop our men's fleece jackets and microfleeces.