Pas Normal Studios Men’s Escapism Down Vest

A down gilet like this Pas Normal Studios Men's Escapism Down Vest is a useful thing to have on multi-day adventures. It keeps you warm on chilly starts and late finishes, and it packs down small. This is a good one, all told, but the sizing is odd and the pricing is prohibitively high considering what else is available.

What you're getting here is a large-baffle, ripstop nylon gilet with a filling of ethically-sourced 900 fill-power goose down (Pas Normal Studios (PNS) works with Allied Feathers to make sure the down is traceable for welfare standards). You can have it in the 'cinnamon' we have here, army green or black.

> Buy now: Men's Escapism Down Vest from Pas Normal Studios for £225

It's well-supplied with pockets. There are two zipped ones on the front and, helpfully, another at the rear which is useful for riding. Inside there are also two big open pockets. They work well: the front pockets are cut higher than usual to stop things jiggling about so much, and the rear one easily swallows a big smartphone.

The Escapism vest does a good job at keeping the wind out – the neck is a snug fit, there's a drawstring around the lower hem, and the arm holes have elasticated cuffs – plus the full-length front zip can be released from the bottom for extra ventilation if you need it.

I've been using this gilet on and off the bike, and it's performed pretty well. It packs down nice and compact into the supplied stuff sack, so it's easy to bung in a bikepacking bag as an extra layer for either end of the day.

It's not really dropped at the rear so it looks normal about town, and the kind of bike you're likely to be riding while wearing something like this is likely to have a fairly upright position anyway.

Pas Normal says this is treated with a C0-rated DWR treatment, which it claims will help with 'keeping you dry through those seemingly relentless rain showers,' but I found the protection average at best. Down is useless once it gets wet, so this isn't a top choice for wet rides.

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The sizing is miles off. The Pas Normal size-ometer suggest that at 1.88m and 95kg I should squeeze okay into an XL, which sounds right, but here I am sitting in a M that's not even especially snug. So bear that in mind: if you're small, even the small sizes will probably swamp you, if our sample is anything to go by.

Value

But assuming you find one that fits, it's a decent buy... right? Well, not really. At £225 it's comfortably more expensive than any rival I could find. The equivalent from Rab, for example – the Men's Electron Pro Down Vest with certified goose down, water resistance and a lifetime warranty, is £70 cheaper at £155, and that's nearer the top end than the bottom itself.

Overall

With a lot of high-end kit, and indeed some of Pas Normal's other gear we've reviewed on road.cc you can often (begrudgingly) accept there's a performance benefit that goes a long way to justifying the outlay.

I didn't really feel that with the Down Vest: it's a decent gilet, and I've worn it a lot, but fundamentally it's not better than a host of other very similar gilets you can have for much, much less. So for that reason (even ignoring the odd sizing and so-so water resistance) it's pretty difficult to recommend.

Verdict

Decent down gilet for bikepacking, but the sizing is off and it prices itself out of contention