Obermeyer Kids Snow Gear Review

If you’ve attempted to teach kids a winter sport (or even just spend a significant amount of time playing outdoors in the snow), you know that outerwear can make or break the experience.

There are few things more challenging than attempting to comfort a cold, wet kid. Especially this winter when most ski lodges are closed and your only warming shelter is your car, outerwear that can withstand the elements is so critical to everyone having a good day on the mountain.

With this in mind, we put some key pieces of Obermeyer’s kids snow gear to a classic Pacific Northwest (wet) gear test. And we were not disappointed by the results!

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>>>Note: We found that there is a ton of Obermeyer on sale at Zappos!<<<

Obermeyer Kids Formation Jacket

Find the Obermeyer Formation Jacket directly from Obermeyer or at Amazon. It’s also on sale at Zappos!

Specs & Features

Fabric: HydroBlock® Pro 100% Polyester Plain Weave 2-Way Stretch
Insulation: 220gm Body; 180gm Sleeve; 80gm Hood
Removable hood w/ magic chain hood attachment
“I-Grow”™ Extended Wear System
Full-Motion™ articulation
Skier Critical™ seam sealing
Reflective logo, trim, and zipper pulls
Integrated mitten/glove clips
Adjustable water-resistant powder skirt

What We Love

Next level waterproofing

This is one of the most important qualities in snow gear for kids, because once they are wet it becomes exponentially more difficult to keep them warm.

The Formation jacket utilizes Obermeyer’s beefy HydroBlock® Pro waterproofing technology and we have been so impressed with how it performs! Pacific Northwest snow is often wet and sloppy, and after hours of rolling around in the slush my son was still bone dry.

Lots of pockets

This jacket has SO MANY pockets! We love the fact that there are both interior and exterior secure options for dedicated ski pass storage. The velcro closure pocket on the left sleeve makes it super easy for kids to pass through RFID lift access points.

An additional interior stash pocket has ample space for handwarmers, granola bars, or whatever other small survival items you want to have handy for a full day on the slopes. Add in the zippered chest pocket and handwarmer pockets and your kid is set for on-the-go storage.

Excellent range of motion

The exterior fabric on this jacket is so soft and stretchy, especially considering how waterproof it is. Another key consideration for kids’ gear, since they definitely don’t want anything restricting their movement!

The fabric feels even softer than most softshell jackets, and has excellent stretch in all the critical areas to allow kids to move freely.

I-Grow extendability

When we initially tried the size 5 Formation jacket on our slender 5-year-old, the sleeves seemed a bit on the short side. And sure enough, the first few times he was out in it we had some issues with gapping between the cuff and his mittens.

With Obermeyer’s “I-Grow”™ Extended Wear System, this was a super easy fix! A few snips with the scissors and problem solved. A couple of the stitches closer to the seam were trickier to remove, but we were really happy with how this process worked.

Functional, adjustable powder skirt

The powder skirt on this jacket does an excellent job of keeping snow from sneaking up through the bottom hem. Another essential feature especially with kids who are just learning to ski or snowboard!

We also love that it’s adjustable – there are 3 simple snaps along the elastic hem that allow for a more snug fit on smaller-waisted kids.

What We Don’t Love

Zipper not waterproofed

This is definitely our biggest complaint with the Formation jacket – especially considering how impressed we are with waterproofing of the exterior fabric! The zipper itself is not waterproof, and the velcro flap covers less than half of the zipper length.

While the body of the jacket stayed incredibly dry in the wettest conditions, there was definitely moisture soaking through the zipper and saturating the lining. We didn’t have anything in the stash pocket at the time, but it was also pretty wet on the inside.

Tight collar

Even in super cold, blustery conditions our son did NOT want the collar zipped all the way up. We tried once, and received a lot of complaints about how uncomfortable it was on his chin.

We chose to just leave it unzipped at the top and put a neckwarmer underneath for a bit of a snow barrier, but that obviously doesn’t help with keeping moisture out. We haven’t ever had this issue with him before, so I assume it’s particular to this jacket.

No cinches on sleeve cuffs

This seems like another questionable design decision for what’s touted as an all-weather jacket. The cuffs are not adjustable and there is no way to cinch them down to keep snow out.

Obermeyer did think to put stowable glove/mitten clip inside the cuff that could help with keeping mittens in place. But the clip didn’t work well with our son’s mittens and we definitely had some wrist gapping even after we made the growth extension.

Open exterior compass pocket

While a compass is obviously an important tool, this one doesn’t seem very practical as it stows in a tight exterior pocket with no closure.

All this pocket seems to do is collect snow, and the lining is not waterproof which is problematic. It’s also virtually impossible for a kid to handle the compass with mittens on, so it seems like this is a feature that the jacket would have been better without.