I have just purchased a patagonia synthetic vest as they come in both a gentleman and a ladies one. Now I been thinking about one of these for awhile I was going to buy the down not in the same make though. But opted for the synthetic. as the down's once wet is hard to dry than the synthetic one I tried, one of these on in a shop once and found to be warm yes it less warm but not by far,now I feel the cool quite a lot but have found these to be warm there like cut of sleeping bags. They do compress down well like a paclite jacket or three very fat sandwiches. I'm now wondering if anyone got one and what they rate about them. Or loath about them cheers Wg.