Stio Dawner Jacket
Review by Erin Trail
The Dawner Jacket is Stio’s do anything, go anywhere, lightweight jacket perfect for your active adventures.
Features:
- Shell: Stretch Nylon Plainweave with High Air Permeability, 91% Nylon, 9% Spandex, 20 denier, 55 g/m2
- Insulation: Octa™ Lightweight Knit Insulation, 100% Polyester, 100g/m2
- PFAS-free DWR water repellant finish
- Two handwarmer zippered pocket
- One interior zippered chest pocket
- Articulated sleeves for an active fit
- Dropped and adjustable hem, for added coverage and fit flexibility
- Jacket stuffs into the left zippered pocket
- Weight: 9.1 oz
Detailed Review
The Stio Dawner Jacket is a lightweight, weather resistant active insulation jacket that’s appropriate for a wide variety of uses.
I’ve been wearing the Stio Dawner Jacket on late fall and early winter runs, hikes, and mountain bike rides. I’m a size medium on the Stio size guide and found that the jacket fits true to size.
The jacket is lightweight and accommodates a variety of movement. It works well as a basic light jacket but I was also impressed with it on mountain bike rides. The sleeves and hemline hit just right, even when riding in aggressive downhill positions. The hemline didn’t ride up or gap. The sleeves hit me just right at the wrists and were large enough to allow me to peek at my Garmin as I rode along.
The shell fabric of the Stio Dawner Jacket has a light stretch and a soft feel. It’s not bulky or crinkly and moves well during your activities. I didn’t get to test out the water repellency, but I did find that the shell fabric does a great job with blocking cold wind.
The Octa™ Lightweight Knit Insulation is interesting. It’s not as soft as other active insulation layers (namely PrimaLoft® Active Evolve). The Octa insulation feels ever so slightly rough in your hand, probably due to the diamond texture. It’s not scratchy or irritating, it’s just not snuggly like other active insulation products I’ve tested. None of this really matters though, because I did find that the Octa™ Lightweight Knit Insulation did a great job as active insulation. I have pretty sensitive skin and on a recent ride, I wore the Stio Dawner Jacket with only a tank top underneath, specifically to test the Octa™ insulation against my skin. The verdict? I found the Octa™ insulation to be comfortable and the right amount of warm + breathable throughout my ride. It also felt soft, light, and airy against my skin and never felt irritating. My lesson? Don’t judge insulation based on how snuggly it feels in your hand.
The Stio Dawner Jacket has several features that give the jacket flexibility for body shapes, uses, and packability. The hemline is slightly dropped, providing good coverage. The jacket also comes with an adjustable hemline cord, so you can customize the fit based on your preference.
The two zippered hand pockets are a good size, easily fitting a phone, or even my HOVERair drone. The interior zippered chest pocket is also well sized – easily accommodating my phone.
As a bonus, the jacket packs up for easy storage. You just invert the left hip pocket and pack the material into the pocket then zip it shut.
The only feature I really miss is having a two-way zipper for the main jacket zipper. I like being able to unzip my active insulation jacket from the bottom for additional ventilation as I get warm during my runs.
Closing Thoughts
The Dawner Jacket is true to the Stio ethos: offering a highly functional and versatile garment with unique touches that make it stand out from other, similar items in the active insulation market.
The Stio Dawner Jacket is a fantastic option for both high output activities and for more casual strolls on the trail or around down. The uses are nearly endless, from a cool weather jacket for walks and hiking to even being a capable midlayer option under a ski shell.
The Dawner Jacket is available for both men and women, in both hoody and collared styles.
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