Review: Peppermint Chalet Hybrid jacket and pants

Peppermint Cycling co.’s chalet collection is introduced as “the layering experience”. The Quebec-based women’s cycling clothing company designed these items as a breathable yet warm hybrid of winter exercise clothing and outdoor loungewear.

I tested the Chalet Hybrid navy jacket and Chalet burgundy Hybrid pants. When I first got the items I wasn’t sure what exactly I would use them for, but I soon found they came in handy for a number of circumstances, particularly during a year of outdoor gatherings.

Chalet Hybrid navy jacket

The Chalet Hybrid jacket is a form-fitting lightweight jacket with insulated panels. Peppermint uses Primaloft Thermoplume insulation, which is a synthetic water-resistant down replacement. The jacket is warm, even though it has non-insulated stretch panels on the arms and back for breathability.

It would be great for fat biking or cross-country skiing on a very cold day, or some brisk hiking or snowshoeing. What’s fun about this jacket is that it also works just as well as an every-day piece, and you don’t have to feel like you’re walking around in technical gear.

On some very cold socially distanced walks, I wore the Chalet Hybrid jacket under a big not-very-warm-but-still-cute coat that I otherwise would have frozen in. The high neck of the Chalet Hybrid jacket is extra cosy and I’m a sucker for jackets and sweaters with little thumb holes.

Being nit-picky, the one design addition I didn’t like on this jacket was the drawstrings on the zippers, which just looked a bit cheap. I also found that, as its knit portions are polyester and spandex, they gradually stretched out a bit, an issue I think would be solved by a gentle wash.

Chalet burgundy Hybrid pants

These pants remind me of an armadillo, with armoured and soft portions combined. I like to think of them as a jacket for your legs, so I generally wore them with leggings underneath them, though some will wear them on their own. Like the jacket, the Chalet Hybrid pants were designed for outdoor activities and après-ski style lounging.

The drawstring on the Peppermint Chalet Hybrid pants is nice for keeping them in place and I appreciate the little hi-vis Peppermint logo on the calf.

Most cross-country ski centres are currently closed due to the pandemic, so any distanced socialization after exercise would require a warm additional piece of clothing (such as these leg jackets). Personally I found these worked great when I joined two friends for an outdoor after-work fire. The sun had set and there wasn’t much warmth to be found but I did have some very comfy thighs.

I was hesitant to wash the pants, as they have synthetic down panels, but Peppermint says they can be washed in cold water, on a delicate/gentle setting then hung to dry.

The Chalet Hybrid navy jacket is $200 and the Chalet burgundy Hybrid pants are $180 at Peppermintcycling.com