Helly Hansen Swift 3-in-1 Ski Jacket Review 2025
This is a review of Helly Hansen’s new three-in-one ski jacket for 2023, the Swift.
Helly Hansen is a mature, proven brand that has been around since 1877 are generally known for their outstanding quality, so we’ve been excited to get our hands on this bit of kit and take it out for a test run.
Captain Helly Juell Hansen started out creating clothing to protect offshore sailors from the elements in Norway, where half of the country is north of the Arctic Circle, so it’s safe to say they know a thing or two about keeping the weather off.
Of course, this is a ski jacket, not a sailing jacket, but if you fast-forward to today, more than 55,000 professional skiers, sailors, ski patrollers, rescue services, and mountain guides around the world all wear Helly Hansen in the line of duty.
There are over 40 jackets in their range this year, but the good news it’s easy to recommend almost any of them. It’s more about figuring out what you need, and how much you want to spend.
We’ve used Helly Hansen gear on and off-piste all over Europe for at least a good 500 days, so we feel like we’re pretty qualified to talk about it.
In this detailed review of the Swift 3-in-1 Jacket we explore its features, where it sits in Helly Hansen’s lineup, and whether it deserves a place on your next winter adventure.
But first:
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What is a 3-in-1 Jacket?
In case you’re not familiar with the concept of a 3-in-1 jacket, it means this coat is comprised of two separate parts – a waterproof outer, sometimes known as a “hard” shell, and a warm inner known as the “soft”. The two parts can be worn separately, or zipped together, hence; 3 different ways.
We’re big fans of 3-in-1 jackets in general, because as any experienced outdoorsman will tell you, lots of thin layers is the way to go.
You can remove a layer to cool down slightly or add one to warm up a little. It’s much more versatile than wearing clothes with the insulation permanently built in.
If you have a 3-in-1 jacket you can wear the shell alone for sunny spring skiing, or zip the lining back in for a trip up to the glacier.
With the lining removed the outer shell packs down really small, meaning you can easily take it on anything from a one-bag city break to a seven-day hike in the cloud forest. The lining itself can be worn while relaxing around the chalet or parting in some apres-ski.
It’s just a super versatile system that means you get significantly more, and broader, use out of your investment.
Helly Hansen Swift 3-in-1 Jacket Overview
🏆 Our top-rated men’s ski jacket this season
Helly Hansen Swift 3-in-1 Jacket – Overview
The Swift 3-in-1 jacket is comprised of a highly waterproof and breathable outer shell and a cozy,
Primaloft-insulated liner jacket.
The outer shell comes with all the features you’d expect from a performance waterproof jacket, like
seam sealing, high-end waterproof zippers, lots of adjustability and articulating joints for freedom of
movement.
It’s lightweight, breathable, and we think, looks fantastic.
Being a ski jacket, it also comes with some sport-specific features like a helmet-compatible hood, ski-pass pocket, adjustable snow skirt, and a RECCO reflector to improve your chances of rescue by
emergency services worldwide.
Essentially, it’s everything you’d expect to get if you paid several hundred dollars for a performance
waterproof shell jacket – and a very nice one.
In addition to the outer, you get the liner, which is a separate jacket. It has a zipper down the front,
its own set of pockets, and a sort of sports jacket cut.
It’s stuffed with 100g of Primaloft insulation and features a cozy cut with high collar and long sleeves
to keep you warm. You can zip it securely into the outer, or you can run them as two separate bits of
clothing.
We tend to do the latter, because this jacket is all about flexibility, but it doesn’t take that long to
switch. When zipped together, pockets on the inner become hidden “stash” pockets.
Overall, this is a nicely thought-out 3-in-one system that we think will please a lot of people.
Helly Hansen Swift 3-in-1 Jacket – Quality
This jacket just gives off an air of technical competence. It feels great to wear, the material seems
top-notch, the stitching is perfect. No signs of any imperfections in the DWR coating.
We got the navy-blue colourway, 597, and the offset of matt blue fabric and black zips looks very
nice. All the zips run very smoothy; the pocket placement is thoughtful and intuitive.
It’s also definitely very waterproof. We have not been skiing in this jacket yet, because it’s only
November. But we’re currently visiting the UK, so we did get the chance to wear it through an extra-
tropical cyclone when Storm Ciaran hit.
Helly Hansen state that they offer equipment in three different performance levels – professional,
performance, and protection, which it somewhat confusingly describes respectively as “extremely
waterproof”, “highly waterproof”, and “fully waterproof”.
The Swift 3-in-1 Jacket belongs to the performance tier, “highly waterproof”, which if anything
sounds like the least protection of the three.
However, suffice to say, eight inches of rain fell in a 3-hour period during Ciaran and we did not get
wet.
We previously mentioned that we’d put in a lot of days on Helly Hansen gear over the years. That
was because Adam was part of the “55,000 professional… mountain guides around the world” who
wore it daily, for about five years.
We did get new equipment every year, but it certainly put up with everything we threw at it. Part of
the reason we got new every year is that people all stole it for personal use, which tells you
something.
This was presumably the professional tier, “extremely waterproof”.
Look and feel of the Helly Hansen Swift Ski Jacket
The Swift 3-in-1 Jacket comes in three colours – concrete (mid-grey), black, and navy. Helly Hansen sent us a sample of the navy colourway, 597.
We absolutely loved the navy, but all three colours look amazing. This is a very smart jacket in terms of cut – you could easily wear it into the office – and that’s complemented by the muted colour ways.
Not so much with the inner, which will probably divide opinion as a stand-alone article of clothing.
We can see how you could pull off a lot of cool preppy or urban looks with it, but that’s just not us.
The colour combinations are – concrete grey outer comes with retina-damage yellow inner; the navy comes with a red inner and the black inner is probably the most tasteful in a charcoal grey.
The grey and red colourways of the inner jacket could be worn around the chalet or for après ski. The acid yellow, well… it probably depends where you party (and what you keep in those aforementioned “stash pockets”).
The Swift generally just looks and feels great – it moves extremely well with your body, and fits well with or without the liner. Some DWR coated jackets can be a bit stiff at first, but this felt great from the get-go.
Overall, a very premium experience. On that subject though…
Helly Hansen Swift 3-in-1 Jacket – Value
Helly Hansen’s 2023 ski range ski range runs from £240 / ~$250 per jacket up to some serious £900 / ~$1000+ options. The Swift 3-in-1 jacket comes in at £340 / ~$350, so not far off the middle, though it certainly won’t fit into our top gifts for skiers under $50!
We’d probably have guessed this was a much more expensive jacket, in a blind test. It’s nicer than the “professional” tier stuff we used before.
It would be great to compare this side-by-side with one of the top-end Helly Hansen options and see how it compares.
When considering the value of a coat like this it’s always worth remembering you’re essentially getting two.
Environmental Commitment
Although it’s probably not the one and only thing you’re basing your purchase decisions on we think it would be remiss not to mention the environmental commitment Helly Hansen shows when it comes to their products. This jacket is no exception.
The lining and insulation are crafted from 100% recycled materials, reflecting the brand’s dedication to sustainability.
The use of e.dye® solution dyed fabric, bluesign® product certification, and PFC-free DWR further underscore the eco-friendly design.
We’re always impressed with Helly Hansens products when it comes to aiming for eco-friendly solutions and we think this jacket deserves some extra credit for its sustainability.
Conclusion:
The Swift 3-in-1 Jacket ticks a huge number of boxes for us. It’s often said that Helly Hansen are one of the few brands truly putting out great gear, not just good-looking, but in this case, they’ve managed both.
If we had to pick out some gripes, we could point to things like the limited and similar colourways – but honestly, we’d be reaching. This jacket is very easy to recommend.
Overall, a very versatile and competent bit of kit at a compelling price.
