The Best Ski Jackets for Men for 2025

No matter where you’re skiing, a ski jacket is one of the most essential pieces of equipment you take on the slopes. It’s your shield against cold, wet weather. It’s the layer that traps heat close to your body and helps regulate moisture when working up a sweat. And, of course, it’s one of the most distinguishing pieces of gear a person wears on the slopes.

Shopping for a new ski jacket can be overwhelming. The choices are so abundant, and they vary in quality and design so much between brands and among them that sifting through all the options can give a person choice paralysis.

That’s where GearJunkie comes in. We got our hands on a pile of different ski jackets and put them all through rigorous field testing. From that initial sample group, we narrowed our list down to five jackets that really stuck out to us as being the best-designed and highest-quality pieces of gear.

Here are our favorites. Compare them with others on GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Ski Jackets. If you’re shopping for women, check out our guide to the Best Women’s Ski Jackets.

Ski Jackets: The Testing Rigors

GearJunkie’s Editorial Director Sean McCoy and Assistant Ski Editor Will Brendza selected the jackets for this guide after a season of testing different gear, numerous meetings with brands at outdoor media shows, and product release media events.

After seeing tons of new jackets, they picked their favorites to set aside specifically to test for this round-up. The ones from that group that stood out as top picks made the cut.

They skied in these jackets in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and elsewhere, both in the backcountry and in resorts. GearJunkie testers also contributed to the testing, using these jackets as far away as Chamonix. Colorado’s spring season was all over the place, delivering big, wet storms, cold snaps that froze everything, and warm bluebird days when temps pushed high into the 30s and low 40s.

We put the versatility of these jackets to the test. The ones that made this list were truly the best of those we interacted with.

How to Choose a Ski Jacket

Picking a ski jacket is a very personal choice. It depends on your level of skiing, intended use, and your style and color preferences.

The fastest way to narrow your list of options is to look at your budget. There are thousands of options for ski jackets out there, but if you can only spend a few hundred dollars, your choices are significantly narrowed down.

Then, ask yourself what you need from a ski jacket. If you only use it in the resort, you won’t need backcountry or uphill features like underarm vents or lightweight material. You will want a helmet-compatible hood and a pass pocket. If you’re shopping for a backcountry-specific jacket, you want one that’s breathable, has good ventilation, allows for freedom of movement, and isn’t too heavy.

The ideal fit will depend on your layering preferences as well. Some people prefer looser fits so they can add midlayers underneath. Others like ski jackets with a slimmer, more form-fitting profile, and still others shop for baggy freeride-style designs.

Finally, color choice is also largely an aesthetic preference, but not entirely. Some ski jackets are made in bright colorways for the specific purpose of visibility. They’re easier to see on a busy ski slope, in a wooded thicket, or in the event of an emergency rescue. So, there is a functional element in color choice as well.