PAS Normal Essential Thermal jacket: Perfect all winter as long as it’s dry

The reality is that there is a huge range of incredible jackets available and there is a lot of overlap. Often the better a jacket is, the more it will do. That means the more I refine the best winter cycling jackets buyers guide, the more difficult it becomes. I go back and replace pieces as I find something better and it’s increasingly difficult to parse out small differences in usage cases. Even with all that competition though, PAS Normal has managed to snag more than one spot. 

As a cycling brand, PAS Normal is relatively new and doesn’t have much heritage to lean back against. Still, despite only existing since 2014, the brand has built a reputation for straddling the line between performance and style. Every piece of PAS Normal clothing I’ve ever tried has offered stylish colours and thoughtful style details while also absolutely nailing fit and performance. Fabric choices are always technically driven and high quality and when I spoke to cofounder Karl-Oskar Olsen he talked about his background in fashion as much as he talked about cycling. 

With that in mind, PAS Normal is one of the brands I check regularly for new products. This year I noticed that the brand had another piece in the same Essential line as the Essential Shield jacket that I absolutely adore. That jacket and the PAS Normal Essential Thermal jacket have a lot in common but are also complementary opposites. Instead of a hardshell designed for layering, the Thermal jacket is a single-layer softshell. Depending on where you live, and what riding you do,  it’s likely that you need one or the other. Now that I’ve had a few months to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the PAS Normal Essential Thermal jacket I’m ready to break down the details. If you are looking for an incredibly capable jacket, keep reading to see if this is the right option for you. 

Design and aesthetics