N7 Elite Armour Stripe Hoody, Outerwear for True Mass Effect Fans

This past fall, Bioware and Treehouse Brand Stores released a new variant on their Mass Effect N7 Hoodies. Although the original hoody was a great product (I own one of those too), this new version takes everything up a couple notches…or twelve. I was able to get my hands on a gunmetal colorway just in time for my big move overseas. I decided to test it out on my two day adventure from San Diego, California to Naples, Italy. Let’s take a look at the N7 Elite Armour Stripe Hoody…

The N7 Elite Armour Stripe Hoody (available in black, charcoal, and the now discontinued gunmetal colorways) is a little thinner than it’s predecessor, but not by much, and the fleece interior makes for a more comfortable fit with a bit of give to it. The N7 Logo on the chest is embroidered and the armour stripe is made of fabric sewn onto the arm sleeve, with the red striped being either dyed or silk screened into the white fabric. The only other silk-screening to be found is a snazzy N7 pattern on the interior of the hood itself. The pattern, along with the metal drawstring caps and N7 Zipper pull really show off the level of detail they went into for this hoody.

There are three outside pockets and two interior pockets. The exterior chest pocket has a hole on the inside of the jacket to allow for headphones to run inside to a pair of loops that run up to the hood opening, keeping your mp3 player and headphone cord tucked neatly out of sight. The velcro stormflap over the zipper adds a nice touch to the hoody, allowing for versatility in how it’s worn. I found myself often using the two center velcro pieces to keep the jacket closed without using the zipper at all.

The stormflap goes all the way up the blizzard neck and kept me nice and toasty during our twelve hour layover in DC. We spent quite a bit of time outside while we were there, and the hoody teamed with a thermal underneath kept me nice and comfortable in the low thirties that we were stuck in.

For sizing, I decided to go with a Large. I’m 5’9″  and 185-190 lbs, with a slight athletic build, and this hoody fits perfectly. I tend to float somewhere between large and extra large sized shirts, and this hoody fit very well and gave me a little room to add layers underneath if needed. The hoody is a bit of a long cut; mine was sitting about 5-6 inches below my hipbone.

As much as I loved the original N7 hoody, it did have a couple of minor issues, but it is very obvious that Treehouse and Bioware were listening to their customers when they designed the N7 Elite Armour Stripe Hoody. They seriously went above and beyond to make this a very high quality item. I have spent a lot of time wearing this hoody during the past two weeks, and I’ve got to say it’s my new favorite. I tried to find things that I didn’t like about it, and the best I could come up with is it could have benefited from a two-way separator zipper. This non-issue is pretty much taken care of though, due to the very welcome addition of the velcro stormflap. The stormflap keeps the wind from entering through the zipper very well and allows the hoody to be worn with the bottom open if one were so inclined.

At $74 for the charcoal and black hoodies, this hoody may indeed be for the Elite Mass Effect fans, but you are definitely getting your money’s worth in upgrades to the original hoody. The gunmetal colorway that I reviewed here is now discontinued and on sale for the awesome price of $49.99. I highly recommend picking up one of these before they’re out. I’m definitely picking up another one in charcoal.

You can check out the N7 Elite Armour Stripe Hoody in the Bioware Store.