This Nobis Winter Coat Is a Subtle, Slim Way to Stay Warm

Welcome to Robb Recommends, a regular series in which our editors and contributors endorse something they’ve tried and loved—and think will change your life for the better.

I’ve gotten by in winters in my adult life with a series of workwear jackets and peacoats, the former overbuilt for my uses since I don’t do much work outdoors and the latter better suited for office life but unexciting except to navy surplus store enthusiasts. Still, I did not consider getting a new coat an urgent issue, even in a winter this year in New York City that was somewhat brutal by recent standards. I’m used to significantly colder winters, having grown up in the Midwest, and I also didn’t like the idea of becoming the sort of person who looks prepared for Antarctica instead of a 10-minute walk to the subway.

After some colleagues expressed concern for my well-being, I was given a Nobis Nord trench coat to test and, to my surprise, quickly saw the utility in a longer coat and one designed for Canadian winters. Nobis was founded in 2007 by Robin Yates, a former Canada Goose executive, who said that utility and looking good were equally important. “The foundation for the brand was based on my former consumers’ challenges with the lack of functionality in the product experience,” Yates has said. “They bought a jacket they thought they could conquer the world in, and they found out quickly it wasn’t waterproof, they had to dry clean it, it wasn’t color fast, it didn’t fit particularly well and they were heavy.”

By contrast, the coat I tested is waterproof, windproof, breathable, machine washable, lined with Canadian duck down, and suitable, Nobis says, to temperatures up to -15 degrees Celsius, or 5 degrees Fahrenheit. In practice, it held up well during this windy New York City winter when temperatures almost got that low, and at times almost too well as I generated a minor sweat walking to the train. It’s construction also makes you more keenly aware of the parts of your body that aren’t encased in Canadian duck down, primarily your face, though the detachable hood helps.

The coat also fit well off the rack, with enough room underneath for more layers if needed but not so much that it significantly changed my profile. This seemed to be a function of its light weight and thinness, a riposte to the ubiquitous Michelin Man-esque puffer. Pound-for-pound, the warmth it generates is startling while presenting more formally than the wool peacoats I’ve been wearing for decades.

The Nord made a believer out of me, in other words, in the value of seasonal comfort but also seasonal style. It demands a certain sort of attention from friends and colleagues that I still am not quite used to, something beyond the anonymity that I liked in work jackets and peacoats. “Is that a new coat?” they ask. “Looks nice!”