A while back I bought myself another 3rd Alternative product to effectively further test the Triple-X camo in the many biomes within my local county, primarily tropical. This time I went for their "Jacket ROCK" which is a hooded unlined ventilated jacket. It's actually more like a field/uniform shirt but with a built in hood on it.
At my request I had them tailor it to my usual custom size to be be a tad wider and longer, although I don't know if it was really necessary due to a previous experience with a tight combat shirt from them wheras most field shirts or jackets are usually a bit loose. I also requested that they removed the velcro loops for name tags as they were not something I needed. Aside from that those are very trivial changes and the rest of the design is the same as they have listed on their website.
Right off the bat the ROCK has a hood with a bungee drawstring and velcro tab on the back to adjust the tightness and depth of the hood. If you get bothered by the hood bunching up and impeding the process of donning on your load bearing equipment then this feature may not be for you but 3rd Alternative does offer other jackets/field shirts without the hood.
The shoulders have a very low profile velcro panel for morale and unit patches. Much different from the regular velcro loops we see here in the US. This overall makes the arms less blocky and gear does not snag on it. Along the shoulders there are zippered pockets for documents, cellphone, small medical contents, whatever you would put on the shoulder sleeves.
Velcro opening for elbow pads, zippered forearm pocket, and velcro tab cuffs. All of which are nice features that adds to scalability. The sleeves also features a mesh zipper under the armpit for ventilation.
Along the torso you have two zippered chest pockets. The main opening is a two way zipper as well as a number of velcro patches.
On the backside ROCK has a grid of laser cut holes which is also a nice touch for ventilation.
It is a very nice jacket that appears to be well constructed. Quite what I was looking for at the time I bought this, a field jacket that has a hood. Essentially a light jacket. However, nothing is perfect.
The hood is not very supported. Usually when I have the hood on, it gets in the way of my vision when worn alone (without a ball cap or a helmet). If the rim of the hood had a length of wire running through it like the British CS95 parka then it would add more structure and visual usability to the hood. I personally think this is the most problematic issue compared to the next one.
The pockets of the jacket are not completely stitched to the jacket. Not that you would want to put very heavy objects in the pockets but for example the chest pocket is stitched only vertically on the torso. This leaves a "tube" from the top to bottom of the pocket when looked at from the inside of the jacket. If the bottom of the pocket was sewn onto the jacket horizontally you'd get a interior chest pocket like most casual/outdoors jackets have but this was a missed opportunity for that, but do you really need it for something that will have a chest rig or plate carrier over it? Probably not but maybe it might be a thing for those whe use web gear (ie Alice, PLCE, smersh).
The last thing I overlooked was the sleeves. The sleeves features a lot of material and therefore become difficult to roll up like I usually do with a typical uniform/field shirt on a warm day or just to reduce obstruction around my hands and wrist.
Overall this jacket still checks out all the things I was intending to use the jacket for. A light field jacket that is very breathable and can can be beaten up, full camo coverage in the Triple-X pattern, and a hood because why not.
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