Well, it seems no one has anything to say about the d3o armor - so I decided to check it out for myself. I ordered the Rainier jacket with d3o. Before I get to the armor I have to say the jacket is beautiful. It has so many pockets you'd need a spread sheet to keep track of where you put things. All of the exterior zippers are waterproof (the shell of this jacket is waterproof - no waterproof liner), good ventilation, thermal liner is a very nice jacket on it's own when removed from the shell and the workmanship is very nice throughout. Lot's of other nice and useful touches I haven't mentioned - obviously a lot of thought went into to jacket.

And the armor-
I didn't subject myself to assault by cooking pans and shovels as others have done on uTube to assess the effectiveness. I did bash my elbows against some solid objects wearing the Rainier with d3o and as a comparison, another jacket with Prolife® CE armor. In my very limited test the protection seemed comparable. The problem I have with the d3o was the fit. The armor is soft and flexible until it receives an impact. In it's "relaxed" state the armor seems to want to lie flat - not to mold itself to your body's shape. If you cup your hand over the armor at your elbow you can easily mold it to cup the joint, but as soon as you remove your hand it returns to it's flat state. Although the armor's position in the jacket is adjustable using Velcro patches to hold it in place I just wasn't confident the it would be in the right place when I needed it because of the lack of form fitting. So for me-

Jacket - Excellent - well thought out, well executed
Armor - Questionable - seems to protect well but the feel of the armor did not make me confident

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Sandy & Mike Dimond