Two hoodies can hang on the same rail, cost the same, and feel like different garments the moment a Greymouth southerly hits. One holds its heat. The other drinks up the drizzle between the car and the front door, then sits cold and heavy against your back all afternoon.

We hear about this every winter. Someone comes in wanting something warm, and warmth turns out to be the one thing a hoodie never advertises. The swing tag gives you a size and a fibre blend. It says nothing about how the fleece is built, or how it behaves once it gets damp.

Here is what we look at when we choose stock, and what we would check before you hand over a hundred dollars.

Three Things Decide Warmth

Weight, blend and construction. The rest is styling.

Weight is how much fleece sits in the fabric. Blend is what that fleece has been spun from. Construction covers the inside face, whether it has been brushed, looped, sherpa backed or filled with insulation. Sort those three and the print, the pocket and the drawcord become choices you can make on looks alone.

Across our men's hoodies the range runs from around $85 to $160, and most of that spread is weight and construction, not branding.

Cotton Or Polyester Changes Everything On The Coast

This is the part people skip, and on the West Coast it carries the most weight.

Cotton-rich fleece feels better in the shop. Soft, heavy in the hand, quick to warm up. The Rip Curl Road Trip Fleece Hood is 80% cotton and 20% polyester brushed fleece, and it is a lovely thing on a dry cold morning.

Polyester-rich fleece feels less plush and behaves better when the weather turns. The Rusty Kill Switch Hooded Fleece runs 58% polyester to 42% cotton. The Hurley Explore 200 Polartec Crew goes the whole way to 100% polyester.

The difference shows up in the rain. Cotton soaks up water, gets heavy, and stops insulating until it dries, which in a wet week here takes a day and a half. Polyester holds very little water and keeps working while damp.

Our rule of thumb: cotton-rich for town, the ute and the couch. Polyester-rich for standing outside, walking the dog along Cobden, or peeling a wetsuit off in a car park.

Brushed, Polar, Sherpa And Lined

Four constructions, four jobs.

Brushed back fleece is the standard hoodie interior. Soft, even, good all-round warmth. Polar fleece is loftier and traps more air for its weight, which is why the Vissla Costa Polar Eco Fleece and the Thrills Raglan Quarter Zip Polar Fleece feel warmer than the scales suggest. Sherpa lining, like the Keller Sherpa from Quiksilver, is the warmest hoodie we stock.

Insulated hoods sit apart. The Rip Curl Anti-Series Search Puff Hood uses lightweight fill instead of fleece, so it packs small and slides under a jacket without turning you into a barrel.

If you already own a good Rip Curl hoodie in brushed fleece, make the second one a polar fleece or a lined style. Two of the same construction is money spent twice.

Pullover, Zip Or Quarter Zip

A pullover is warmer than a zip in the same fabric, because no zip line lets air through the front. A full zip is easier when you are moving between a cold morning and a warm shop. A quarter zip splits the difference and vents at the neck, where most of us overheat first.

If you are buying one only, make it a pullover. A hoodie you have to wrestle off is a hoodie you leave in the car.

Fit Decides How Much Air You Are Heating

Oversized is where much of the Rusty hoodie range sits, and it looks right at the moment. The Kill Switch is cut to an oversized R2K fit with a mesh lined hood. A standard fit like the Road Trip sits closer to the body.

A little room is good, because trapped air is insulation. Too much and every gust flushes that warm air out the hem. If you want the oversized look and the warmth together, take your usual size and let the cut do the work.

Same goes across our women's hoodies, where the boxy and relaxed shapes are cut generously before you touch the size label.

What Goes Wrong By The Second Winter

Three things, in the order we see them.

Pilling on the sleeves and under the arms, usually from a bag strap or a hot wash. Cuffs and hems that lose their spring, which is what makes a two-year-old hoodie look tired even when the fleece is fine. Shrinkage in cotton-rich styles that have been near a dryer.

Cold wash, inside out, hang it up. Skip the dryer on anything above 50% cotton. That is the whole routine, and it buys you a couple of extra winters.

How We Would Choose

One hoodie for everything: midweight brushed fleece, standard or relaxed fit. Cotton-rich if your days are mostly indoors, polyester-rich if they are not.

Cold wet work outside: polyester or polar fleece, full zip so you can vent before you sweat.

Layering under a jacket: lightweight and insulated rather than thick fleece, so both pieces fit without pinning your arms.

Warmest single item: sherpa lined over a tee. Most days here you can skip the jacket.

With the warmth sorted, the outfit side is easy, and we went through that separately in how to style hoodies in 2026.

Shop Hoodies At Westside Surf & Street

Come in and put your hand inside the cuff before you buy. Brushed, looped, sherpa or lined, you can feel which is which in a second, and no swing tag will tell you. That habit separates the hoodie you wear all winter from the one that lives on a chair.

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