Helly Hansen Ireland: Jacket and Layering Guide

Helly Hansen is the jacket brand people buy on a recommendation and then never quite know how to use. It is built around a system rather than a single garment, and if you buy one piece of it without understanding the other two, you end up with an expensive jacket that leaves you cold or damp.

Here is how it actually works.

Why a Norwegian brand suits Irish weather

Helly Hansen was founded in 1877 in Moss, Norway, by Helly Juell Hansen — a sea captain who had gone to sea at fourteen and was tired of being wet. The first products were oilskin jackets and trousers made from coarse linen soaked in linseed oil. They sold roughly 10,000 in the first five years, which tells you the problem was widely felt.

That origin matters here. The brand was built for cold, wet, windy maritime conditions rather than for dry alpine cold, and that is exactly the weather Ireland produces. A jacket designed for a dry Continental winter will let you down in Clare; this one was designed for the North Sea.

Helly Tech and LIFA, in plain terms

Helly Tech, introduced in 1980, is the waterproof and breathable membrane. The important word is and. Plenty of jackets keep rain out; the difficult part is letting water vapour from your body escape at the same time, so you are not soaked from the inside instead. Helly Tech is rated for both, and the rating is the thing to look at when comparing two jackets rather than the price.

LIFA, developed in the 1970s, is the base layer — a polypropylene fibre that does not absorb water. It moves sweat away from your skin rather than holding it against you, which is why you stay warm when you stop moving. This is the piece people skip, and it is the piece that makes the rest work.

Together they form the three-layer system: a LIFA base layer against the skin, a fleece or mid-layer for warmth, and a Helly Tech shell on the outside for weather. Each layer has one job.

Shell or insulated?

A shell jacket has no insulation. It is fully waterproof and windproof and nothing else, and you wear your own warmth underneath it. In Ireland this is the more useful of the two, because the same jacket works from October to April — you change what goes under it rather than changing jacket. It is also the one to buy if you are ever moving in it: walking, working, on a sideline.

An insulated jacket has the fill built in. Warmer immediately, simpler to wear, and better if you are standing still in genuine cold. Less adaptable, and easy to overheat in on a mild damp day — which is most Irish days.

Mid-layers and fleeces — the Crew Midlayer and the fleeces are designed to sit under a shell. They will keep the wind off on their own but they are not weatherproof, and they are not meant to be.

If you are buying one piece, buy the shell. If you are buying two, buy the shell and a mid-layer.

Sizing

Helly Hansen is cut for layering, so a shell in your usual size should have room for a fleece underneath without pulling at the shoulder. The test is the same as for any outer layer: put a jumper on, then try the jacket, then cross your arms in front of you. If the shoulders pull, take the next size up.

Sleeve length should cover the wrist bone with your arms down, and still cover it when you reach forward — a shell that rides up the forearm when you reach for something is too short in the arm regardless of how the body fits.

Why your jacket stopped being waterproof

This is the most common complaint about any technical jacket, and it is almost never the membrane.

The outer face fabric has a water-repellent finish that makes rain bead up and run off. Dirt, sweat and body oils clog that finish. Once it is clogged, the face fabric wets out — it soaks rather than beading — and even though no water is getting through the membrane, you feel cold and damp and conclude the jacket has failed.

The fix is to wash it, which is the opposite of what most people assume. Use a technical cleaner rather than ordinary detergent, never use fabric softener, and reproof it with a wash-in or spray-on product once or twice a season. A tumble dry on low heat, if the care label allows it, reactivates the finish.

Wash a technical jacket more often than you would a wool coat, not less.

Shop the range

Browse all Helly Hansen at Patrick Bourke Menswear — waterproof shells, insulated jackets, mid-layers and fleeces.

For what goes underneath, see our knitwear, fleeces and gilets. For alternatives in wool, wax or quilting, see the wider coats and jackets range, the Barbour wax jackets or the Superdry jackets — and our guide to choosing a winter coat for Irish weather sets the four options side by side.

Finish with proper boots. A good shell does very little for you if your feet are wet.

We stock Helly Hansen across four floors on High Street in Ennis, Co. Clare. Free delivery on orders over €89 across Ireland, and click and collect on everything.