Arctic Armor Coat lining falling apart

Hello Everyone,
I purchased an Arctic Armor coat and bibs last year, washed them at the end of the year (as directed on how), let air dry, and put away (without unzipping after the wash. I went to wear it this past weekend and noticed the inner linning is falling apart. It is coming apart at the seams as well as it looks like it has been rubbed through like I have been wearing them for years!! Has anyone else heard of any issues with Arctic Armors suits having issues with the inside liners coming apart prematurely? Looking for some info please. Thanks!

Send an e mail to Arctic Armor tell them the problem and they should take care of you.

I would hope they cover it….

My local bait and tackle shop were I purchased it is helping me try to resolve. They are sending it to Arctics service dept. to look it over. The rep he talked to today told him he had never heard of it and was sure it was because of something I did, but send it in for them to look over. A quick search on the web and I found multiple individuals with similar complaints. I take extreme care of my ice fishing gear (it costs too much not too!!) I checked my bibs over (washed at the same time) and they have zero signs of wear. I too hope they will take care of me as I have bragged the gear up to friends something horrible. If they don’t, I am not sure what I should buy. I thought they were a reputable company with a great product. Guess I will find out.

servicce please let us know what the outcome is, I hope they take care of the problem for you. I also hve their gear but have not washed mine yet and now I am a little worried to wash them. Good luck

I have washed mine many times with no problems, just NEVER put it in a dryer. I had a problem with one of the buckles coming apart on the bibs and they sent me 2 new sets of buckles no questions asked.

They should take care of you, sounds like defective material in that run.

There were posts on Ice Shanty of the same problem for some guys and pictures. I’m nervous I just got mine this summer and can’t wait to try it out !!! Hopefully with no problems.

I have had my set of bibs and jacket from the first year they were out.They have never given me ( but a broken buckle) any problems though I have only washed them 2 times.I did have a broken buckle but they sent me another set quickly. great stuff and very good customer service.

I will keep everyone posted on the outcome. A friend of mine has almost the same coat – his has the wool (or whatever it is)jig patch on the upper left side of the coat. He has not washed his yet and his looks GREAT! It kinda concerns me since the owner of the bait shop recieved negative feedback on the phone before he sent the coat in. I will keep my fingers crossed. The coat just simply looks like it has been rubbed to death on the bottom all the way across, at the top where the hood starts – all the way across, and is separating everywhere, even up the side by the zipper. After washing, it was air dried. I wish I could say that “oh yea, my washer did it” or that I knew the cause, but I can’t. Good luck to you fella’s that have them. They are nice when they hold together.

My biggest gripe about the AA Coat is the material doesn’t stretch at all. There needs to be more pleating in the shoulders and back to give a little more range of motion. Just speculating, but it may prevent some splitting and peeling of the inner liner from the shell.

When I was working for AA as a dealer, I never once saw that happen but I am not saying it could not.

Anytime I did have an isue wwith a customers suit and they were very few, Artic Armor simply asked me if it looked like a issue with the material or abuse by the customer.

Artic Armor always did repair or replace what I thought was a issue with the material.

There we even a few times when a suit was damaged by an auger blade and I personally had that repaired for them.

If you have a good dealer where you purchased it and he will go to bat for you, you should have no issues.

My dealer has been awesome about helping me with this. Couldn’t ask for more to be honest. I hope the coat gets taken care of for me because I did really like it, but only wore it one season of ice fishing. In Iowa, that doesn’t amount to a lot when you only get to go out on the weekends and once or twice during the week. Like I previously stated, I wish I knew what the heck caused it, becuase it looks like I had been wearing it for YEARS. We will see. thanks for the info.

i have had simalar thing happen to me on a differnt coat but it was the coat getting wrapped tight around the dam auger in the washer drum and it just chewed it up. it is good to know thought i may wash my suit will be way careful

We have a high effeciency washer,,no auger inside. The washer just has the paddles on the drum like a dryer. Whenever you wash a coat, be sure to zip every zipper all the way up. That is supposed to keep the coat from getting damaged.

I had a similar issue with my AA coat. The lower inside lining of the coat was getting torn up. Turns out the problem was the Velcro on my bibs did a good job of sticking to the inside coat material and the rubbing it off. My solution was to buy some press on patch cloth at Wal-Mart and apply it to the coat. The patch sticks really well to the inside coat material and it fixed my issue. Note that you do NOT want to get the iron on patch stuff!!!

UPDATE: I had an unpleasant conversation with a rep from IDI GEAR, but he stated he WAS replacing the jacket. He agressively stressed how much velcro rubbing against the coat will DESTROY the interior lining. The only velcro on my suit is the front pockets. I will drop a quick note when I actually see the jacket in my hands.

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He agressively stressed how much velcro rubbing against the coat will DESTROY the interior lining.

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This is THEIR design of jacket and bibs right? Doesn’t this fall under a design flaw in their suit?

yes, I have THIER BIBS AND THIER JACKET, the person I spoke with on the phone stated that many of the complaints have been from people tucking the front flaps into the pockets exposing the velcro which eats up the coat liner (I never tuck my front flaps into the pockets). They need to have some other design to keep this from happening to others.

OK FOLKS!!! I did receive a new coat today!!! I want to start by saying that the product does an AWESOME job of keeping you warm. I love the product from that aspect. NOW,,, the part that SUCKS!! Their customer service person I spoke to was a complete @##hole!! I worked in electronics for 10 year doing consumer electronic repair and managed service facilities in the midwest. I have NEVER dealt with a person like this in my life. This is no joke folks,,,this person told me he would replace the jacket for me against his better wishes, but and I quote “I am going to replace this coat against my better judgement, but don’t ever call this office again!!” He was yelling so loud that 2 of my employees could here him through my cell phone over 4 ft away!! What a joke. I will NEVER buy thier product again unless I am willing to toss it in the trash when something happens to it. I was on the phone for over 1/2 hour with a person (who I won’t name) who has no right being in customer service. After 15 years of dealing with manufacturers and customers, I can honestly say that this guy is the biggest @## I have ever come across for someone in this position. I am appreciative of them replacing the coat for me, as I do think it is a good product that has some faults they need to tend to. My beef with the company is that my experience with this piece of $@!% ruined my desire to continue to buy thier product. If you search the internet for problems with thier coat lining coming apart, you will find multiple posts out there. The sad part is thier experiences with the customer service closely echo mine. I am the first one to have a jacket replaced from what I can tell. I am hoping that is not the case. Since I am not allowed to “call their office ever again”, does anyone have comments about another brand that they can recommend? I am hoping that this jacket gives me many years of service without another incident but want to be informed. Thanks for reading.

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Since I am not allowed to “call their office ever again”, does anyone have comments about another brand that they can recommend? I am hoping that this jacket gives me many years of service without another incident but want to be informed. Thanks for reading.

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For a suit with similar floatation; but in my opinion better built than AA, look at StrikerBrands. I have had an AA suit for three years and I like it. But I fished two weeks ago with a guy who had StrikerIce and now I’m jealous.

Desperado,, what made you like the Striker better?? I have seen them on the web, not in person though. Just curious

Get yourself a Snosuit FXE and never look back.

If I were you, I would call back there and ask to speak to a manager above whoever it was that you talked to… That is no way to treat a customer. I have worked customer service a lot and no matter where you work, you go off the “the customer is always right” because of good business ethic. I am sure that the company doesn’t want people out there talking about how crappy their customer service is, and may not even know what their customer service person is telling their customers. I know people have their bad days, but you never take it out on the customer. You need to bring it to the attention of upper management so that the problem can be addressed and so that person does not treat other customers in that way or have angry customers out there because the “company aka customer service person” won’t help them out with what seems to be a design flaw…

I just dealt with Arctic Armor on a color issue with my 4 year old camo coat, and I just received a brand new one today. In the end A.A. and I came to an agreement and they replaced the coat/bibs. I should have reported the issue years ago, but I did not. I paid a little for that mistake on my part.

I have to admit that the person at AA I dealt with wasn’t the “best” I’ve experienced, but they lived up to their word 100% from the beginning to the end.

I own two Arctic Armor and I’ve never experienced an issue with either, besides this color issue with the 1st camo version they made. I like the A.A., especially this year with the goofy ice and warm temps I feel plenty warm and safer in the AA. It’s been too warm to wear my incredible SnoSuit!

Servicce
What I like about the Striker over my AA
– The zip-off hood for those times when you are wearing a helmet. Not a biggie for me, but I know a LOT of guys asked for it and were basically blown off by AA. Tells me Striker is listening to their target market.
– Pockets (number of pockets and placement of pockets) … zip open underarm vents. They’re paying attention to the details.
– Better knee pads than AA. Probably my biggest gripe about my AA is that the knees are not sufficient for much more than a half hour of hole hopping.
– The adjustable length for the legs is just plain ol’ innovative slick as snot design. My second biggest gripe with the AA was that the legs were too long for me; I was often walking with the backs of the cuffs under the heel of my boots. Then if I hitched up the suspenders as high-tight as they would go, they were chafing the sides of my neck and the crotch was creeping up into the land-of-where-the-sun-don’t-shine.

The person I spoke to at AA was a complete dick. He did live up to his end of the bargain by sending me a new coat. I spoke to the owner of the bait shop and he echoed the fact that he was “less than impressed by someone who had already made up thier mind”. I did ask to speak to someone higher up in Customer service and I was informed that he was the top of the food chain for that division of the company. I find that hard to beleive, but again, he was very rude. I simply wont deal with them anymore which is unfortunate becuase I think they have a decent product. They just dont give a hoot about who is buying it! I am going to buy a Striker as I have heard nothing but GREAT news from people who have had to deal with them for whatever reason. I have not heard ONE POSITIVE WORD from anyone dealing with AA. Sure, they may have gotten a resolve eventually, but I want to support a company who is willing to support me when/if issues arise.

UPDATE!! THE NEW COAT… I wore the new jacket to Spirit Lake last week. It performed great except one issue. The dang zipper got stuck on fabric on the inside causing a tear. I took the jacket to a local, well known, reuputable seamstress here where I live and was told they could do nothing for it because it is cheap fabric and they would only do more harm than good. She stated that the zipper was sewn into the jacket incorrectly and that is what caused the snagging. NOW, I already am aware that I am not to call customer service again at AA, so I am merely going to wear the coat this year, donate it to a good cause that my bait shop owner supports for people needing jackets, and purchase a Striker….. So long AA,, you had your chance.

PS. my AA bibs still look like brand new, it is just something about the coat (my coat is red without the fur patch over the left breast)