I bought a bunch of C4E last year and wore it all season. I will give my impressions so far:
Torrent set:
I would compare it to the Sitka Downpour set...but with pit zips. It is very quiet for rain gear, and it works well. In December...I hunted all day in the pouring rain, and it was 35 degrees. I stayed dry all day. BTW...I sold my Sitka Downpour set due to the lack of pit zips.
Element pant:
I really love these pants. I ordered a pair of Sitka 90% pants and sent them back due to fitting weird. The 90% pants only came in Medium, large, etc..and they didn't fit good in the waist. The Element pants fit perfectly in my normal pant size (2013 model). The material and overall fit were much better than the 90%. I also like the calf zipper and drawstring on the ankle. On a negative note...the zipper pull came loose from one of my back pockets...but I managed to get it back on. I also broke a snap on the cuff of the pant. Not a huge deal, but I expected better. The snaps are plastic, and I plan to replace it with a metal snap in the future. Other than that...I plan to keep these pants for a long time. If you plan on sitting for an extended period of time...I wear a pair of Outdoor Research Neoplume pants underneath and I can sit all day ( these primaloft pants can be fully unzipped on each side at the waist...allowing you to put them on without removing your outer pants...just drop your outer pants down to your knees while putting them on....works great)
Switchback pants:
These pants seem to fit somewhere between the Sitka Ascent and Mountain pants. They are really comfortable and durable. I had zero issues with these pants. They come with knee pads, but I didn't use them.
Assault and Pivot shirts:
These shirts are ok...but not as good as my Sitka. They don't have thumb loops, and the Assault shirt isn't as warm as my Sitka Traverse. My biggest complaint is the chest zipper pulls came loose on both shirts when I zipped them all the way down. I managed to get them back on after a lot of work. It seems that if you zip them down all the way...there is a tendency for the fabric to pull loose from the zipper pull. A stitch near the bottom to prevent zipping it down too far would prevent this. I plan to add this stitch before next season. I contacted C4 customer service, and they said that they were looking to correct this issue...but they never offered to send me new shirts. On that note...I was disappointed with their customer service.
Element Vest:
Nice vest..no issues to date.
Overall...I really like my C4E gear, but I am slightly annoyed by all of the zipper issues and the customer service. My favorite pieces are the rain gear and Element pants. They stopped using Mountain Mimicry...so I will likely not buy anything else.
