A couple of months ago, a couple of days before winter, we posted about Milwaukee heated jackets and other cold weather workwear being in short supply.
Read More: Last Call on Milwaukee Heated Gear (Winter 2018-2019)
Here’s what happened – there are finite supplies of heated gear, and once it’s sold out, it’s sold out for the season. There might be some small replenishment orders, but once a size or style is in short supply, availability across all retailers become scarce.
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Milwaukee’s heated gear shopping season starts in August and ends in March. Last year, online retailers were sold out of most styles, colors, and sizes by mid-December.
The folks at Ohio Power Tool recently posted this image to social media, showing that they received a large shipment of Milwaukee heated jackets for the 2019-2020 season. Their website shows that most SKUs are in-stock, and a couple of others are on the way and open for preordering.
You don’t need to order your heated gear today, that’d be silly. But if you were hoping to get your hands on a Milwaukee M12 heated vest, hoodie, or jacket, now’s a good time to plan it out.
If I were looking to buy new heated workwear, I’d probably want to have my purchase made by October. The earlier, the better, but there’s no need to rush in August. Still, I’d order before it gets cold out, or at least certainly before December.
Buy Now(via Ohio Power Tool)
See Also(via Acme Tools) – Some SKUs are in-stock, others look to be coming soon
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fm2176
I got the hoodie and the soft shell jacket last year. They’re beyond nice, despite my relative lack of long-term need for such things (work in DC and retiring to South Louisiana in a few years). Regardless, I’ll continue to wear my M12 heated gear a few times a year until I no longer need it.
Andy
How do these hold up in slightly wet conditions? I don’t mean submerged, just heavy mist or slight splashes.
Stuart
I wouldn’t wear the hoodies in the rain, but I’ve worn different styles of Milwaukee heated jackets over the years and they hold up well to snow, rain, and the usual level of moisture you might expose an outerwear jacket to.
Eric
They’ll be fine. They’re rated to wash in the washing machine so a little rain shouldn’t hurt them. I’ve gotten rained on in my hoodie a couple of times and washed it a couple of times with no issues. I’ve always made sure it was off in the rain, not sure if it would be ok to leave it on while it was wet.
Toolfreak
I wonder if TTi/Milwaukee has kept track of actual sales figures for the different sizes over the years they’ve been selling this stuff, and actually has more of the common/highest-selling sizes made than the really small and really large sizes that always have plenty left over.
Just seems to me like if you have a hot-selling product in multiple sizes, you’d want to have way more of the most popular sizes and way less of the less popular ones.
It doesn’t seem like they actually do that, and they produce the same number of all the sizes, and always have lots of super small and super big sizes left over even after winter is over.
It’d also say a lot if they are always sold out of those common sizes by December if their intended sale season is August to March. Someones not producing enough of the particular products that are selling if that’s really the case.
Daniel
I’m pretty interested in the new axis layering options and was trying to see if they had a combo “kit” that would have the axis vest (or jacket with sleeves) AND the outer rain shell sold together.
Eric
They do for the axis jacket, then you can choose the rain coat, or the one with more insulation. Haven’t seen a combo for the vest. I’m planning on going that route since they don’t offer tall sizes. At 6’3” 145lbs the hoodies I have don’t really do much. I need a large to get the length I need, but then the chest elements especially aren’t tight enough to my body. I think the shoulder elements will work better for me.
Jay
I bought one of the hoodies last year for Christmas but returned it shortly after. I just really couldn’t feel any heat. I think my problem was that I’m tall and skinny so I needed a larger size so my arms wouldn’t hang out but I also needed a smaller size so it could fit tighter around the chest so that the heater element would make contact. Oh well.
Patrick McIntosh
Down here in Australia, if you are above average size in any clothing item, jackets, shirts, work boots etc, you can forget any of the Power Tool brands clothing. It seems that the power tool companies think that everyone is of a small size in Australia. I have searched high and low for a XXXXL jacket to no avail, XXL is the biggest size they have in jackets and shirts. Work trousers, well Snow Whites mates would be happy. In boots if you are above a size 11 then forget it. All in all a pretty pathetic offering.