When I was 9 years old, while wandering around Gordon’s Gateway to Sports in Cos Cob, Connecticut, I came across a bright yellow North Face fleece jacket. Trying it catalyzed a sort of religious experience, so I took the smallest size out of the rack and presented it to my parents, hoping it would have the same effect on them. This is not the case. They refused to be reasoned with and I began to have a breakdown that most people would consider extremely embarrassing. (In this case, most people would be right.)

In the years that followed, I have owned many fleeces. I’ve owned expensive designer fleeces and fleeces that cost less than a burrito on DoorDash. I’ve owned patchwork fleeces and wool fleeces, half-zip fleeces and quarter-zip fleecesand this fleece hooded one with a diagonal zipper that started at the shoulder and stopped near the belly button. I loved them all equally, but none of them really filled the North Face-sized hole in my closet. The new North Face fleece jackets never fit me like the old ones, and even the vintage jackets I encountered always had a problem I didn’t want to deal with.

Until recently, when The North Face released a near-exact reproduction of the Retro Denali Fleecethe exact jacket that terrorized my parents all those years ago. Unlike other meet-your-hero moments, this one lived up to my expectations and more – and frankly, I should have seen it coming.

The existence of Denali long predates my obsession. Originally introduced in 1988 as a key part of The North Face’s legendary Expedition system, it quickly became a go-to midlayer for great climbers– some of the most exposure-sensitive athletes in the world – who appreciated its versatility and lightweight, deceptively toasty fleece. In the early ’90s, it was as synonymous with mundane urban commutes as it was with grueling efforts to summit a summit.

It’s not a phase, mom!

Reed Nelson