We live in a Chicago suburb. There is a very nice fairly new outlet mall that is right near the O’Hare exit off of -I294. There is also an outlet mall on I-88 in Aurora. A good winter coat will probably cost between $200 and $300. Chicago has between 1 and 2 weeks each year that are bitterly cold, think 0 F with some windchill. My D goes to college in South Bend,IN and she wears a North Face fleece jacket with some wind/water resistance. Although a heavy winter coat is great if she needs to spend a lot of time outside, much of the time college students are just going from building to building and not having a bulky coat is more important than 800 fill down