Good evening folks! I am looking for a decent waterpoof jacket but getting kinda stumped at the options.
While I would mainly use it for just taking walks, I do want something a little better that I could possibly use on hikes and such as well (might as well get a better one right away in case I ever decide to do something like that).
Now, I’ve found Jack Wolfskin have some nice looking ones (in particular the Elsberg 2,5l), but opinions on the brand seem to differ a lot.
So I wanted to ask if anyone can recommend a good brand I can get in Europe that fits my budget and delivers decent quality. Thanks everyone in advance!
The Alpha Industries MA-1 jacket is the best jacket I’ve bought. It’s very waterproof but kind of heavy. It’s at the higher end of your budget but Alpha is worth checking out.
Will check them out, thanks!!
Do sleeveless ones count or are you looking only for classic? I’m wearing sleeveless partially for that reason, they’re cheaper than the upper limit even if in other colours, even my pink. At Kohl’s they were like fifty.
Yes I’m looking for a regular one with sleeves, but great tip anyway if no sleeves don’t matter for the certain use case, thank you!
Price as come down on futurelite and I’m a fan of how breathable and light weight it is compared to goretex. These features might not be that important for walking in the rain, but where it really shines is packability / weight for travel or hiking.
Will definitely check it out, thank you!
Maybe take a look at Decathlon, they are quite decent and surely have something in your price range. Bought a 2-in-1 trekking jacket there some months ago and I’m very satisfied with it.
I bought this about 6 months ago and it’s been great. Every couple of weeks I find a new pocket. It’s waterproof, windproof, versatile, sturdy, hard wearing. Quite heavy, but so far I really like it.
That looks great too, thank you for sharing!
Not direct advice. But I’ve switched from “technical” waterproof fabrics that use DWR chemicals, to waxed fabrics. I’ve found that after a year of use, the technical fabrics lose their ability to repel water, and I can’t get them back no matter what I do. Waxed fabrics are heavier and don’t breathe as well, but you can reapply wax to get them to repel water again.
I strongly agree. It’s been trendy to wear technical jackets for everyday clothing, and I can certainly understand the alure of just having 1 jacket to do everything, but we are all better off saving the DWR+membrane jackets for their designated purpose.
Just walking about, you don’t need much breathability, so waxed clothing works just fine.
I’ve looked them up a bit and I love the idea that they can also just be rewaxed! However, I gotta admit I think right now they are a bit too expensive for me. Most of them easily cost two or three times as much as the technical jackets I’ve been looking at. I will do some more research tho, and definitely keep that kind of clothing in mind just because I think it’s a really cool way to make them weatherproof
You can buy a jacket that is (mostly) made out of cotton, and then wax it yourself. It’ll probably take you a few hours to do, but it can be done inexpensive. AliExpress has some cheap waxed jackets too.
Someone has mentioned this as well! I’ll definitely do some more research on how to do that kinda stuff because I really like that concept!
I think the problem is that the brands that make waxed clothing are often more on the luxury side of things (like fjallraven). There’s nothing about waxed fabric that should make it inherently expensive. You could do it yourself, the only downside is that you wouldn’t know for sure what the fabric looks like waxed until you do it.
There’s nothing stopping you from buying a 10€ bar of wax from fjallraven and a 50€ canvas jacket. There’s even more lightweight fabrics that can be waxed, you’d just want to do some homework on how well the particular fabric works with wax.
Oh I didn’t think it was that easy to do. Thank you for all the info, I’m going to research that a bit more!
I didn’t even know fabrics like that exist, gonna look it up right away, thank you!
Not to mention that those technical fabrics are full of PFAS.
Some companies have switched to Fluorine-free waterproofing chemicals (e.g. Deuter for backpacks). Iirc, there’s even a Fluorine-free version of Goretex nowadays. I haven’t really looked into whether these materials are this much better though.
