Before I write a review I'd like to thank OutdoorKit as I won a £25 voucher for a previous review and used it on this product and couldn't be happier with the product or the service I received. As a thank you and to help others out looking at this product I thought I'd do a quick review.
The review.
Fit & Looks: My favorite thing about this jacket other than the lovely Maya blue colour is the fit, it's a very light, flexible and soft fabric yet strong. And the overall fit of the jacket is perfect for me, the sleeves are the perfect length not too short like I find with most clothes for me in the right chest size. Then the length of the jacket is spot on hanging a little below my belt line. The hang of the jacket is nice too due to the light and soft fabric it gives a form fitting look which I like. Hood and all the adjustments on the jacket are useful for fine tuning of the fit, but for me the drawcord around the bottom was all I need to adjust.
Quality: Another thing I'm impressed by is the quality of stitching on this piece as I haven't found any problems with wonky stitches or stitching coming loose etc. The fabric when I first felt it worried me a little as I thought it felt fragile but it's a very strong fabric with decent stretch to it and since wearing it I haven't worried about damaging it once.
Wind & Water protection: This was the biggest surprise for me, when I opened the product I thought it wouldn't be very warm or water repellant due to the lightness of the fabric but I was wrong. I wore this on an average British day then it started showering and water just beaded up and shook off which was the result I was hoping for, what surprised me however was how well the jacket coped with heavy rain a few minutes later, I put the hood up and braced myself for a cold and wet end to my journey home but the jacket coped fine with it with water continuing to bead up and shake off. This is not a hard-shell designed for heavy rain but more for brief showers yet it stood up very well for around 5 mins of heavy rain. Windproofing again was great and this kept me warmer than I was expecting but not sweaty as the breathability of this jacket is unbeatable.
My overall rating/view is: If I had the money I'd own several of these in different colours and wear it daily, a truly special piece of kit imo. 10/10!
Dean Reed, Barnstaple