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I can be very opinionated about outdoor gear and when it comes to Waterproof Breathable Jackets I always felt you need to spend some serious cash to get a decent jacket. The Storm UL jacket has changed my mind and impressed Shona and we still cant quite believe how good it is for the $49 price tag.

In this review I look at the design , material and fit so you can understand the features to look for in a decent Waterproof Breathable Jacket so you’ll be as impressed as we were with Big Brand name performance for under 50 Bucks.

Fabric

We took this jacket for a pounding on a 3 hour run in the sleet on a cold and very wet New England day. There are a few features to look out for in a waterproof jacket. Firstly ….that is it waterproof! It sounds an obvious thing to say but cheaper and badly made jackets wont actually be that waterproof and worse not very breathable either. With the Storm UL jacket a close look shows you that this jacket is well made , the stitched seams where different sections of the fabric join have a layer of waterproof tape under the seam on the inside.. This is called ‘taped seams’ and means that rain will not seep through the stitching.

Secondly the jacket has a tidy pleat to fold over the zip to keep the zip from leaking water. As a small gripe I would say that this zip could be a higher quality rubberized waterproof zip and do away with the need for a waterproof cleat but this design choice can be forgiven when you consider what a bargain price this jacket is.

The DWR fabric repels water really well. This sign of a good jacket is that the water from rain and sleet ‘beads’ on the jacket and runs of quickly. This has the benefit of allowing more of the rest of the fabric to let your body moisture vent naturally and also means the jacket doesn’t get heavy and cold with the rain.

Its important you look after DWR Hi Tec fabrics like this. Do not wash them with fabric softener which spoils the water repellency. Ideally wash with NikWax Tec Wash and re proof with water proof breathable products such as NikWax TX Direct ,when you no longer see the beading on the jacket. You can also GENTLY iron DWR fabric to maintain its water repellency from time to time.

From a breathability point of view the fabric did well and Shona felt she didn’t feel clammy at all.

Fit

There are a few factors to consider with fit on this jacket. Shona is a size 12 and about 5ft 5 and she is wearing a medium which I would say is a perfect fit for someone that runs, walks or hikes for 1 to 2 hours at the most ( that’s most of us !) . If you are the sort of person that may rely on this jacket all day ( on an all day hike or standing around outside in the wet ) then I would actually advise opting to go one size up because you need the option to have space for lots of layers under this jacket to keep warm.

In any outdoor situation from a warm summer with a light shower ( when you’ll have one layer on underneath) to a cold horrible January in the sleet ( where we gave it a pounding ) you might find you want room to have a baselayer, midlayer and puffy jacket on underneath this waterproof so keep this in mind when ordering.

If you are of a more ‘ample bosum’ then you are going to need to order a size up as well. We also felt the sleeves were slightly too short so perhaps in the future My Trail Co could consider making slightly longer sleeves ( mainly because it means you can then tuck your cold wet hands inside the ends of the sleeve to keep them warmer and drier).

Features

There are some high end features on this jacket that I’ve only seen before on absolutely top of the range jackets. To start with the jacket has decent sized pockets, really really big decent sized pockets. This means you have space for your gloves, hat, mobile phone and keys. One of my big gripes is that running gear NEVER has enough zipped pockets for stuff when I go for a run so its great that the jacket has lots of storage. You can also access the pockets from the inside too as a ‘slip in slip out’ mesh pocket .

I like that the hood can be velcro attached and tidied up out of the way when you don’t want a hood, you can adjust the hood to make sure it sits well on your face and it has a small visor on it to keep the rain off your face too.

The sleeves also have velcro on them so you can tighten them up to stop the wind and rain getting your sleeves wet beneath. The jacket also packs up very small ( you can scrunch it inside out into its own internal pocket to make a small compact ball to take with you) and best of all it only weighs about 9 oz.

Temperature

The pockets I mentioned also have a second very useful feature. If you are not carrying anything in them the mesh design inside means you can use them to regulate your heat. I often find running in the rain that you switch from being too hot to too cold quickly, and this can be the same when hiking up and down hills. By making the inner pocket sleeve mesh you can use the pockets as heat vents and fully open them to allow steam and heat out if you get too hot.

The jacket also has zips under the armpits so again you can offload heat and steam from there too, and better still the zips are at both ends so you don’t fiddle around too much with them.

Verdict

This jacket punches very seriously above its weight on quality and features considering its price tag. Any minor gripes about the zip or sleeve length are minor against the value for money this jacket is. This is the biggest no-brainer in Outdoor Gear I’ve seen in a while.

Its a great jacket for $49 and you can get it for the lowest online price direct from My Trail Co by clicking on this link.