The REI Flash Jacket is a really nylon skinny jacket that traps your physique warmth and prevents the wind from stripping it away. Additionally referred to as a windbreaker or wind shirt, it’s far more breathable than a raincoat or a hardshell jacket, it solely weighs a number of ounces, and compresses right down to the dimensions of an apple. It’s a super garment to put on over a midlayer garment like a fleece hoody when it’s cool out or to forestall bugs from biting you throughout bug season when a heavier jacket is simply too scorching. In winter, I put on one as an outer layer on 90% of my hikes as a result of it’s a lot extra breathable than a rain jacket or hardshell.
Specs at a Look
- Weight: 4.5 oz in a males’s XL
- Gender: Males’s and Girls’s sizes can be found
- Pockets: 5
- Hood: Quantity adjustable at rear of hood
- Materials: Recycled Nylon
- DWR Coating: Sure
The REI Flash Jacket is a gossamer-thin nylon jacket designed to lure your physique warmth if you’re actively mountain climbing or exercising. It doesn’t have any insulation of its personal however blocks the wind or chilly air from penetrating your midlayer clothes and chilling you. You’ll be amazed at how a lot hotter you’ll keep if you’re sporting it.
The Flash Jacket can also be remarkably breathable and wicking, that means that it absorbs the perspiration you generate, each sweat and water vapor, and helps evaporate it with out chilling you. I can actually really feel dampness on the outer floor of the jacket once I’m mountain climbing exhausting and climbing mountains, however I’m nonetheless good and dry inside. Whereas it has a mist-shedding DWR coating, it’s not waterproof like a rain jacket or hardshell.
The Flash Jacket is a bit of completely different from most windbreakers and wind shirts as a result of it has loads of pockets, 5 pockets in all. There’s a chest pocket able to holding a full-sized Smartphone, two inner drop pockets for holding hats or mittens, and two exterior facet pockets (unzippered) to maintain your fingers heat or carry additional stuff. This makes it an oz or two heavier than many ultralight wind shirts and windbreakers, but it surely’s a tradeoff that gives the jacket with much more utility. Nonetheless, having a chest pocket for a telephone is a very nice characteristic that I want extra windbreakers and wind shirts had. And naturally, you may stuff the jacket into its chest pocket in case you like.
The Flash Jacket comes with an adjustable hood, with a rear cordlock, so you may shrink the hood quantity right down to human dimension. It has elastic wrist cuffs to seal out the wind, though I want they have been a bit of bigger so I might slide the sleeves increased up my arms once I wish to launch extra physique warmth with out taking the jacket off. There’s additionally an elastic hem adjuster so you may promote out drafts from beneath, together with a full-length entrance zipper for air flow.
The Flash Jacket is made with skinny recycled nylon. REI doesn’t publish the denier spec, but it surely’s very comparable in texture and weight to the 15 and 20d material used on Patagonia’s Houdini Jacket and the Rab Important Hoody. The Flash Jacket can also be rated windproof as much as 30 mph, which I can vouch for first hand on windy winter summits.
Advice
At 4.5 oz, the REI Flash Jacket is on the low finish of the gear weight spectrum for windbreakers and wind shell jackets which is fairly spectacular contemplating the quantity of performance and pockets REI was in a position to embody. Regardless of these added options, it’s actually fairly a superb purchase and I’d undoubtedly advocate getting your self one, particularly in case you’ve by no means used a windbreaker or wind shell for mountain climbing or backpacking.
Disclosure: REI donated a jacket for this evaluation.
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Final up to date: 2022-03-11 07:44:55
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