The REI Flash Jacket is a skinny nylon 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 rather more breathable than a raincoat or a hardshell jacket; it solely weighs a couple of ounces and compresses all the way down to the scale of an apple. It’s ultimate to put on over a mid-layer garment like a fleece hoody when it’s cool out or to forestall bugs from biting you throughout on summer time evenings when a heavier jacket is simply too scorching. I additionally put on one in winter as an outer layer on 90% of my hikes as a result of it’s rather more breathable than a rain jacket or hardshell.
- Weight: 4.4 oz in a males’s XL
- Gender: Males’s and Ladies’s sizes can be found
- Pockets: 5
- Hood: Quantity adjustable on the rear of hood
- Materials: Recycled Nylon
- DWR Coating: Sure
- Professionals: Simple to Layer, Packs in Pocket, Matches in Fanny Pack
- Cons: Reasonably breathable
The REI Flash Jacket is a gossamer-thin nylon jacket designed to lure your physique warmth whereas actively mountain climbing or exercising. It has no insulation 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 sporting it.
The Flash Jacket can be remarkably breathable and wicking, absorbing the perspiration you generate, each sweat and water vapor, and helps evaporate it with out chilling you. I can really feel dampness on the outer floor of the jacket once I’m mountain climbing arduous 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 totally different from most windbreakers and wind shirts as a result of it has quite a lot 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 palms heat or carry further stuff. This makes it an oz. or two heavier than many ultralight wind shirts and windbreakers, nevertheless it’s a tradeoff that gives the jacket with much more utility. Nonetheless, having a chest pocket for a cellphone is a very nice characteristic that I want extra windbreakers and windshirts had. And, after all, you can even stuff the jacket into its chest pocket if you happen to like.
The Flash Jacket comes with an adjustable hood with a rear cordlock, so you may shrink the hood quantity all the way down to human measurement. 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 greater up my arms once I wish to launch extra physique warmth with out taking the jacket off. There’s additionally an elastic hem adjuster to seal out drafts from under and a full-length entrance zipper for air flow.
The Flash Jacket is made with skinny recycled nylon. REI doesn’t publish the denier spec, nevertheless it’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 be rated windproof as much as 30 mph, which I can vouch for firsthand on windy summits.
Windbreaker Comparability Desk
Suggestion
At 4.4 oz, the REI Flash Jacket is on the excessive finish of the gear weight spectrum for windbreakers and windshell jackets, which is fairly spectacular contemplating the quantity of performance and pockets REI was capable of embody. Regardless of these added options, it’s fairly a great purchase, and I’d advocate getting your self one, particularly if you happen to’ve by no means used a windbreaker or windshell for mountain climbing or backpacking.
Disclosure: REI donated a jacket for this overview.
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