The REI Flash Jacket is a skinny nylon jacket that traps your physique warmth and prevents the wind from stripping it away. Additionally known 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 excellent to put on over a mid-layer garment like a fleece hoody when it’s cool out or to stop bugs from biting you throughout on summer season evenings when a heavier jacket is just too sizzling. I additionally put on one in winter as an outer layer on 90% of my hikes as a result of it’s far more breathable than a rain jacket or hardshell.
- Weight: 4.4 oz in a males’s XL
- Gender: Males’s and Girls’s sizes can be found
- Pockets: 5
- Hood: Quantity adjustable on the rear of hood
- Materials: Recycled Nylon
- DWR Coating: Sure
- Execs: 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 carrying it.
The Flash Jacket can also 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 after I’m mountain climbing onerous 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 completely different from most windbreakers and wind shirts as a result of it has lots 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 further stuff. This makes it an oz or two heavier than many ultralight wind shirts and windbreakers, however it’s a tradeoff that gives the jacket with much more utility. Nonetheless, having a chest pocket for a cellphone is a very nice function that I want extra windbreakers and windshirts had. And, in fact, you may also stuff the jacket into its chest pocket in the event 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 had been a bit bigger so I may slide the sleeves greater up my arms after I need 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, however it’s very related in texture and weight to the 15 and 20d material used on Patagonia’s Houdini Jacket and the Rab Very important Hoody. The Flash Jacket can also 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 in a position to embrace. Regardless of these added options, it’s fairly a superb purchase, and I’d advocate getting your self one, particularly in the event you’ve by no means used a windbreaker or windshell for mountain climbing or backpacking.
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Disclosure: REI donated a jacket for this assessment.
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