A good winter jacket is warm but not hot, water resistant but breathable, spacious but not flappy in the wind. It’s a difficult garment to get right, with perfection rarely managed.
And with technical fabrics from the likes of Gore and Polartec now in the mix, the lines between the rain jacket – aka hardshell – and the traditional softshell jacket are now being blurred, with winter jackets capable of water resistance that’s not far off waterproofing, along with the expected superb insulation.
It’s not just about the materials – brands are getting highly innovative with the design and features of their jackets. As an example, no fewer than three out of six models in this test deploy a dual construction to varying degrees. In the case of the Endura Pro SL3-Season, the inner layer can be removed completely, making it highly versatile.
“It’s a difficult garment to get right”
All this has meant that the price of a technical winter jacket has shot up compared to the old days of the simple polyester softshell, with £200 almost the minimum you can expect to pay for a garment that includes all the top tech from one of the leading manufacturers.
It has also made life a little more complicated if you’re in the market for a winter jacket, so we’ve rounded up six of the latest. All except
