Bear Trading Co Jacket- Rain Resistant Finish

This jacket has worked out really well for being both warm and water resistant.

At the end of our summer hike, my hiking pal and I were looking for gifts for our guys and stumbled into an end-of-season sale at a store in Old Forge, NY.Old Forge is a tourist shoppers paradise to begin with.If you have never been to Old Forge Hardware, it is not to be missed... but I digress; this store was across the street.

So she bought me a fleece jacketand then we each bought one of these jackets for our guys.I thought that the fabric would be a hit, but the color choices were only this mousy brown and a dusty red.I didnt think hed like either of those, but hes been so happy with the rest of the jacket that its been a winner.

Its all about that stupid paper route.Its 365 days a year, and it rains a certain number of those, and he gets cold easily.A slicker just doesnt work for getting in and out of the car to do stores and coin-op boxes.This jacket is sort of a middle of the road choice.

Fabric
The finish on the outer surface is hard to describe.Ive never felt a fabric finish like this before.It says its polyurethane foam coating.It feels somewhat rubbery, but with the softness of nylon. I can see that at wear points it is beginning to get a little shiny looking (after 6 months of irregular use).The inside is a quilted nylon with a light insulation layer between. That nylon could be higher quality in my opinion.It seems to be a lower thread count than should be used for a jacket lining. This is not a true winter coat... sort of spring and fall weight.The collar and the inside of the hood are fleece.I gave the Material a 5 rating because I really like the finish on the outer fabric.The lining material should get a 2.

Mechanics
The hood zips off if desired.There is a drawstring with button-loc on the hem and on the edges of the hood.There are two zip pockets on the outside, and a zip inner pocket in the left breast.Zippers have large nylon teeth, except the inside pocket which is a regular nylon zipper. The cuffs have a velcro tab to snug them up a bit.There is a loop for hanging inside the neckband.

Care
It says this is machine washable on warm and machine dryable on low.We havent tried that yet.

Hubby says
He likes this a lot, Whew!He says that it is a lot more water resistant than a regular jacket and is a good weight for those in-between days.And he must be telling the truth because he really doesnt like brown all that much.

I get the last word
Hubby is really hard on clothes.I dont think this will last all that well.But hes not wearing it every day, and I think that he will definitely get $20 worth of use out of it.The regular price was $34.I dont think it would be worth that much.Im concerned about the flimsy lining material.