The British climate can often be very wet and cold, especially in winter. These effects can be greatly enhanced when you are out in the open country, high up in the hills. As an avid hiker, I always want to be protected from the wind-chill and rain as much as possible when I am out on a hike, but at the same time I also want to be left comfortable and relatively sweat free. I want to enjoy my hike as much as possible. There are many outdoor jackets on the market, all with their separate features and specifications. The major thing for me when buying an outdoor jacket is the material used. There is a large variety of different materials used for hiking jackets and some of them are better than others. If the material is cheap then it will not do the job that I want then will not keep me warm or dry, which isn’t what I expect from an outdoor jacket. So, whatever material is used is seriously going to affect my decision. Let’s see why. Many of the cheaper hiking jackets are made from polyester. This really is not a very food material for hiking jackets and should be avoided! Polyester is not a material that has been designed with outdoor jackets in mind, so it never really was going to excel right from the start. The problem with polyester is that it is made up from various different strands that are clumped together. This means that there are tiny little spaces in which water droplets can seep through. Furthermore, as polyester is a plastic, the material can quickly stretch and snap which means that the material isn’t very durable either.
Another material is used for hiking jackets is Gore-Tex. This is perhaps the most well known of material used. This material is a step up from the cheap polyester; Gore-Tex is waterproof and extremely durable. Gore-Tex is made up from four different layers. Gore-Tex material is designed so that the water droplets are repelled by the inner layers of the material so that the water droplets are held on the surface of the material, so they can be easily brushed off. This means that you can stay dry in even the heaviest of downpours. Obviously, because Gore-Tex is made up of four layers, it will be durable and give you a lot more wear than polyester. However, the only downfall of Gore-Tex is that it is extremely heavy for a material and because of its thickness; it can make you sweat in large amounts!
This is where the materials used are taken to the highest level; Nikwax. This is an excellent material, used only on the most expensive of hiking jackets. Nikwax provides you with all of the water protection and durability of Gore-Tex but is better in important areas. Nikwax is extremely breathable; if you are sweating then the Nikwax fabric will draw the sweat off of your skin and it will seep through the material and evaporate into the air. Alternatively, if you are feeling cold, the cold sweat is drawn away from your skin giving you a drier, warmer feeling. It is like your own body temperature regulator! Furthermore, Nikwax is about 30% lighter than the other materials so as an added bonus it hardly feels like you are even wearing an outdoor jacket. As you can see, the type of material used for a hiking jacket can drastically change the experience that you have when hiking. A cheap material can leave you wet and sweaty whereas a top material can leave you feeling comfortable at all times and perfectly dry. Therefore, this is a big factor for me when choosing myself a hiking jacket, for if it doesn’t have the right material then I won’t be buying it.