jacket photos on Flickr

Gear testing has become an almost daily ritual at ashmei. Every sample is logged in, measured, tried on, fitted, picked over, washed, re measured, critiqued and worn on that days run.

We take gear testing very seriously as we are judged on our ultimate performance. All materials and components are tested in the field rather than accepting the marketing blurb from the suppliers and their lab test results as we all know running in different conditions around the world throughout the seasons is totally different to tests carried out in a controlled laboratory.

Take our men’s waterproof jacket for instance. We tested several high performance waterproof fabrics to find the very best. We looked at the test results from the labs and produced several unique prototypes using two different fabrics so that you can compare them like for like on the same run in the same conditions by the same runner. These prototypes don’t look great with one half in one colour and the other in a different colour and we sometimes get some strange looks when we run together all wearing these “Frankenstein” pieces but it’s the only way to truly test like for like performance.

We tested our waterproof jacket in the rain, cold, wind and also on a warm sunny days. These tests guarantee the garment is waterproof, windproof and crucially breathable. The test on the sunny day was to compare the breathability of each fabric with a basic cotton T shirt worn under the jacket to visibly see the moisture build up caused by lower breathable fabrics. The results differed considerably from fabric to fabric but the results were conclusive with us selection the most breathable waterproof from the best materials around the world.

We found that all the fabrics kept the water and wind out but most of the fabrics did not breath fast enough and generated too much body heat resulting in sweat that could not evaporate fast enough and soon stopped all the wicking from the garments worn underneath the jacket. This resulted in becoming soaking wet inside the jacket and eventually becoming cold on a winters run. By choosing the most breathable fabric which allows much more moisture to evaporate (up to 2x more than some of the other “best” fabrics tested) so that the garments worn under the jacket still wick sweat away from the body to keep the runner more comfortable.

To date, no waterproof material can cope entirely with a very high aerobic activity and wick moisture fast enough to keep you 100% dry but we think we have found the very best. This fabric is used extensively by mountaineers around the world, not because it rains a lot on mountains, especially when climbing above the clouds, but because breathability within the layers is critical in these conditions. Body heat in generated and if this heat cannot wick through these layers of protective clothing fast enough then it turns to moisture and freezes.

As you can imagine, this fabric is not cheap, but it is great value for money. There is not much point buying a cheaper waterproof and then getting soaking wet from sweat rather than the rain!

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England soccer jacket by Mary Leng