GoLite Evade Jacket - First Look

GoLite Evade Jacket - First Look

Price: £133

Weight: 634 grammes (medium)

Features: Softshell jacket using Cynchronicity soft shell fabric lined with GoLite's C-Thru baselayer fabric, three zipped pockets, three piece hood with gussetted gills, adjustable hem and elasticated and adjustable cuffs, full-length front zip with wind draft flap, fleece-lined chin guard. Available in 'khaki; 'mad red' and 'cola'. Khaki pictured above.

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What's It For? GoLite says that this is 'Windproof, breathable, water-resistant, ultra-lite multi-sport jacket ' and that it's ideal 'for all your fast-motion activities in cold and wind'. Like most soft shells, the idea is that it offers protection against all but the worst weather with better breathability and a nicer feel than a straight, traditional waterproof.

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The Techy Bits One of the great things about GoLite is that they're always experimenting. In this case they've used a windproof and extremely water-resistant PU laminate with a polyester face fabric and an inner scrim made from C-Thru, their own super-wicking baselayer fabric. The idea is that the lining moves moisture outwards rapidly, keeping you drier.

There are a couple of interesting features too. The hood is similar to the Xirtam item we found to look odd but work well, but completely unheralded, GoLite has also stuck mega-breathable and non-wind resistant panels down the side of the trunk and the insides of the sleeves. Effectively the fabric has no wind resistance, so they're huge, non-adjustable vents.

There are also strange gill flaps in the base of the hood, more about them in a bit.

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How It Works We like GoLite, not least because they've been one of the driving forces in making lightweight kit more mainstream and despite toning down their kit since the early minimalist Ray Jardine days, they're still not afraid to try things out.

Sometimes it works brilliantly - the odd-looking hood on the Xirtam Jacket, for example, proved to be really effective - other times things don't quite hit the target.

On the positive side, we like the fact that they've put a hood on a softshell, which makes total sense for a jacket intended for use in cold and windy conditions and the substantial-feeling fabric is totally windproof and very water resistant with the wicking lining seeming to soak up moisure fast. The hood looks odd and the peak needs more stiffening, but again it works pretty well giving a surprising amount of side protection.

Permeable Side Panels It's not all good news though. We've seen the idea of totally permeable side panels before on Montane's eVENT Softshell Jacket last year and as with that jacket, while they keep you nice and cool when working hard, any sort of high wind, and sidewinds in particular, cut straight through the fabric.

That's particularly bad news if you're running or biking downhill as you get very chilled very fast. Vents are great, but sometimes you need to be able to close them down and conserve heat. As it stands, just as with the Montane Jacket, the only way of doing that is putting another jacket over the top.

Some days that doesn't matter and the venting is great on long climbs for example or on undulating terrain, but not so good in situations where you generate less heat.

Cut Short Then there's the cut. The basic fit is nice, not too lose and not too tight - GoLite calls it 'relaxed', but something's gone wrong with the cut of the back of the jacket and far from having a droptail, it's actually slightly shorter than the front when being worn, which looks and feels odd. It also means it rides up if you're biking, not so good on a multi-sport jacket.

Then there are the big front handwarmer pockets which are ideally placed for your hands but rendered unuseable by a pack belt or climbing harness, which isn't quite so clever. That doesn't make the jacket unuseable, but it's a little irritating if you're carrying a pack and want to be able to use the pockets.

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Initial Verdict

Inside the Evade there's a really nice jacket struggling to get out and it's not far from the surface either. Most of the basics are right - good, windproof and very water resistant fabric, effective hood and a nice, substantial feel. It looks good too.

It's not that light though and the short rear and low pockets were minor irritants. The real issue though, are those big, wind-permeable panels at the side of the trunk and inside the arms. They're great for losing heat, but what's the point of a windproof that isn't, well, windproof? Maybe a more wind-resistant, but still highly breathable woven fabric would have been a better choice in those areas.

Our initial take is that the Evade is great when you're working hard, but it's easy to get too cold fast when things get windy or your effort levels fall off. We're going to use it a bit more though and see how we get on.

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GoLite web site

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