Feeling Damp Under Your Waterproof Jacket? Here’s How To Choose Better.

Have you ever hiked through such a bad downpour that your waterproof-breathable jacket seemed to just give up? Maybe you got to your tent and peeled off your outerwear to discover that you top was, well, damp. If so, you’ve experienced a tradeoff inherent in modern gear design.

It’s easy to hear the word “waterproof” and assume that whatever garment it’s attached to will keep you dry no matter the rain. But while that might have been true of the thick, rubberized coats of yesteryear, today’s jackets are a little more complicated. As Outside Test Editor Adam Trenkamp explained to me when I visited the Outside Lab at CU Denver, modern waterproof-breathable jackets are only waterproof to a point, instead compromising on pure water-resistance in order to better handle another major cause of damp baselayers by more efficiently venting perspiration through tiny pores in their membranes. In this video, Adam breaks down why waterproof-breathable jackets sometimes fall short, how manufacturers balance a jacket’s ability to keep water out with the need to vent water vapor, and how we test outerwear in the field and in the lab to see what works and what doesn’t.