When I first moved to Toronto, I bought a rain jacket from MEC called the Whoosh. It was advertised as having an urban look while still being a good jacket for bike commuting. As a result, it was offered in darker colours, and I bought into the advertising by buying a medium blue one. However, after a few short months, the zipper would come untracked very easily, and it would open up from the bottom. Since MEC offers a “Rock Solid Guarantee“, I took it back and expected that they would either repair or replace the jacket. No dice. All they did was replace the slider, and that made the problem worse, and when I took it back again, they said that they didn’t have any other complaints of that nature. This was a bit disappointing to me. I’ve had some experience with other companies such as Arcteryx who unconditionally guarantee satisfaction. This experience has put me off buying higher end MEC branded gear. In fact, I submitted a negative review on the Whoosh, and it was never posted. To be fair to MEC, I have heard good things about their Derencho jacket, and it does deal with the deficiencies of the Whoosh: it has much more reflective material, and it comes with a dual directional zipper.
After doing a bit of research, I bought a Showers Pass Elite Jacket. I had this one for about four years, and it only recently failed. The seam on the chest pocket blew out.
You can see from the picture that the short waterproof zipper is merely glued, not sewn. I was very happy with this jacket. It was ventilated much better than the Whoosh, although it was not completely clear whether this was due to the large back vent, or the Event fabric. At any rate, I would say that the Showers Pass Elite is on the more breathable side of the waterproof / breathable tradeoff. I did e-mail them, and told them about the situation, and they did offer 20% off a new jacket. This was a nice gesture, but I didn’t take them up on it since with duty, shipping and brokerage, it would have probably cost more than just buying it from MEC. (when I got it, I ordered it from the US. I am happy that MEC is offering it now in Canada as I think that it is a very high quality jacket).
Now I’m riding with an Endura Luminite Jacket. (Image from Endura website)
You can get it for $140 from Amazon. This puts it at a price point considerably below either the MEC Derencho or the Showers Pass Elite. I’ve only had it for a month, but I have a few quick impressions.
It has a built in taillight that I would basically classify as a gimmick.
There are instructions inside the jacket that tell you to remove the light before washing the jacket.
The light itself is an LED that is coupled into a short piece of transparent silicone rubber. The white rectangle is a short tube of rubber that protects the printed circuit board. The light runs off a CR2032 battery. I’m not sure about run time, or how long this light will go without breaking, but there are many other things to like about this jacket. Firstly, it is an annoying bright shade of yellow as you can see here, brighter even than my Pearl Izumi cycling vest. We’ll see if the Day Glo holds up better than the dyes that were used in the 80′s. Secondly, there is quite a bit of reflective trim, in places that make sense such as the back of the sleeves to help with hand signals after dark. The other thing that is not obvious from the picture is that there are two small pockets in the hand warmer position that are very handy. It is possible that I contributed to the failure of the Showers Pass jacket by stuffing the chest pocket with keys and either a small camera or a phone. I won’t have to do that with this jacket.
If you look on the inside, the quality of stitching is high, with exterior seams taped and most interior seams covered with trim as well. You’ll also see that the pit zips have mesh on them. Whether or not you like this is a matter of taste.
One niggle that I have is that the front zipper is not dual directional, and it is not waterproof. The slider can get snagged on the little flaps that are made of reflective material.
Overall, I would say that the Luminite is a very high quality jacket, especially for the price. In fact, for a brief period between Black Friday and a couple of days around Cyber Monday, Amazon had it on sale for $90 which was an incredible deal. Oddly, during that sale, they turned off the option of shipping to Canada. The sizing is similar to the MEC and is oversize compared to the Showers Pass. I wear a medium. I am a 38 suit jacket size, 5′ 10″ and about 150 lbs, and I have no problem with fitting a long sleeve wool jersey and either a pile vest or a thermal jersey underneath. I even find the sleeve length a bit long. It seems more waterproof than the Showers Pass, but less breathable. Again, this might be to the lack of a back vent. On the other hand, I found the Showers Pass to be a bit cold in the dead of winter.
In summary, it seems like a good jacket at a very good price. I’ll see how it holds up.
Thanks for turning me on to this jacket Jun. I’ve got one on order for a Christmas present to myself and will let you know how it works out. I’m a bit concerned about the lack of a back vent, but I got it a size larger than I normally wear to allow for more air flow. I do a lot of XC skiing and plan on wearing it for that too, so we’ll see. (I miss my old MEC yellow “Toronto commuters jacket” that went MIA sometime last spring)
Tim, you can get the luminite for $100 + shipping from chainreactioncycles in UK. You really don’t need much water-proof for this stuff though… keep brushing the snow off and the DWR coated wind-proof stuff works.
jnyyz, I purchased the Whoosh on sale… to replace a green “garbage bag”. I also dabbled with the idea of a shower’s pass. To my surprise MEC decided to carry both a new Drencho jacket and the shower pass elite. Oh well! I haven’t had issues with the zipper… perhaps not enough zipping has been done. It is a double-zipper though so perhaps this explains why it was readily unzipping at the bottom?
The whoosh is a trademark commuter jacket though, I feel like a cult member wearing it! Haha.
I’ve been looking for a rain jacket to ride brevets in. Probably going with the SP Elite unless the Derencho sways me.
Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear what you thought.
Merry X’mas!
When the Showers Pass Elite jacket failed after 4 years due to the zipper issue, was the waterproofing still intact up to that point?
it was not as waterproof as when I originally bought it. It is difficult to quantify. Water would no longer bead up on the surface; it would soak in even after nikwax retreatment. On the other hand, even when the fabric was visibly “wet”, I wasn’t getting soaked through. EVent fabric is definitely on the more breathable side of the waterproof/breathable tradeoff.