Another Sleepmonsters Review. Ok lightweight jacket, shame about the hood…

The Essence Jacket is a super lightweight waterproof shell designed for weight critical activities like short adventure races, biking, endurance races and speed climbing. It’s made from Marmot’s new PreCip Plus, their “most advanced” fabric yet, designed for high aerobic sports and situations where breathability is critical.

The theory behind the fabric’s breathability is its “unique” microporous polyurethane barrier that is impregnated with silicon dioxide (sand) particles to create many small consistent holes that allow small water vapour molecules to pass through but not larger liquid ones. This sounds to me like the successful Triple Point Ceramic fabric that Lowe Alpine have used for years, but Marmot have aimed for super low weight and compressibility rather than durability. It certainly ticks the low weight and compressible boxes stuffing easily into a water bottle or cycle jersey pocket and weighing only 280 grams.

The jacket is designed to fit over fleece or soft shell underlayers so is sized slightly larger than normal, but still retains an athletic fit. The shoulders feature an ‘Angel Wing’ design, allowing a full range of motion without the jacket riding up when reaching for climbing holds or stretched out on the road bike. With an adjustable elastic drawcord on the hem it really doesn’t budge when you need to use a bit of body language. Cuffs are non-adjustable but are elasticated with enough stretch to pull up over your elbows if required. A pair of large internal mesh pockets are supposed to be pack friendly but because the mesh is so deep a pack waist belt stops you getting your hand down to any contents at the bottom, though opening up the pockets does add a ventilation option.

The fabric has so far impressed with its waterproofness and the water repellent coating is still working well. However, despite claims and some figures provided to ‘prove’ breathability, real world testing says it gets out of its depth pretty quickly when working a sweat up. Let’s be honest, there are very few waterproof jackets that can cope with the amount of moisture generated when working hard, but the Essence does seem to get rather clammy rather quickly, even when just sauntering along with my dogs. Bear in mind that all jackets of this type, with a polyurethane coating on the inside, will feel damp as moisture vapour condenses on the surface before being passed through the barrier along molecular chains or through pores, only a mesh hanging liner or other inner layer will stop this damp feeling, but will add weight and reduce packability. Swings and roundabout as always.

The weight, fit, and waterproofness (so far) of this jacket are definite positives, unfortunately, the hood is a real let down. The volume adjustment iswoeful and the small tab of velcro on the back of the hood that should allow you to tighten it snug against the head, is pitiful. It doesn’t hold under any force, such as moving your hard in any direction, and the tab is so small anyway that there is minimal adjustment there anyway. Tighten down the drawcords at the front to pull the hood around your face and the back velcro will rip open. Use it in the wind and you are asking for a soaking as it billows up big time. The slightly stiffened peak would be alright if the volume adjustment on the back was better but as it is the peak flops down over your face. With some improvement this could be a good value, featherweight waterproof, but at the moment I wouldn’t want to use it for anything other than emergency use or as a backpacking/travelling jacket.

The Ion Windshirt is a featherweight hooded windshell made from Marmot’s own P-170 fabric with Defender DWR. Details are a bit thin on the ground as to what P-170 fabric actually is, but essentially it’s a low denier tightly woven polyester with a highly effective water repellent treatment added to it. It’s very light at 148 grams and easily stashes away into a cycle jersey pocket without noticing.

For convenience it folds into the chest pocket and has a small loop to clip a karabiner, useful for attaching to a pack but might be more practical if it had an elasticated buckled belt so it could be easily carried round the waist.

Out of the bag the water repellency was superb and held up to some heavy rain before eventually wetting out. The nature of the weave meant that moisture spread out over the surface and evaporated quickly once conditions were better. Breathability of the fabric was excellent and was enhanced by the full length quality YKK zip. I used this in the Turas expedition race and was great for keeping off light showers and water splashes when working hard on the rowing stage.

Overall cut is a bit square, but with ‘angel wing’ arms the body stays put when you reach above your head, giving full freedom of movement without exposing your midriff. The cuffs are simply elasticated with no adjustment but with enough stretch to pull them up above the elbow if needed and enough length to pull them down over your hands. Body length was good in our large sample and chest size not overly large, so tending towards a more athletic fit than the more leisure fit that most American outdoor brands favour. There’s no elastic or drawcord on the waist hem which didn’t seem to affect its performance at all – most of the time I had a pack on with a waistbelt which held things in tight enough to stop any draughts.

Unusually for a windproof the hood is actually quite good with a nice close fit and two minimalist elasticated drawcords tightening things down enough at the front to stop the hood billowing up in the wind even on the bike. It doesn’t look pretty but it’s effective and would be ideal when you need a little extra protection from midgies or just a bit more warmth when stopped on a mountain top cairn for a few minutes. When rolled away the hood is only held down by a small poppered flap of fabric which does a pretty poor job of holding the hood down when running and it inevitably bounces its way to the side and becomes a little annoying!

There’s no reflective on the jacket so those looking for a bit more visibility will need to look elsewhere, but with its low weight, great water resistance, impressive breathability and useful hood it’s a very useful top to have in your pack. All in all, for £35 this has to be recommended.