Rab Kinetic Plus Jacket  | Performance

The stretchiness of the fabric and a streamlined cut gives a properly neat fit. It’s a simple design with just two hand-pockets, a minimally-adjustable, but wired hood, a fixed hem and adjustable cuffs. All of which helps keep the weight of a medium down to just 305 grammes.

That makes it eminently packable – there’s a stuff-sac supplied – but ironically we found it worked best on cool to moderate days, particularly showery ones, instead of a windproof. On really wet days, we’d still drag out a full-on conventional hardshell, but the beauty of the Kinetic Plus is that it’s only slightly less breathable than many windproofs, yet still copes just fine with proper rain.

In that respect, it’s a little bit like Polartec’s NeoShell and like that fabric is based on a PU membrane, in this case sandwiched between two layers of stretchy polyester knit.

The stretch and pleasant, soft feel means it never has that crackly, restrictive thing you get with some waterproofs and it looks very neat as well. So far we’ve used it for walking and biking and a low to medium level of effort and it’s coped really well with both with minimal internal infernal fug.

There aren’t a lot of features, but what there are work well. Main zip, for example, is a moulded-tooth YKK Aquaguard Vislon, which combines effective water resistance with clean aesthetics and a buttery smooth action.

We like it so much, in fact, that its become pretty much our new ‘go to spring waterproof for pretty much everything. Feels good, looks good, keeps water out and doesn’t feel sweaty unless you absolutely hammer it.