The new king of windshirts (by an unlikely candidate)

Hi Gary – thanks for the post. Curious, how does this compare to the Patagonia Houdini — in the breathability department?

You read my mind – I tried them both. EMS blows Houdini away in breathability. Somehow it manages to breathe like fleece, but blocks the wind. I haven't seen EMS do garments like this before.

Looks like a good price too— $69 and on sale for $55.

Gary,

Thanks for the tip.

I ordered a grey one to match the grey skies here in Seattle as I type this.

If the skies had been blue I could not have matched things up so nicely as they don't offer a blue one.

Daryl

Where's Richard? We need some data to enlighten us on this rhetoric.

Daryl – please post your thoughts once you get it, would be curious if others think the same way about this thing.

Gary said, "Somehow it manages to breathe like fleece, but blocks the wind."

An optimal windshirt design has a CFM of about 42.5 at the crossover point for the maximum water vapor transport and the minimum wind blocking. Woven summer shirts typically have a CFM in the 48 – 88 CFM range. Fleece has a CFM average of about 240. To never impede physical performance you need something like a loose weave T-shirt at ~400 CFM.

My WILD GUESS is he is describing something in the 88 CFM range (near maximum air permeability for a woven fabric). A single coffee filter is about 70 CFM and a doubled filter is about 35 CFM. Somebody needs to blow some hot air through both and report back how they compare.

Hey Richard, is breathability (CFM) and wind resistance a one way street? Is it possible for a garment to be both more breathable and more wind resistant that another garment?

Richard, as usual, super grateful for the tips. Would a tea filter work as well?

Justin,

Yes, I have seen that.

It occurs with very high quality weaves that have many very small uniform size pores versus fewer irregular sized pores. You can easily quantify this phenomenon in the lab by doing both a CFM test and a HH test. For the same CFM, the fabric with the higher HH will generally feel more windproof. I have seen ~20% variances in the HH values for the same CFM in windshirts but, nothing as dramatic as Gary described.

Gary,

I never tested a tea filter but I did test a large number of paper coffee filters. See HERE

Thanks for the tip Gary. If you don't mind, which size did you go for and how does it fit for your size/weight?

Thank you.

P.S. – John Abela, would love to hear your comments on this one.

Sorry for the delayed response, I just am not all that active here at BPL anymore and would not have seen this except somebody told me you mentioned me in this post.

Obviously from a specs perspective I do not have any comment – as there are no specs on this garment being it being “100% nylon ripstop”. Such issues are why guys like Richard are so valuable to the hiking community.

From a design factor, I could share thoughts.

As you may well know, I am not a fan of chest pockets. Whether a person is a hiker or a fastpacker, they have enough pockets to put stuff into, the chest pocket just adds more things to possibly get in the way of my packs harness system. They also add unnecessary weight (however small).

I do like the felt-like fabric companies are adding to the neck and sleeves, but again, totally unnecessary and just adds weight (again, however little).

It is nice to see they did not put the seams at the top of the shoulders, that always gets extra brownie points in my book.

It has a MSRP of $69 and a weight of 110 grams – that is $1.59 per gram.

The Montbell Tachyon Anorak has a MSRP of $99 and a weight of 55 grams – that is $0.55 per gram.

I use the MBTA as the basis here because it is the “happy medium” of the popular wind jackets out there – based on the data Richard provided for me and which was used in my last article on wind jackets.

I think we all know it basically comes down to three things:

Airflow In
Airfow Out
Hydrophobic

More and more I want a wind jacket that allows max airflow out, with the minimalist airflow in, and no hydrophobic additives – as I will use a rain jacket if I need to deal with rain.

We each have to decide which of these three aspects means the most and buy based on that factor. As Richard has so well documented in dozens of posts here at BPL, nothing out there is the “king of windshirts” or the “ultimate windshirt” – it really all just does come down to which of those three aspects we need the most from a garment for a specific event activity and using the appropriate one at the appropriate time.

"…that is $1.59 per gram.

…that is $0.55 per gram."

I think that should read grams per dollar?

I agree w/ John; for me outflow is the most important attribute to tick off for a windshirt; a good DWR is nice, but if it doesn't breathe well I might as well be wearing my hardshell

I'd be curious to see how the EMS offering compares to the 2012-pre Houdini- fortunately I own two as it definitely has outperformed any other windshirt I've used

as far as fit of the Houdini, it is a little boxy, but layers over a puffy nicely-I wouldn't want it too much more form fitting

Funny you posted this as yesterday I happened into an EMS and was checking out this jacket. I put on the small and the fit was slightly boxy and a little bit long for me. Overall the jacket fit decently and the material is a lot different than the trash bags we are used to. A bit of a rough finish to the outer material.

I've been delaying getting the montbell tachyon for some time now. Maybe I should just pick up this ems jacket at 2x the weight but still under 4 oz.

Can't wait to read some test results compared to the usual suspects.

OP update: Hey guys, I was able to test this jacket out more while hiking and also biking. I can only say it performs even better than I thought. The feel is like you're wearing a cotton t-shirt, not a plastic bag. Breathability is great, DWR is solid and the fit just rocks. Only thing I haven't fully tested in the rain is the hood. But, overall it looks like EMS killed it on this one.

Montbell Tachyon, OR, Montane, Zpacks and Patagonia are getting moved in the back shelf.

nice. i ordered one since it was so cheap…i wonder if it will knock off my new favorite (the westcomb crest hoody…)

I get mine tomorrow.

waiting for the CFM tests :)

I've been on the lookout for a truly breathable sub 4oz windshirt, so I was excited to try this one out. I received mine today. Though the material has a nice texture and 2 way stretch, I don't think it breaths well. I had trouble pushing breath through it at all. Just a heads up. The search continues.

Pretty much what I expected. You need to be able to have an easy time breathing through it for a windshirt to function well.

Does the hood fit over a climbing helmet?

@Serge and @Brian – I would walk for a mile or two in the windshirt before any claims. I biked and hiked with it already for days and it works great. It's not absolute softshell breathability, but it flushes air well enough not to sweat.

@Gary, I've found the breath test to be a pretty reliable indicator of breathability. I also have a pretty good idea of what level of breathability I'm looking for, and this doesn't have nearly enough. That said, it is a nice piece, and I'm glad that its working well for you. It might work really well for others too, so I'm definitely not poo pooing on it, I just don't want others to think that you can get fleece like breathability from this, not that thats whats really desired anyway.