Last week, I ran into the OR helium jacket at a local outdoor store. I thought it was a windshirt and I remember because I thought the price was outrageous! A couple days later, I read the Outdoor Retailer writeup on Shield and I was galvanized. I thought it was awesome, and I started saving money, since I needed a new rain shell. But…
I just did a little research, and all the Shield garments this season are the 2.5 layer, which, despite the hype about the 20k breathability of the 2 and 3 layer versions, is only 10k waterproof and 8k breathable! It's really soft and compressible, but come on! $140 for less breathability than a Precip jacket? I'll pass til the 3layer comes out.
This was talked about a couple years ago when the technology debuted but just wanted to make sure people knew what they were ponying up cash for this season.
