In mid 2014 ZPacks updated their rain jacket to use a new combination of fabrics: a layer of eVent on the inside, a layer of spectra (CF) in the middle, and a layer of nylon on the outside.
I have written more about this jacket than anybody else so I have gotten a lot of people asking me thoughts about this new version, called the “Challenger“. If you want a lot of backstory on this rain jacket you can read my original post, my thoughts after using it for a few months, my thoughts after using it for over a year, my full review of the last version, and my post going into detail of the fabric being used.
Author and hiker, John Abela, wearing a Waterproof Breathable rain jacket made by ZPacks LLC in the Redwood forest of Northern California.
Photo Credit: Brian Doyle.
Greetings Hikers,
The topic today is the “waterproof breathable fabric” from Cuben Tech Corp.
The issue: that they have been using GE eVENT in their WP/B material.
Yes, that’s right… Cuben Tech Corp has been using eVENT inside of their breathable cuben fiber/laminate.
When I first learned about this information I have to say that I simply did not believe it. I thought the individual who told me about this was joking around with me. I quickly came to realize that my leg was not being pulled and I think my response was along the lines of “wow“. I sat stunned in my chair and it probably took me a good ten minutes to respond back to the person with that one-word response.
Why Is This Important, My Personal Thoughts:
This knowledge is important for a few reasons, and far more reasons than just what I plan to address today.
I believe this is an issue worth writing about, and the hiking community as a whole discussing, because for far too long there have been a lot of haters of the material that Cuben Tech produces. For some of these haters I believe they have total justification for having the opinions that they have, but for the vast majority of the ‘haters’ of the cuben fiber material it has all just been a bunch of puff and smoke with no real substance. It is not my goal here to change their minds, I might further validate some of their issues and I might further invalidate their issues, I have no idea and really it does not matter all that much, haters will be haters. But what I hope to do is to point out some facts that those of us who care a great deal about the gear we use, is that often times it seems that we, the end-users of gear, tend to be left in the dark about things and that sometimes can do more harm than it can do good.
