The Female Lite Speed Jacket is one of the best if not the best ultralight wind and weather resistant jackets with a full zip and hood on the market and The Greeat Outdoors (TGO) magazine agrees. The Female Lite Speed is the latest Pertex windproof garment to achieve a top award, this time its with TGO and BEST BUY

Relatively long with drop tail so it stays put.  The fit is lean but allows room to move especially at the raglan sleeve.  A small well shaped adjustable hood fits into the collar.  The hem adjusts in the same way and the cuffs have narrow elastic closure's.  A roomy chest pocket is well placed and sized for a map.  The full length zip is backed with anti snag tape which doubles as a chin guard.  A superb windshell combining fabric performance, cut, features and price.
 
Likes = Hood, Pocket, Cut
Dislikes = Nothing

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Pertex is an almost mythical fabric, weighting almost nothing and yet being able to breath yet provide moderate protection from wind and rain. Rather than re-type the manufacturers hype the following is the description of Pertex and how it functions as shown on wikipedia.org at the time of writing:

Pertex is a versatile, wind resistant, durable wicking fabric with more breathing ability than waterproof membranes.

The breathability of Pertex comes from the fabrics use of capillary action using denier gradients. Pertex combines two yarns with different properties. The inner yarn has larger filaments and outer yarn has smaller filaments. Capillary action moves moisture from larger filaments to smaller filaments without passing through the air.

Imagine a bundle of very fine fibres next to an equal weight bundle of thicker fibres. The same weight of material can make more thin fibres than an equal amount of thick fibres, thus there are more thin fibres on the outer side (and a tighter weave) than there are thick fibres on the inside. The bundle of finer fibres has greater surface over which moisture can spread - so they will evaporate moisture more quickly. The moisture from the inside is directed to the thinner fibres from thicker fibres by, again, capillary action. The driving force behind all this is the temperature difference between your own body heat on the inside and the air temperature on the outside.

Pertex is windproof because of the tight weave of the outer surface. The breathing ability of the fabric is not based on air passing through the weave of the fabric, but by moisture absorbed in the inner yarn passed to the outer yarn (which passes from the outer yarn to the outside air). Adding a waterproof coating would trap the moisture in the yarn, instead of letting it pass through the yarn and evaporate into the air.

Clever stuff ... and it works !