Elite III Review

I have recently been on an extended hunt for something I ended up thinking didn’t exist. A properly waterproof, properly breathable, highly visible cycling jacket with superb sustainability credentials. First, let me tell you why I wanted one.

I use adventurous bike journeys to help raise awareness and inspire action on our most urgent environmental issues. My most recent ‘Adventure Plus’ trip, The Life Cycle, involved cycling the length of South America, on a bamboo bike I’d built myself, exploring biodiversity loss as an issue every bit as important as climate change. I’m a passionate believer in the power of adventure to change hearts and minds, and in the power that spending time outdoors has to engage us with the extraordinary beauty of our planet, and the vital roles that natural ecosystems and other species play in all of our lives. But over the years, I’ve been horrified to learn about the environmental impacts of the kit that keeps us warm and dry, on the environments we love to adventure in. Hence the desire for a jacket with genuine sustainability credentials, rather than greenwash ones.

As for the waterproof, breathable, hi-viz bit: I live in Cumbria, UK. Cumbria, in case you don’t know it, is very beautiful, very hilly and very, very wet. It is rare to find a route without hills that you can cruise without breaking sweat; and it is almost as rare to cycle for any length of time without getting rained on. It has many wonderful, quiet, road routes and, in the holiday season, many wonderful not-so-quiet road routes which are often blessed with speedy drivers unfamiliar with narrow, bendy lanes. I really do like to be highly visible as well as dry; and dry from the inside as well as the outside.

So, have I finally found it? In a word, YES.

showers pass Elite III ticks all those boxes, and a few more. I’ll start with the relatively straightforward ones. It has a waterproof rating of 30,000mm and a breathability rating of 20,000 gsm/24hr. These are both high: many other jackets that I’d looked at come in at 10,000mm and 10,000 gsm/24hr, i.e. not Cumbria-proof. I’ve so far only ridden in heavy rain in my Elite III for two hours, but stayed bone dry for that time. (I’d’ve carried on but for the proximity of an excellent café retreat). I’ve ridden all day on local hilly rides on drier days, though, and it really is breathable, too. The only qualification here is that a bit of dampness gathers along my shoulders when I’m working hard – I suspect the taping may be less breathable than the rest of the fabric – but this is pretty minor.

In terms of visibility, while the Elite III is not hi-viz all over, it has hi-viz strips and logos that can be seen from all angles. And it comes in three highly visible colours: Pacific Blue, Cayenne Red and Goldenrod (none of your hedge-coloured, might-as- well-be-camouflage kit here). I went for Goldenrod, a gorgeous, rich, yellow that is not only visible for miles but makes me think the sun is about to come out every time I put it on.

There’s a host of other positive features too, including pit zips set slightly forward so you can actually open and close them while on the bike; cuffs that are both wide enough to get over gloves, (and hence prevent that horrible feeling of rain running into them via your arms), and can be Velcro’d neatly around your wrists on dry days. There’s a phone pocket that’s the right size for a phone (you’d be surprised how many aren’t) and a zip-able back pocket with room for gloves, inner tube etc. There’s great ventilation at the back, and a neat ‘sternum snap’ at the front that prevents the jacket flying open if you’re riding unzipped or partially zipped. It’s super comfortable to cycle in, with soft-lined collar and a roomy cut across the back that allows for even the most aggressive forward position. For a jacket this waterproof it is relatively lightweight; it packs easily into its own back pocket; and unpacked it has a sharp, classy look that shouts ‘quality kit’. In short, I love it.

Now for the more complex, vitally important, sustainability piece. How do we cut through the all-too-common sustainability greenwash? In my view, by assessing the product and the company that produces it, against multiple criteria.

These include: - The local and global environmental impacts of the product across its production, supply chain, packaging etc; and of the operation of the company including its buildings and transport; - The environmental impacts considered should include, but not be limited to, carbon footprint. Use of toxic chemicals, use of water and land, and impacts on wildlife etc are also all important; - As are any negative impacts on human workforce and treatment of staff; - And animal welfare concerns if animal products are used (eg wool).

PLUS - Attempts to mitigate the ultimate driver of UNsustainability, namely, overconsumption; Including emphasis on longevity and durability of the product so it lasts as long as possible; - Multi-purpose so eg a cyclist can have one jacket for every kind of cycling they do - day-rides, touring, road, gravel, off-road etc - and ideally go hill- walking in it too; - End of life recycling and repurposing.

PLUS - The company acknowledges that sustainability is inevitably a journey rather than a final destination and is both honest about where they are on that journey, and ambitious about where they want to get to. Both showers pass as a company and the Elite III as a product score highly on all of these. Unpacking the details could be another article but the headlines have to

include PORLITE, a much-needed innovation in waterproof textiles that contains no PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’, and uses significantly less energy and water in its construction. showers pass work with Blue Sign to establish a wide range of environmental impacts across its supply chain and production, and work to reduce them. And it has an ambitious set of sustainability goals coupled with honesty about the very real challenges we’re all up against in decoupling our love of the outdoors from our impacts on it. Perhaps above all, this is a company that celebrates what good, versatile, robust gear can help us achieve – more time on our wheels, uphill and down dale, with the sustainability tail wind at our backs. I’ll have the Elite III on mine for many years to come.

Kate Rawles, Cumbria, April ‘25

Kate’s book, The Life Cycle; 8000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike, was published by Icon Books in June 2023. It was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Awards and chosen by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of their top ten books about travel, 2023.