Sugoi Majik Shell jacket – £110.00
The Majik shell is the latest water and wind resistant offering from Sugoi
The Majik shell is the latest water and wind resistant offering from Sugoi, and first impressions of the jacket are of an extremely well cut and thought out piece of kit with a real quality feel to the touch that bordered on the delicate, and good looks to boot.
It incorporates SUGOi’s S3+ Protection fabric, which according to the manufacturer is designed “to offer protection under the harshest of winter conditions.” In the three months that I have been using the jacket is something that we have seen a lot of.
In use the jacket feels right once you put it on, in a you don’t really notice its there kind of way; this is largely down to the cut of the jacket; it is closely fitted and well shaped; but it is also down to the material too.
The four-way-stretch construction of the material sees a polyester outer face laminated to a polyurethane inner, with taped seams everywhere. It’s a jacket low on bulk and its ability to keep the nasty weather out is impressive. While it might not be my choice for torrential downpours, it did come up a little short in testing compared to other jackets, it happily lasted for about an hour of reasonable rain. It would only struggle if you were out for longer than that.
Breathability is pretty good most of the time, but it did become a little clammy on the sleeves under a real hard effort. There’s a rear vent, which isn’t very effective, so I found I had to use the front zip to regulate my temperature.
One of the main concerns that I had for the jacket was that of durability, not so much in terms of the construction of the jacket, which was top notch. Rather its ability to shrug off the more rough and tumble aspects of this mountain biking. My worries about this though, it seemed to be pretty unfounded as the jacket managed to survive the worst crash I have ever had totally unscathed; if only the same could be said for some of my body parts.
Verdict
The word Sugoi is a Japanese term for ‘incredible’, which might be pushing it a little, but all in all if you are after a light, but tough jacket that protects you from most of what the UK weather can throw at you whilst feeling like it is barely there then this jacket should be one to consider. All I will say is I was very happy that mountain rescue didn’t cut it off.
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