Why These Are My Two Favorite Summer Jackets

Even though the high temperatures where I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have averaged 95 degrees over the past three months, and my wardrobe has been reduced to shorts, sun hats, the most breathable shirts I can get my hands on, I’ve also been appreciating two summer jackets. To be clear, I’m not wearing these jackets during a run at noon. But on occasion, even in this sweltering heat, I’ve needed a layer to block wind and keep me warm without broiling me. These are the two standout summer jackets that get the job done—rain, shine, or suffocating heat.

The Windproof (But Breathable) Summer Jacket That’s Created by Mountain Bikers

Case in point: I recently ran up 10,500-foot Sandia Mountain, and up top the wind was howling and temps were in the low 50s. When I stopped to refuel and take in the view, I pulled out my trusty Flylow Davis Jacket ($140) to cut the wind and keep from getting chilled.

Flylow Davis Jacket

$140 at Backcountry

Made from a DWR-coated, stretchy ripstop nylon, the Davis summer jacket balls up to the size of an apple so it takes up almost no room in my running pack and adds almost zero weight at just over six ounces. In the summit wind, it created immediate warmth and endured getting scraped over rocks without showing any signs of wear. Just as importantly, since the Flylow Davis doesn’t block all the breeze, I was also able to keep it on as I started my descent and didn’t overheat as I worked my way back into warmer temps.

Flylow co-founder Dan Abrams told me that the company spent an obsessive amount of time picking the fabric for the Davis because they wanted to find the perfect mix of wind resistance and breathability. An avid mountain biker himself, he designed the jacket so he could wear it to keep warm while ripping down singletrack, cruising on the flats, or pushing during the next climb.

“Just like it’s easy to make a ski jacket waterproof but harder to make it breathable, it’s easy to make a wind jacket windproof but much harder to create the right balance of breathability,” Abrams said.

Flylow considers breathability so important that they list the jacket’s air permeability rating on their website. CFM stands for “cubic feet per minute,” and it relates to how much air can pass through fabric—one component of breathability. For context, a trashbag’s CFM is zero, a cotton t-shirt has a CFM of around 60, and the most permeable tech running shirt we’ve tested came in at 464 CFM. The Davis’s CFM, listed at 22.8 (verified by the Outside Lab), clearly blocks wind better than a shirt, but is far enough away from a trashbag that you really notice the airflow when it’s needed.

The Lightweight Wonder with Insulation Worth Geeking Out Over

Rab Evolute Hoody

$165 at REI $165 at Backcountry

The second summer jacket in my summer wardrobe came with me to the 13,000-foot top of Arapahoe Basin’s East Wall in Colorado. Long known as a fun place to ski steep terrain, the East Wall is also the spot for the ski area’s via ferrata course. I had just scaled the wall with a group, and emerged at the top ready for lunch. The wind was calm, but at that elevation, it was in the low 40s. I pulled out my lightly insulated Rab Evolute Hoody ($165) that I’d packed for this very situation. Like the Davis, the Evolute took up little room in my pack (balled up it was about the size of a grapefruit) and weighed a scant 12 ounces.

This hoodie is my one insulation piece that never gets put away for any season because it always provides immediate warmth, but—like the Davis jacket—is designed to be as breathable as possible in fluctuating temps. Credit the thin layer of PrimaLoft Evolve Active insulation, which I’ve found to be the most breathable insulation on the market for high-output activities. I’ve worn midlayers with Evolve Active while hunting, skiing, hiking, and climbing, and the material always does a nearly-perfect job of shedding excess heat and moisture, no matter the temp.

The secret is in the fiber design. If you want to geek out on insulation, check out my colleague Wes Siler’s deep dive into what makes Evolve Active unique. The quick summary is that designers took a cue from animal fur, which is variable across their bodies, and made the insulation’s recycled polyester fibers in variable thicknesses and lengths. The longer fibers are designed to create warmth and the shorter fibers let excess heat escape off your body without making you cold.

That microscopic design was more than I could focus on as I started my descent of the via ferrata. I kept the jacket on until I could stop at a spot where I wasn’t blocking traffic, but it worked as promised. While I sweated in the jacket for 30 minutes, both out of fear and exertion, I never once felt I was being boiled alive. I also appreciated the jacket’s tight-fitting hood that I threw on under my helmet at the start, and the fabric’s built-in stretch that gave me full range of motion as I splayed out like a starfish to reach different holds.

Another beauty of the Davis and the Evolute is that they’re great in the fall, spring, and winter as well. The Evolute was my go-to ski touring jacket all winter since I live in New Mexico and don’t need a ski shell that often. The Davis lives in my work backpack at all times, year-round, because it’s the perfect layer when the wind picks up in the fall and I need to add a touch of warmth—or if I get caught in an April rainstorm and need to stay dry while running errands.

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