Wet Weather Clothing Test

Well it FINALLY got rainy enough here to do a wet weather Lunchbreak 2k.

Temps have been mild enough to walk in my work clothes lately, and I decided to do the same today only covered in my Frogg Toggs rainsuit. Since my work clothes cover 90% of my skin, if any water made it through the rain suit I’d have good evidence of it, and they’re warm enough that if I was going to heat up, I’d feel it.

In addition to the rain suit I wore my waterproof trail shoes which I have been walking in for the last couple weeks.

Frogg Toggs Review

The first thing I noticed with this rain suit is the pants were rather huge. I felt like I had elephant legs! They also dropped below my shoe sole, so I found myself walking on them until I rolled them up a bit.

Now I bought large because I wanted a rain suit that I could easily put on over whatever I was wearing without having to take my boots off. Frogg Togg’s size chart shows a pretty wide latitude, so I went with the biggest in my range – an XL. Now that I’ve worn them, I think a size large would have been better – maybe even a medium (for the pants at least).

The jacket was roomy but felt fine. I had a full range of motion – I could lift my arms straight up without uncovering my waist. The hood did not interfere with my vision even when I turned my head (Note: I wore a ball cap under the hood).

I felt great temperature-wise the whole walk. Now it was 60 degrees outside, so today was not a great heat test – but the fact is I didn’t feel overheated at any point, much less break a sweat.

I was covered in water by the time I got back, but was 100% dry inside.

Hi Tech Trail Shoes Review

I gave my shoes no break on this walk. I walked through puddles, stood in running water, and when that wasn’t enough, I dragged them toe down though the water and swished around.

At first I could have sworn I felt water coming into the shoe. After a moment or two, though, I realized I was still dry. Apparently I was feeling the cold of the water without the water (which is actually a good sign – the shoes really are breathable!). When I got back, I felt around inside the shoes and inspected my socks for signs of water. There was none. As you can see from the discoloration below, the shoes definitely got wet.

The only problem I had was water entering the shoe from the top. The cut of these shoes means that you can stand in water nearly 4″ deep. That sounds impressive, but realistically the problem is going to be either rain or splashes from the top or sides – and those can occur in much less water.

I am concerned about this. What good are waterproof shoes if one splash can wipe you out? Ankle gators might do the trick, and are good for mud and dirt anyway, but I did not bring them today.

It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow though . . .