"Waterproof" is the most abused word in outdoor clothing. It gets printed on jackets that will keep you dry for twenty minutes of drizzle and then let water in through every seam. If you've ever bought a "waterproof" jacket and ended up wet, you weren't unlucky. You were sold a water-resistant jacket with the wrong word on the tag.
Here's what actually makes a jacket waterproof, what the words on the label mean, and how to tell before you buy whether a jacket will keep you dry in a proper New Zealand downpour.
Water-resistant, water-repellent, waterproof: they're not the same
These three terms get used interchangeably. They shouldn't be.
Water-repellent means the surface of the fabric is treated so water beads up and rolls off instead of soaking in. That treatment is called a DWR — durable water repellent — and it's a coating, not a barrier. It handles light rain and drizzle. Under sustained rain or pressure (a pack strap, sitting down), water eventually pushes through. Our Mokau Fleece Jacket is water-repellent: a DWR-finished fleece that shrugs off showers and keeps you warm when it's wet, but isn't claiming to be a rain shell.
Water-resistant is a step up and usually means a tighter weave or a light coating as well as a DWR. It'll take more rain for longer. Softshells and bush shirts live here. They're brilliant for the in-between weather New Zealand specialises in, and they'll see off a lot of rain, but if you stand in a storm long enough you'll get wet.
Waterproof means water cannot get through the fabric, full stop — not at the surface, not through the weave, not through the seams. It's a different construction entirely, and a jacket either has it or it doesn't.
The three things that make a jacket actually waterproof
1. A waterproof membrane or coating
The outer face fabric of a waterproof jacket isn't what keeps the water out. Behind it is either a membrane (a very thin film laminated to the fabric) or a coating (applied to the inside of the fabric). Both do the same job: they have pores small enough that liquid water can't pass through, but large enough that water vapour — your sweat — can escape outwards.
This is the bit that's genuinely waterproof. Without it, no amount of DWR on the outside will save you.
How waterproof it is gets measured as a hydrostatic head — the height of a column of water the fabric can hold back before it leaks, in millimetres. 1,500mm is the legal minimum to call a fabric waterproof in most markets. 5,000mm is a decent rain jacket. 10,000mm and up will handle sustained heavy rain and the pressure of a pack strap. If a jacket doesn't tell you its rating, assume it's at the bottom of the range.
2. Sealed seams
Every seam in a jacket is a row of needle holes through the waterproof layer. On a water-resistant jacket, nobody worries about that. On a waterproof jacket, every one of those holes has to be sealed, usually with tape heat-bonded over the seam on the inside.
This is where cheap "waterproof" jackets fail. The fabric is fine; the seams leak. Turn a jacket inside out and look. If you can see tape running along every seam — shoulders, hood, pockets, the lot — it's been built to be waterproof. If you can see raw stitching, it hasn't, whatever the label says.
3. Everything else water can get through
Fabric and seams are the big two. But water is patient and it'll find the third way in.
- Zips. A standard zip is a row of gaps. Waterproof jackets either use water-resistant zips with a rubberised face, or cover the zip with a storm flap. Pocket zips matter too — a pocket that fills with water soaks you from the inside. Zips that close upwards keep rain from running down into them; one of our customers specifically noticed that on the Outlander, and he's right to.
- Hood. A hood with no adjustment is a funnel. You need a drawcord to cinch it around your face and ideally a stiffened or wired peak so rain runs off rather than down your nose.
- Cuffs. Adjustable cuffs that close snug over or under a glove, so water doesn't run up your sleeve when you raise your arm.
- Hem. A drawcord at the bottom, so wind doesn't drive rain up under the jacket.
- Collar. A high collar that closes fully, with something soft at the chin so you'll actually zip it all the way up instead of leaving a gap because it's chafing.
Why a waterproof jacket also has to breathe
You can make a perfectly waterproof jacket out of a rubbish bag. Nobody does, because you'd be soaked in sweat within half an hour. The whole challenge of a good rain jacket is keeping rain out while letting sweat vapour escape, and the two pull against each other — the more waterproof, generally the less breathable.
Breathability is measured as how many grams of water vapour pass through a square metre of fabric in 24 hours (g/m²/24hr). 5,000 is basic. 10,000–15,000 is good for working or walking. Above that is for people who run uphill in the rain.
For most New Zealand use — hunting, farming, fishing, standing on a sideline — you want a jacket in the middle: properly waterproof, breathable enough that you're not drenched from the inside when you've been moving, and vents (pit zips or mesh-lined pockets you can open) for when you're working hard.
Why your old waterproof jacket "stopped working"
This one's worth knowing because it saves people buying a new jacket they don't need. A waterproof jacket that used to keep you dry and now doesn't has almost always lost its DWR, not its waterproofing.
When the DWR wears off, the outer face fabric soaks up water — it goes dark and heavy. That's called wetting out. The membrane behind it is usually still fine and water still isn't getting through. But the wet face fabric can't breathe, so your sweat has nowhere to go, condenses on the inside, and you feel wet. It feels exactly like a leak. It isn't.
The fix is a wash with a technical cleaner and a reproof with a wash-in DWR treatment. Takes an evening. We've covered it in detail in our care guide.
How to check a jacket before you buy
- Look for a hydrostatic head rating. If there isn't one, ask. If nobody can tell you, walk away.
- Turn it inside out and look at the seams. Taped, or not?
- Check the zips. Water-resistant zips or storm flaps over them, and which way do the pocket zips close?
- Put the hood up and cinch it. Does it move with your head? Can you see sideways?
- Do the cuffs and hem adjust?
- Zip it all the way up. Is the collar comfortable at your chin or will you leave it open?
A jacket that passes all six will keep you dry. A jacket that fails any of them has a hole in it somewhere, and the rain will find it.
The Outlander
The Outlander is the one piece in our range we call waterproof, and we don't use the word for anything else. It's a fully waterproof shell rated to a 10,000mm hydrostatic head and 10,000 g/m²/24hr breathability — enough to hold out sustained heavy rain and pack-strap pressure while still letting sweat escape when you're moving — with sealed seams, a soft chin guard on the collar, a drawcord hood, upward-closing zips and a lot of pockets, built to go over the top of a bush shirt or fleece. One customer waited for heavy rain to test his and told us he "stayed fully dry". Another put it up against jackets costing a lot more and reckoned it held its own.
It's not a bush shirt, and it's not meant to be worn all day in the sun. It's the layer you put on when it starts raining properly, and take off when it stops. Between the Outlander and a Wilder, there isn't much weather in this country you can't walk into.
The short version
Waterproof means a membrane or coating with a hydrostatic head rating, sealed seams, protected zips, and an adjustable hood, cuffs and hem. Water-resistant means a tight weave and a DWR coating, good for showers and drizzle. They're both useful. They're just not the same thing, and the label doesn't always tell you which one you're holding.