Old 04-23-09, 10:53 AM
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PaulRivers
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Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Showers Pass Elite 2.0 - problems with sizing? Hate the waist up cut?

I ordered a Shower's Pass Elite 2.0 jacket in red because I heard good things about it as a rain jacket and was able to try on the yellow and it looked damn good for cycling gear. I'm 6"0 with a 32" inseam.

Now first let me say that I do like the jacket - love all the vents you can open up to cool down. So far it's made a great windblocker in the winter and a good jacket while the weather is still a little cooler. As people on the forum have said, it breaks way better than like my winter ski jacket (tried it on the bike - yikes) though not as good as a regular jersey. But that's not my problem.

My problem is that I ordered a Large and it arrived and - wearing it, it looks good. Considering it's cycling gear, it looks great! Looks sharp. The drop tail looks a little odd, but it's so useful I'm more than happy to have it rather than not have it. But - it's just waaay to short. The way that the waist curves up in the front is really annoying - it looks funny kind of funny but more importantly it makes the jacket to short. If it was straight across the waist it would be fine, but because it curves up the bottom of the jacket ends up and inch above the belt buckle on my pants. So that's not going to work - a rain jacket can't have gaps, both for rain and because for winter cycling, gaps can mean frostbite - yikes.

I just hate that it's raised in the front. Ugly, to short, and of dubious value - so it doesn't bunch up while you're riding? Big deal, I'd rather have something that doesn't look so odd. Also, the sleeve length could use another inch - it's fine most of the time, but if I bend my elbows it can slip back on my arm (bad for wearing gloves that seal over it at the sleeve).

So I ordered the XLarge and exchanged it without to much hassle - it's great that you can do this with shower's pass. Awesome.

So I've got the XLarge and the sleeves fit excellently - I'm 100% comfortable with the sleeves and they never slide back. The waist height is a lot better - might be an inch to long if anything, but I barely notice the cut up in the waist in the front because the whole jacket is longer. BUT - there's enough room around the chest to fit a second person in the jacket! Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I was seriously able to fit a small backpack under the jacket the last time I went riding. I can pull the jacket out in front of me to twice the space I need.

And it doesn't look good any more - it looks like it's to big and baggy, and it lost that "sharp" look. The jacket has pockets, but they're annoying to use because the jacket is so baggy if you put anything in them they flop around while you're riding.

So Large is to small, and XLarge is to large - sigh. I found out they make another jacket that sounds like it's more my thing - their Touring jacket is longer, no cut up in the front, has front pockets - sounds great. But it's not made with eVent. Erg.

Anyone else have problems with the sizing on their Shower's Pass Elite 2.0 jacket, or is it just me? Other than the sizing, I've rather liked the jacket...
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