Hopefully they fixed the issues! I'll stick with my Shakedry for now, since there will never be any doubt if it works.

I really hope they did, I gave them many earfuls, as well as some pretty public statements on Twitter and Instagram when I was first suffering through this (and they initially refused to replace it). It's a comfy jacket - I wear it for casual wear... just not when it's supposed to rain!

It should also be noted that even the replacement jacket I talked about in this review was from 4-6 months ago... I'm a little too busy to edit videos promptly 🤣 But if they DID/DO update it, they should A. Inform people of the changes, and B. Offer SOMETHING to previous owners. If you make a mistake - own it!

Alexander, do you mind if I ask when you bought your jacket?

@@milesandmountainscoaching thanks for the video , very interesting. I see some reviews say how brilliant it is and videos of people standing in the shower and staying bone dry. So yeah, mixed reviews are worth listening to. So..... what was the model jacket you bought and when did you buy it ? I’m just curious as I may want to be cautious of trying this model from this time period

@@ourclarioncall I bought the North Face FutureLight Flight jacket. It wets out in a minute or so in the shower. I bought the original in fall 2019 I think, and they replaced it 4 months later after repeatedly telling me there was nothing wrong with it. The new one is just as bad. Even putting DWR on right after I bought it didn’t do much. By contrast, GoreTex Shakedry never needs DWR ever, and keeps me as close to 100% dry as possible. It’s also more breathable. It’s slightly less comfortable, and certainly doesn’t look as good... but it actually works.

I wish I knew! Maybe it doesn't rain enough so they can get it wet before reviewing... I really tried to give TNF the benefit of the doubt. I let them send me a replacement, several months later, so that it was a different lot. Even after adding top-of-the-line DWR, it's unusable as a rain jacket, even what I call a light mist, not rain. GoreTex Shakedry all the way! (Video coming soon).

@@milesandmountainscoaching Really hope TNF go back to using goretex instead... but I doubt they will since they invested a lot of money into futurelight :( hope i can still get some goretex tnf jackets from somewhere to stock up

@@Hawaiipaul Highly recommend the Gore Running Wear Shakedry Trail jacket for runners or high-output athletes. (They have a cycling version too). Far better than the TNF Hyperair was, which was made of similar Gore Tex Shakedry fabric. I like eVent for harder-wearing stuff like skiing.

@@milesandmountainscoaching the jacket you recommend is incredibly expensive in Europe and heavily discounted in the US (150$) vs 300€. Could you recommend anything else please?

@@giovanbattistafichera8439 I’m not sure where you found it for $150 USD; I wish I’d only paid that! Unfortunately there really isn’t anything comparable to Goretex Shakedry. I’m not hyping it; there just isn’t anything remotely close. My advice if you really need something and can’t get Shakedry is to buy a cheap jacket until Shakedry is more widely available from other brands, instead of just Arcteryx and Gore Wear. There isn’t a lot of difference between standard waterproof membranes on the inside, so no need to buy brand names for those styles. Hopefully Shakedry becomes more widely available.

Oh I was planning it, and even filmed part of it, but coaching has taken up most of my time! As of right now (Dec 2022), my go-to lightweight jacket is absolutely the Goretex Shakedry. There's simply nothing else like it, with no DWR needed. For heavier-duty use (with packs, etc), I have a few different heavier/full-featured jackets that I use. All wet-out to some degree under heavy rain, but nothing like this lightweight Futurelight. One thing to be aware of is that companies will change their products without changing the names. For example, my review video here has nothing to do with Futurelight as a membrane, which is really what the technology is. Put that membrane under a better face fabric and it could be incredible - who knows.

Fit will not impact how much the fabric saturated in fog or light mist…

Watch the video and/or read the comments. New out of the box. 15 minute run in foggy/misty conditions.

This was direct from TNF - it was not a fake. And they replaced it once. I can only hope they’ve changed it since then!

Yep - that's my main athletic rain jacket. The new Trail version is pretty much bomb-proof, albeit a bit heavier than the older version which was really more of an "emergencies" jacket. You can wear a pack with it, and it fits overall much better. I can't speak for other jackets made from Shakedry (like the Arcteryx Norvan SL), but I'm hoping more companies take advantage of the slightly heavier Shakedry, but make lightly-featured jackets with it. Either way, it's by far the most breathable jacket tech I've tested out of several dozen over the past decade. Could use some physical ventilation, but it's still excellent. It's also the closest thing to a 100% waterproof fabric you're going to find outside of literally just plastic, which isn't breathable. No more DWRing your jacket, no more wetting out and getting heavy/clammy. Basically the worst part is that it has a shiny look rather than matte, but I suppose that's more visible on the roads...

Generally a jacket that is made for heavy rain would… keep the rain out. This doesn’t. So a wire hood is a moot point!

I would love to see and hear people testing this much-hyped jacket back to back with other offerings like GoreTex ShakeDry, etc. I really really want to believe I somehow got two defective jackets months apart... I really do. But man... TNF customer service wasn't too helpful.

@@milesandmountainscoaching I just got my AT FUTURELIGHT INSULATED FULL ZIP HOODIEt and I went for a bike at -10C. It was quite warmth at the end and I feel a bit wet on my long sleeve vs my other setup with Goretex shell and Atom LT Hoody where I feel dryier. Need more tests to convince. I will wait the next snow storm to see the waterproof thing.

@@zerodegrekelvin2 Fingers crossed! I love it if it were marketed as a casual hooded windbreaker... it’s comfy. It just ain’t water resistant. ;)

Goretex Shakedry or anything made with it. Several brands have it. There is a new version that is more abrasion resistant as well.

It's really unfortunate, as there are options out there that actually DO work.

Wow, the impendor is £340 here in the U.K. sorry that’s it not working for you. Is it letting water in ? Or soaking up water instead of it running off ? What year/date did you buy it ?

@@ourclarioncall I can’t speak for Manuel, but mine just soaks up the slightest bit of water, even from foggy days. Totally useless.

As I stated many times, it was brand new. Out of the bag. From The North Face. Twice. It has nothing to do with cleaning. It wets out in fog. Note that doesn’t mean it’s not still waterproof, as there’s a membrane underneath. However it DOES mean that it’s no longer breathable. Which is kind of the point.

It's definitely pretty windproof - it still has a membrane - the real issue is the face fabric that saturates in seconds!

@@milesandmountainscoaching there are degrees to it, no breathable membrane is fully windproof. If i put my mouth to the fabric, i can push air through with enough pressure, and some winds can generate that pressure - but I'm thinking of Mount Washington and that's an extreme case

Any rain jacket should be given DWR from the factory. I did add more DWR, and it helped *slightly.* Its still not usable as a rain jacket, but I wear it around town.

@@milesandmountainscoaching Yes, of course, but the stock DWR is only for a while. Each material, even Gore-Tex, requires a refreshing DWR layer from time to time.

@@apoll9107 Perhaps I was not clear enough in the video. This jacket did not work on day 1. They sent me a replacement. That jacket did not work on day 1. I’ve owned several dozen rain jackets over the past twenty years - this has been by far and away the worst for performance.

@@apoll9107 Also Goretex ShakeDry does NOT have or require DWR. That’s the entire point of it!

@@milesandmountainscoaching ok, bad luck - thx for your opinion

Yes but it’d be an overpriced and heavy windbreaker!

is it very windproof for exposed vegetation with high winds ?

@@sianaoahxjire9529 I’m not sure what you mean by exposed vegetation… its wind proof, vegetation doesn’t change whether or not it’s windproof. However it doesn’t work well as a rain jacket (though they may have improved them since I posted this review). Paying $300 for a windbreaker doesn’t make much sense, and I’d encourage you not to do that…

Wow. I guess you didn’t watch the video or read the other comments, but you feel that you know exactly what I did or did not do? You’re telling my I didn’t care for it properly, but you have literally no knowledge of what I did! I had TWO brand-new jackets that didn’t work right out of the package. I did NOT wash them with normal detergent. I DID replenish DWR. If the outside gets fully saturated in 10min of fog, the breathability is gone, regardless of whether the water gets all the way through. That’s basic science of how waterproof breathable membranes work. FutureLight not superior at all to Shakedry, which I am assuming you haven’t tried.

@@milesandmountainscoaching your experience with the jacket conflicts with mine. i've been out in heavy downpour and it was up to 3 hours before the jacket was saturated but what jacket wouldn't be? within an hour of sun, a mild breeze, and no more rain the outside was dry again. yet the whole time i was still dry inside.

@@nytrhythm So that means that you can outright lie about what I did to the jacket? Get real! Lots of others people here (and elsewhere) who echo my experience. I'm REALLY glad you got a good one. That doesn't mean all are good. Did you watch the video? That was after a 15min run in FOG and MIST. Not downpour. Fog and mist. I don't know what else to say to you...

If you need to regularly reapply DWR, then it’s a bad jacket. Goretex doesn’t need it, Helly Hansen doesn’t, Columbia doesn’t, mountain hardwear doesn’t, and Patagonia doesn’t.

I don't know if I mentioned it in the video or just in the comments, but yes. My current recommendation for lightweight rainwear for high-output activities is Goretex ShakeDry. The well-known Arcteryx Norvan SL seems to be unavailable in 2022, so the Gore Wear Trail R7 or comparable cycling jackets would be my top picks for athletes.

Don't think you can dude. Gotta pay for tech. I buy $80+ gortex winter gloves and the first day of second year they are sponges after 10 minutes. I'm retreating to cheap watertight gloves. Maybe keep treating them with the NIKWAX waterproof products, but I have no experience with that.

No sweat here; it was chilly, and it got wet from the outside, not inside.

Perhaps they improved the product in the 25 months since this video was uploaded? Perhaps even based on the feedback that's echoed in some of the comments? A lot happens in two years. But sure, just a hater over here!

Oh I get tons of comments saying I'm just a hater. I've deleted some, others I leave up. Can't believe your eyes, after all! :)

Is it possible that other people may have had a different experience with this jacket or does anyone that disagrees automatically a troll?

Thanks for your comment, but please do not mislead viewers! If you have this jacket and are happy with it, I'm happy for you! Hopefully I just ended up with two defective jackets in a row months apart... The jacket did not work correctly right out of the box. I ran for LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES in a light mist! Run in rain and stay dry forever? Hardly. My untreated shorts stayed drier than this jacket on these test runs. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that in the video if you bothered to watch it. I have owned dozens of rain jackets and this is the worst one I have ever owned. It is the ONLY one that is entirely non-functional. The fit is PERFECT for running in - it is not skin-tight at all. I washed it and sprayed it with NikWax and that did nothing to improve the situation. I take care of my equipment. I run in GoreTex Shakedry now, which is 100% waterproof for my purposes.