I must be a weirdo.... I just wear lots of wool, and a thin windproof/rainproof jacket with armpit zips. I get sweaty but I stay warm (as long as I'm moving)
Wool + wind shield is actually pretty hard to beat.
The modern materials can be effective while being very light weight and take up little space. But I think these are much more niche concerns than most people like to acknowledge.
I think the real reason the modern materials are more popular than wool+ is that they are more profitable when marketed, and hence are heavily marketed.
The problem is most wind shields are equivalent to wearing a plastic bag. The moment you start sweating, it creates a terrible, sticky, humid environment.
For active use, you’ll often stay drier under a water-repellent treated breathable fabric that doesn’t pretend to be waterproof. With most “waterproof/breathable” fabrics, you’ll get soaked from the inside long before you get soaked from the outside.
As someone who lives in QLD Australia, I’m used to that sticky humidity I guess — the rare times I need to deal with cold and wet, wool and a wind shield jacket is fantastic for me. Very different environment than most others in this thread though I think.
Wearing a waterproof shell gets you pretty steamy. Apparently this ShakeDry fabric is actually breathable. I wear wool + shell (note, waterproof shells likely contain PFCs), but I hate how humid it gets. I’m very intrigued by ShakeDry after reading this thread.
Not going to lie, being able to fit an entire waterproof jacket in it's own pocket the size of a wallet, and slip it into some a small day pack is a pretty big win for travelling.
But generally speaking I do think we're going a bit crazy with the exotic materials in travel/active gear. It's probably just not necessary for a lot of people's use cases.
Fjällräven is a very well-established Swedish brand that makes exactly this, and even have their own brand of wax. As far as I know, none of their products have any synthetic membranes.
Here in Denmark, "Fjällräven" is a household name to the point that it can be used to refer to their small backpack model.
Their waterproofing wax is a mix of paraffin and bee wax. So if the whole point is to avoid petrochemicals or avoid animal products, this isn't a solution.
A combination of beeswax and microcrystalline wax (made from petrolatum) works the best, but beeswax alone will provide fine water repellency, just slightly less durability and ease of application.
I enjoy my Driza-Bone coat — has been going strong for about 8 years now; just re-proofed it. Oil/wax-impregnated cotton is also easily repairable, unlike fancier materials.
It is a bit on the heavy side, though. Not really good for sports/cycling/etc, I wouldn't imagine. Also gets a bit ratty/threadbare wherever it gets repeatedly creased and un-creased.
But it really does work, and is long-lasting. I had previously been buying a new raincoat every few years due to some tiny crack in the waterproof layer that can't be easily fixed.
This is what I use because I've had it forever and it's cheap. It's heavy and high maintenance though. And if you're in wet conditions for hours it'll soak up a ton of water and just get even heavier, and take forever to dry.
There's probably no perfect solution here but this definitely isn't a direct replacement, though sure it's practical for a lot of applications.
That's exactly the scenario that Shakedry was designed for.
You get the warmth from something else underneath use the very thin Shakedry shell to keep the rain and wind out. Except that with a breathable fabric you won't get (as) sweaty[1].
If you pair it with arm and leg warmers you can cover a really big temperature range, like you might encounter on a multi-day cycling tour without taking up much space or weight.
Despite the marketing you can still get a bit sweaty with Shakedry if it's hot weather.
