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.
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.