- Endicott's Windproof Smock
- Cost: £22-30 tbc
- Material: medium weight tightweave polycotton
- Colours: Stone or Olive
- Link: http://www.endicotts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=779
Initial thoughts:
- He gave me the stone coloured one. Would show the dirt easily - would prefer olive
- I am a 42" chest, 15.5 stone and I found the Large quite roomy. It was not TOO large though. Just a bit. I would have opted for the medium I expect. But I do not know the size difference between the medium and large having not tried both on.
- Seems well made and could stand up to some abuse. Might have benefited from some double stitching in places or some more bar-tacks (only spotted a couple) but I have no evidence to suggest that any points/seams are weak in any way. For the price you can't expect that much attention to detail!
- Double layer hood
- Would be good around a fire/sparks
- Velcro cuffs and neck/chest opening. Whilst the velcro on the neck/chest opening serves its purpose and is reliable I would mod it myself to replace with zip or buttons. However velcro provides a good seal and is weather resistant. Velcro does rub a bit
Good wind resistance - first piccies are on a very windy day down at Budleigh - it performed well.
These pictures are of its 'water-resistance' before I treated it with cotton proof. Some light sea spray - the tight weave gave it some resistance and the 'factory film' did allow for some very basc beading.
Now for the real test - after Tech Wash then Cotton Proofing.
Medium rain for 20 minutes
Then 5-10 minutes of the dreaded hosepipe.
Water beaded off very well. Some droplets/areas did 'wet out' under constant downpour.
You can see how wet my other clothes got!
I was DRY after this test except where the water ran off the hosepipe and down my cuffs. Eewwkk.
I took the garment off to see where it wetted out and looked like there was some water absorption in places.
I turned it inside out to look for dampspots and to compare with the the water marking on the outside. This was consistent with the wetting out and the damp spotting on the inside. Water being forced under pressure/movement through the tight weave.
Result - some very light damp spotting on arm and back of neck/shoulders. Photos are of front and back of garment. I was suprise how little water ingress there was.
Not bad at all
Now I tested it by pouring a weight of water onto specific area of the garment to see if it ran through. It did not.
After 10 minutes I scraped the face of the fabric with my nail to remove bubbles, surface tension etc to encourage water penetration. Nothing went through.
I finished the experiment after another 10 minutes and went to find some dry clothes.
Conclusions:
- Good, nononsense, cheap, effective garment that is well-made for the price and will wear well.
- Proofing does make the garment more water resistant and would not hesistate to go out for short-medium periods in moderate rain and wind. However this was a short-term (albeit a bit extreme) test. It would be interesting to test it over a prolonged outing to the point of failure in order to guage its limits
- This test was done with the proofing in a freshly proofed state.
- I cannot vouch for water transmission if you were leaning heavily against a very wet surface where the pressure would force water through the weave.
than your brown brogues. 
