As every plastic jacket they aren't fire spark resistant. But because they are far cheaper than other (new) jackets they are the better option in this case.
Another option would be to buy used Army Surplus stuff, for example the Goretex suit of the German army which is sold very very cheap in usually very good conditions and because it's made of three layer military Goretex it's made - like most NATO rain gear - in the best quality one can buy on the world market. But usually this stuff is in a camouflage pattern, especially if you want to buy it used.
(Carinthia offers such stuff new and pretty expensive in olive green, gray and black.
Norrona (RECON) offers similar, but obviously even more expensive stuff in olive green. British military versions exist in blue too and are also sold in used conditions.)
A high-closing collar with continuous, covered zip and individually adjustable Velcro cuffs are some of the characteristics of this German Army suit.…
www.asmc.com
(The here offered blue version is very very rare. Who wants it should buy it pretty fast. On board such suits usually don't get so easily little holes like the camouflage versions.)
I travel a lot in France where I can find Decathlon shops every corner and we got them during the last years more and more in Germany too.
For my job I travel around a lot and so I use my bushcraft equipment 365 days a year.
That's why I am outstanding interested in Bushcraft equipment and especially clothing. I usually haven't anything else with me than my 35 litres rucksack.
Because I got on my tours a lot of questions about outdoor equipment from young people I started to test Decathlon stuff, especially because they are the market leaders in France and I spend usually round about 4 month every year in this country.
I learned about bushcraft and hiking mainly from people who joined the Austrian and German Boy Scouts or similar groups in the twenties of the last century, my father joined such a group in the late forties and kept on hiking all his life, as a student he walked in the summer holydays from Flensburg to Konstanz, what means Germany from the most northern town to the most southern town. I myself go for camping and hiking since 45 years, for trekking and wild camping since 35 years.
That means, I learned from outstanding good and experienced teachers and got a lot of experience myself.
And I bought and tested the Decathlon equipment during the last years to become able to recommend some of this stuff to beginners.
I compare it with current NATO equipment, very expensive civil expedition equipment, historic military equipment, mainly WW2, and cheap offers from Aldi and Lidl. I bought and used that all over many many years.
I spend several days in the different Decathlon shops and I looked with my pretty experienced eyes at all the hunting, trekking, hiking and camping stuff they offer and I bought a lot of it.
I spend several days especially in the largest Decathlon shops in Berlin, Lyon, Avignon and especially in the incredible large one in Montpellier/Odysseum which offers there nearly everything what you can see at the homepage.
My result is the following:
Several QUECHUA products are very good for the price. I doubt that you can find such relatively good quality somewhere else cheaper. For example the stainless steel mug, the green one person hammock, the green Tarp Arpenaz Khaki, the stainless tea kettle (I do not recommend to put one in the rucksack) the simple camping table, the 2 persons tent Arpenaz 2 which isn't a storm resistant mountain tent but a very well summer camping tent for round about 20 €.
I own that stuff and used it over 15 month of continuous use. EVERY DAY. I count here together several 3 month long tours.
Different to that the independant construction and design office of the FORCLAZ stuff is a new inexperienced team which makes a lot of unconvincing nonsense.
Only the zipp off trousers Travel 100 are good because they are originally a Quechua construction. Pay attention, in between Forclaz offered an own design with the same name which was poor and obviously bought by nobody, why they took the model of the last years back into the program.
This are the bad ones:
This are the good ones:
Doté de nombreuses poches, dont trois sécurisées, ce "cargo pant" modulable et résistant est le compagnon parfait pour barouder et découvrir les régions du monde.
www.forclaz.fr
All the rest of the current Forclaz stuff is more or less idiotic constructed, an incredible collection of nonsense and construction faults. Unfortunately Forclaz is the Decathlon Trekking brand.
Different to that the independent construction and design office of the SOLOGNAC HUNTING EQUIPMENT is an outstanding intelligent and very experienced team. They obviously know the current NATO equipment and try to copy it with great success, often in a nearly identic quality, and they ask for incredible low prices for that stuff.
I wear since round about 3 years nothing else than Solognac clothing and I tested well especially the cheaper stuff.
After I tried out a few Quecha and Forclaz clothing which I do not recommend (only the zipp off trousers are good) I bought nearly all and everything from Solognac. And I found that it works very well. It is pretty long lasting, very similar to current German field uniforms!
But of course this stuff generally is made for hunting, not for trekking. So one needs a bit of knowledge and experience to choose the Solognac clothing for hiking, trekking and bushcraft which can be used for that too, what isn't always the case.
And an important point is that this stuff is sold world wide and even in France they have very different weather conditions between north and south!
Some of that stuff is made for tropic conditions, other stuff is made for weather conditions which are similar to Germany or Britain.
I used different Solognac clothing between plus 45*C and minus 20*C and I can tell you all about it.
And of course I can write you a shopping list containing the most convincing stuff for British weather conditions and hiking, trekking and bushcraft use. As I wrote I wear this clothing all the year round since a couple of years.
In the end of this thread - which could be pretty interesting to you - I recommended some Solognac clothing for trekking, travelling, bushcraft and every days civil life in town:
Please let's write a beginners equipment list together with extremely inexpensive stuff that is made in a good quality. The stuff should be currently available, so please don't talk about stuff which nobody offers. I would like to see here active links to traders! (But please write down the...
bushcraftuk.com
And less painfull to pick up usefull informations about bushcraft in general and equipment is that thread with a nice video collection:
Please let's collect in this thread educational films and videos about how to do bushcrafty things CORRECTLY. There are so many idiotic videos in the internet, that in my opinion it is really necessary that we point out what is really worth to look at. We should collect films here, which help...
bushcraftuk.com
