Silicone poncho from KVNtrek

Weight - 500 g, cost - $70, fabric - siliconized nylon 40d

This poncho was custom-made in the KVNtrek studio from high-quality silicone. For the last few years, it has been the main means of protecting me and my backpack from rain (I go without a backpack cover). And only on some trips (for example, to Iceland) I take a membrane jacket as an addition to the poncho.

Design Features

• full-length front zip
• full, long sleeves
• wind flap with snap fastening
• increased volume of pocket for a backpack
• minimum number of seams

Sleeves. Before I got this raincoat, I used the Terra Incognita CapeBag poncho for a long time. And it was its advantages and disadvantages that became the starting point when creating a new raincoat. Firstly, for some reason I don't understand, the Terra Incognita coat had short sleeves. At least 10 cm of length was missing. Therefore, in cold weather I was forced to use additional sleeves to protect my wrists from water. It is natural that when ordering a new poncho, I asked for normal, long sleeves. Moreover, they had to be wide enough to be worn over a large puff without any problems. And to prevent the wind from blowing into the wide cuffs (oh, Iceland!) I asked them to have adjustable drawstrings. For the sake of ventilation, most of the time the sleeves are open, but occasionally I still tighten these strings.

Spacious. This raincoat fits my 110 liter backpack without any problems. Even if I hang rugs and tents on 3 sides of my backpack, the poncho will still fit on it and completely protect it from the rain. What’s also important is that this raincoat has a huge amount of space in the front, on my stomach. This is where I usually carry a case with a large camera and a banana bag with documents. And thanks to the spacious raincoat, I can very quickly, in one movement, hide all my bags and handbags from the rain.

Ventilation. Silicone is a completely non-breathable fabric. In order not to evaporate in a raincoat, you need to constantly work on heat and moisture removal. I very rarely fasten a poncho with a zipper - usually a couple of top buttons are enough. And sometimes I walk around completely unbuttoned. In very warm (or very cold) weather, you can avoid putting your arms through the sleeves, but simply hide them under the flaps.

The cut of the shoulders. At first I didn’t really like the cut of the shoulders in this raincoat - for some reason it was uncomfortable. But I quickly got used to it. And what’s more, I found out what the advantage of this style is. This raincoat does not have a deep fold between the hood and the backpack pocket where snow and moisture can potentially accumulate (as was the case with the Terra Incognita CapeBag). And in a raincoat from KVNtrek, water does not linger, but rolls forward along the inclined fabric.

Efficiency. When hiking, the poncho always lies in the side pocket of the backpack. You can pull it out and put it on yourself on the go, without taking off your backpack or stopping. For efficiency, it is very important that the zipper on the raincoat is the entire length, and not to the middle, as on many store models.

Durability. This rainfly is supposedly made from 40D fabric (40 Denier thread thickness), which is thicker than on my tents. Even if this adds ten grams of weight, I am calm that the raincoat will not tear if it gets caught on the first bush that comes across. I use the poncho completely mercilessly - I put it under my backpack, walk on it, stuff it into tight pockets and covers. When I come to the parking lot in the evening and need to disassemble my backpack, I lay the poncho on the ground and dump all my things on it - boilers, shoes, tent and other junk.

Waterproof. As I already wrote, the fabric here is wonderful - to push water through it you need a hydrant, no less. Even the most severe storms have not yet been able to do this. I sealed the seams on the fabric myself with diluted silicone and they also hold up perfectly. Of course, waterproofness does not mean dryness, because the moisture I evaporate can condense on the inside of the raincoat.

I am 100% confident in the strength and waterproofness of this raincoat and that is why on most hikes I do not duplicate it with anything (I do not take a membrane jacket) and thereby save weight.

Flaws

Fixation. The raincoat does not fit very tightly on the backpack. This is completely natural, because I myself asked to make it huge. And in most cases this is a plus, but there are situations when very strong gusts of wind (in Iceland of course) can magically remove a fully buttoned poncho from me (over my head). Of course, I’m also no slouch and I’ll hold this airplane carpet with my hands, but I don’t really like the moment when the poncho rides up and reveals a defenseless backpack. At my request, KVNtrek has already attached a fastex to the raincoat, which can be used to fasten it in a backpack, as well as another one at the bottom of the hem to fasten it between the legs. But this may not be enough - most likely, some tightening is needed to hold the poncho to the backpack around the entire perimeter. I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

Wet knees. Although this poncho is quite long (up to the middle of the shin), if you walk for a long time in the rain, your knees will inevitably get wet. No, nothing leaks - water gets under the raincoat in the form of splashes reflected from the ground or rises up the legs due to wetting. In the same way, moisture can move up the sleeves. Therefore, in prolonged cold rain, I use silicone chaps and tops. It turns out that the true essence of this “disadvantage” is that the tails of the cloak could have been made a little shorter, since they still do not protect 100%. But prolonged rains do not happen so often and in most cases a long raincoat works perfectly and there is no need to supplement it with anything.

Results

At the moment, I don’t see any alternatives to this poncho. Primarily because of the silicone. In fact, all branded raincoats that are sold in stores are made from much lower quality fabric. It uses polyester with a polyurethane coating and this coating tends to peel off after a couple of years of use, which deprives the fabric of its waterproofness.

Kirill Yasko, December 27, 2018