Altura Men's Endurance Blast Jacket review: light, breathable but not cut out for the wettest rides

SQUIRREL_13163195

The Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket is a highly breathable, light-feeling winter jacket that does a great job of keeping you insulated when you’re not working hard.

The sensibly trim cut is also well thought out, although the thin outer layer is easily overwhelmed by heavy showers, while the pockets can be fiddly to access.

Overall, this makes the Endurance Blast Jacket a better jacket for cool-to-cold, dry days than the very worst winter weather. Thankfully, it’s competitively priced.

Altura Men's Endurance Blast Jacket details and specifications

The Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket features Polartec Alpha insulation around the neck, shoulders, front panels and tops of the arms.

This is complemented by a stretchy thermo-roubaix fleece lining on the back, to aid breathability.

The jacket has had a durable water-repellent (DWR) treatment applied, although the outer-face fabric is all you get on top of the insulating layers. In short, there’s no waterproof membrane here, so maintaining the DWR treatment is key.

This gives the jacket a relatively light-feeling construction, although there are creature comforts in the form of a waterproof zip, draught excluder and zip garage.

The rear has a zipped security pocket and three standard pockets. These are covered by a flap performing a dual purpose of keeping rain out and the contents in.

There’s a dropped tail, although the grippers are only on the flanks to keep everything in position.

The jacket is available in dark green with light green details (as tested), black with red details, and five sizes (S-2XL)

Altura Men's Endurance Blast Jacket performance

The Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket puts me in mind of the Castelli Alpha Flight (£290 / $319.99 / €269.95) through its lightweight insulated design.

Despite the competitive price (it’s less than half the price in the UK and €95 cheaper in Europe) it’s great to see the highly rated Polartec Alpha lining here.

It’s applied under all the green panels, essentially, which represent the main areas where the rider is most exposed to the wind, and does a good job of providing essential warmth.

That said, this reveals a significant downside in this jacket’s design: the outer fabric is notably thin, and as I’ve mentioned, doesn’t have a membrane – hold it up to the light and you can see through it and the Alpha lining underneath.

This renders the waterproofing relatively weak, and completely reliant on the DWR treatment. This is fine for a brief light shower, but beyond this I’d prefer to be wearing something more resistant.

The Endurance Blast Jacket feels very airy, though, which lends itself to cool-to-cold fast winter rides when breathability is essential.

On this score, it’s almost without peer – of the insulated winter jackets I’ve tested, only the Alpha Flight is on par – to the point where, like the Castelli top, I started to see sweat coming through the outer fabric when I used it in temperatures around the low teens (centigrade).

I can see this being an issue if the temperature were to suddenly drop as cloud cover comes over – not to mention a shower – but it wicks moisture away and dries quickly when it’s dry and fair.

Altura says the front-facing (green) panels are windproof, but I’d qualify this by suggesting they’re ‘lightly windproof’ – they keep a chunk of cutting wind at bay, but it feels less protective than all of the jackets I tested it alongside.

It’s also not stretchy, but the rear, side and underarm panels are, which offered me enough give to get a comfortable fit.

The design is slim but accommodating, and a size large fitted me well, as is normal for me. However, had I tested a size medium, which is suggested for chest sizes up to 102cm (40in), I might have struggled (I have a 99-100cm / 39in chest accounting for measuring variance). It’s worth bearing this in mind.

I have no complaints about the wrist cuffs or cut of the waist hem, while the collar is tapered and – like the Santini Vega+ (£240 / $300 / €250) – features Alpha lining, which isn’t itchy against the skin and represents a luxury touch.

The pocket flaps, though, make reaching into them a bit finickety, because I had to wiggle my fingers around to find the opening (not easy when wearing winter gloves, which reduce dexterity. Given the jacket isn’t especially waterproof anyway, I don’t think they’re necessary.

How we tested | winter jackets

I tested this group of winter jackets through November and December 2024. While these months have been unseasonably warmer than average, I chose the coldest days to test thermal insulation and the warmer days to assess breathability.

Testing temperatures ranged from -2ºC with freezing fog to a balmy 14ºC, and included the usual unpredictable mix of light drizzle and heavy showers. This put the DWR treatments and any waterproof membranes to the test.

I also assessed cut, overall fit and sizing, as well as details of the design such as cuffs, collars, and pocket size and access.

Jackets on test

• Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket
• Gore Spinshift Thermo Jacket
• Sportful Total Comfort Jacket
• Santini Vega+ Winter Jacket
• Assos Mille GT Hashoogi Winter Jacket S11
• Van Rysel Men’s Winter Road Cycling Jacket Endurance
• Endura Men's Pro SL 3-Season Jacket
• Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket

Altura Men's Endurance Blast Jacket bottom line

The Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket is most suitable for harder-effort riding than steady winter miles because it’s so breathable.

Sadly, it’s not as water-resistant as many other winter jackets, which is an issue for those who want to ride in the rain.

In turn, it might not be the best option for the coldest and wettest winter conditions, although nothing is stopping you from employing a thicker cycling baselayer than you would typically use to counteract the former, at least.

The fact that the jacket is much cheaper than many deep-winter competitors would free up budget to buy a baselayer, which could mean it’s more flexible to use over a greater portion of the season.

SQUIRREL_13163195