Maap Atmos jacket review

The Maap Atmos is the Australian brand’s “most lightweight, waterproof and packable” rain jacket.

Constructed from Pertex’s Shield fabric, it’s designed to offer the kind of packability seen in jackets using Gore’s soon-to-be retired Shakedry fabric (which is being phased out due to incoming EU bans on perfluorochemicals), while matching them for wet-weather performance.

Head-to-head testing with my go-to Gore-Tex Shakedry jacket suggests it comes mightily close to doing just that, and it misses only one or two practical points that would make the Atmos a clear winner.

Maap Atmos jacket details and specifications

The Maap Atmos jacket feels incredibly thin and light; it weighs 130g in a size large – a single gram more than my large Gore C5 Gore-tex Shakedry 1985 Viz jacket.

This is impressive, given the Pertex Shield fabric employed is the ‘heaviest’ three-layer version – Shakedry, by comparison, has only two.

Such claims should be taken with a pinch of salt, but the Pertex Shield fabric used here is said to achieve a 20,000mm water column rating, alongside a 20,000g/m2 breathability score.

Leaving numerical comparisons at the door, this puts it in the top echelons of fabric performance on paper.

The fabric is assisted by a DWR (durable water repellent) treatment. Neither this nor the fabric is PFC-free, though.

The jacket has a slim cut and fit. It’s suitably racy, but the fabric has a small amount of stretch in it – certainly, more than Gore-Tex Shakedry.

The majority of the waist hem is elasticated around a dropped tail, and the wrist cuffs feature the same approach on the inside of the wrist to keep water and draught ingress at bay.

The collar is raised to cover a good portion of your neck and the double YKK zip opens from both ends. It’s backed by a narrow draught-excluding tab down the whole length.

Up top, a zip garage is present and correct, and the uppermost zip has a flip action, so it can be stowed downwards and not flap up and down.

The jacket doesn’t have any pockets, or creature comforts such as fleece backing on the neckline. It’s designed to pack away into a jersey pocket on the move.

The Atmos jacket is available in six colours: Clay, Navy (blue), black, Bronze Green, Muscat (deep red) and Bay (bright blue, as tested), and six sizes (XS-2XL).

Maap Atmos jacket performance

Given the light weight of the Atmos jacket, it was natural to pitch it against a Gore-Tex Shakedry jacket, as well as the best waterproof jacket I've tested recently (a Gore Torrent jacket, featuring Gore-Tex Active fabric).

I’ve come away incredibly impressed, with the Atmos being something of a halfway house between the two in terms of performance.

It’s worth noting that conditions seldom remain the same between rides (or even on the same ride), so head-to-head testing is never an exact science.

However, the Atmos’ Pertex fabric proved very waterproof when the heavens opened, with its panels sealed ably by taped seams, and impressively breathable when it was dry.

I found the DWR treatment to be resilient in the face of repeated showers, too.

The thinness of the fabric, despite its three layers, is a real plus for breathability – it felt as though cool air could exchange for warm air easily (in the right, drier conditions), and felt as capable as Shakedry in this regard.

That said, I got the sensation that well-employed Shakedry remains the standard to beat when you consider ultimate protection from the elements.

When it rained and I was riding at considerable effort in similar temperatures, I felt slightly drier inside my Gore C5 Gore-tex Shakedry 1985 Viz jacket. While that fabric has never failed to bead water, the Pertex Shield, eventually, did – although it took a prolonged attack with a hosepipe to confound it.

I was very happy with the slim fit as a 188cm tall, 80-odd kilogram male. The fabric was nicely stretchable across my wide shoulders, and the arms were long enough not to ride up.

The Atmos is easily packable into a jersey pocket, although it doesn’t have a stash pocket, so the jacket will always be ‘loose’ when stowed away in a bar bag.

I don’t mind this, but given a stash pocket can double as a zipped storage pocket on the move, it’s a practical point that’s arguably missing from the Atmos jacket.

Nevertheless, the premium performance is matched by a premium price tag – at £270 / $345 / €295 / AU$395, it’s £40 / $115 / €65 more expensive than the Gore Torrent jacket.

The end-of-life Shakedry jacket is £299.99 / $300 / €299.95 – £30 dearer in the UK, but almost the same in Europe and a chunk less expensive in the US.

It’s worth noting that, at the time of writing, availability of Gore products in Australia is less certain – Wiggle/CRC used to sell to the area before its recent troubles.

But with the Atmos, those Down Under wishing to shop from a domestic brand have a very strong premium option here.

Maap Atmos jacket bottom line

The Maap Atmos jacket is a brilliant performer, and worthy of shortlisting if you have a big budget for your next waterproof jacket.

It’s very light, very breathable and very waterproof. I also found it comfortable to wear; the fabric’s small amount of stretch is a bonus compared to Gore-Tex Shakedry or Active.

The lack of a stash or storage pocket is the one practical omission that warrants consideration, though, especially if you know you make use of one in your existing jacket.