hey guys todd helms here with eastmans hunting journals bringing you another great gear review
this time we're doing the first lite omen storm shelter series i've got the pants
and the jacket and because we live in a pretty arid environment
i'm going to put them to test in this little waterfall behind me here and see
if they can keep me dry all right so i'm going to pull the hood up and we're going to dive in
see just how waterproof this stuff is
it's coming in right here where it's open but i'm not getting wet through the fabric
i'm dry as a bone on the inside here i got a little bit of water here on the entrance which
is normal and if i tip my sleeves up it runs down right in here but without rubber gussets
on the sleeves that's gonna happen i don't care what you got but as far as standing in the rain
guys if i can do that and stay dry this stuff is going to handle just about any rainstorm
i was in that for probably 10 minutes all cold and i'm dry i'm perfectly dry on the inside
at first blush when i put when i pulled this stuff out of the package when first light sent it to me
i picked it up i was like man i like the feel of it i like the soft feel it's it's
got some substance to it it's a substantial garment both jacket and pants without being
heavy um it's pretty light for what it is actually usually when you're looking at these
top tier multi-day bomb proof layers like this omen storm shelter
it it can get material can get stiff it can get pretty weighty it can get a little restrictive
this isn't restrictive at all i have phenomenal freedom of movement another thing i like about
this stuff is it's not particularly heavy weight is 26 ounces this would not be difficult to throw
in a backpack on a back country hunt and have with you at all times it is not extremely lightweight
it's not designed for that it is designed to perform in horrible conditions for a length of
for a long period of time so think back country hunts in like i said alaska back country hunts
where you don't know the weather you're going to be dealing with you might be dealing with
heavy snow and high winds you might be dealing with heavy rain whatever it might be that's what
this stuff is designed to protect you from that light rain gear that's really easy to pack around
that's designed for like early season where you're dealing with rain squalls that come in
and they can go out purpose built for that mid to late season to keep you protected in the from the
elements and out in the field when you don't know what mother nature is going to throw at you but
it's going to keep you out there keep you hunting so you're not sitting in camp or back at the truck
going man i wish the weather would break you got this stuff on you're going to be out there hunting
first lite calls this the bi-component laminate package that is what it's at the
core of this system that keeps it performing for years at a time and keeps you out of the
elements and protected in this cocoon if you will the shelter of waterproof and windproof
barrier one of the things that really stood out for me as soon as i pulled this out of the package
but even more so when i put the jacket on it has tricep vents right here which are kind of unique
i'm used to pit zips right this jacket has tricep vents it helps you dump heat out the back without
getting water in there a lot of times with pit zips you can get water that runs down and
gets in that zip with the tricep vent not so much pretty ingenious actually and i i really like that
the other thing that stood out to me was the chest cowl um yeah like batman the cape and
the cowl right but not the cowl on the face this is a cowl that goes here and it's these pockets
these zippered pockets right here on the side that you could zip open it's got two-way zippers
and i can use these as vents these chest cowls serve as vents but also to get into anything
that might be in underneath my jacket you know say i need to grab a call out that's stuffed in a
bino harness that's covered up i can i can pull it out this jacket is really well thought out you can
tell that back country hunters and guys that spend a lot of time hunting thought about how to make
this jacket dialed and they got it man i'm telling you just the simple things like this pocket
the sleekness of it it's a simple design but it's highly effective nothing's going to get in there
get water in there you're going to keep debris out of there just a super cool setup so again
back to the hood on this thing it's a three-way adjustable hood means it pulls here and here i
could tighten this hood right down tight like this brim you can see i could flip this down like this
and i did have it that way for a while but what it's really designed to do is to be flipped up
like that that's why there's a logo on it you can see the first lite logo there and it's a channel
what this is designed to do is to get water that's coming on your head that normally would run down
here it's designed to channel it here to the sides and have it go off the sides of the hood
so you have a 37.5 particle technology membrane that helps this jacket this and these pants this
whole system breathe in other words i can work up a sweat in this thing start to get overheated
it's not going to trap as much body heat as a non-breathable rain gear an eco-friendly 80 30 dwr
treatment on the outside is what you saw creating the water beading on the jacket
so let's talk about these pants the omen storm shelter pants are made out of the same technology
and material as the jacket they're very sleek again like the jacket this is a very sleek very
seamless design but once i pull that magnet up again i got two flaps nothing's getting in there
unless i open it up this is a deep pocket it's wide from side to side and it's super
deep if need be i could stuff a lot of kit into those pockets between the pockets on the jacket
and the pockets on the pants not only do the full length zippers make it easy to take the pants on
and off there's a velcro closure at the top that's going to keep your waistband shut but if i get
overheated and i need to vent some air i can zip that down just like that and it opens that thing
right up all right so a couple things i want to take a knee to show you there's a gusset down
here on the bottom what this does is designed to go over the top of your boot and there is a
lace hook right there like a gator that i can hook on in front of my boot
and it's going to keep debris from getting up in the pants and then down in my boots
it's going to keep snow melt it's going to keep water it's just like an extra layer of protection
another thing about this rain gear that is pretty revolutionary i think is there's knee pads in
here they're not super thick that they're gonna bind up on you or create like a shell
that makes it hard to walk but they're just enough that when i take a knee on this knee
i am protected another thing i really like about these is the waist design and unzip these here
and show you the clips it's there's not a traditional button on these not like a
button closure and what it does is just there's no button to fumble with if you've got gloves on
they also have first lite's proprietary like two point suspenders in other words these suspended
these suspenders don't attach in front and in back as traditional suspenders do they
attach in one place right here on the sides and they go in a loop it's like a teardrop shape
the pants are a little heavier than the jacket coming in at 30.25 ounces i can't
say it enough if your rain gear is too heavy or too uncomfortable and you don't want to carry it
it's no good to you this stuff is easy to carry and easy to wear alright guys so that
is the eastman's hunting journals' review of the first lite omen storm shelter series
the jacket and the pants check them out at firstlite.com for more information for
more details but if you're in the market for a quality set of rain gear that's going to take
you through a variety of seasons and a variety of use cases you might want to look at this one