Spring in Seattle is always rather tumultuous, varying from the pleasant (sunny blue skies) to the down-right depressing (heavy wind and rain).  With my trusty REV’IT! Sand jacket, I have most of those conditions covered.  That is, unless it gets really warm.  I find that a textile-based jacket hits its upper comfort range at around the 80 degree Fahrenheit mark – and that’s when I’m moving on my Majesty at 60 mph.  Settling down for slower speeds around the city or hitting stop-and-go traffic, my jacket quickly heats up and feels like an oven.  Perhaps I need to switch out my touring windshield in favor of a shorter one to flow more air across the front of me; but in lieu of any sort of work to the scooter, that got me thinking about mesh jackets.  Being a fan of REV’IT! (www.revit.eu) gear, I peeped the Air, a mesh-textile summer jacket.  My general requirements for a hot weather jacket are that it flows significant air, features adequate protection (good fitting armor, abrasion-resistant materials in high-wear areas), comes in brighter color schemes (higher visibility), fits well, and be relatively cheap (under $200).  The REV’IT! Air jacket ($179) fits most of those criteria, albeit to varying degrees of success.

First off, the exterior of this jacket is great.  REV’IT! put good thought into the Air, launching 4 different color variations based on a black, gray or white palette with touches of red or silver.  The one I’m wearing in the photos is the “Light Gray/Black” version.  The look is sporty with different textile and reflective panels.  Mesh panels are placed along the chest, beneath the arms, and on the back, allowing the flow of air to easily cool the torso.  500 denier textile material covers the rest, providing basic abrasion protection.  The rear and sides of the shoulder contain a thin, raised section of foam, although I view this more as a cosmetic feature, not protective.

• Mesh is flat, as compared to the 3D mesh in the newer Sand jacket and other offerings from Dainese.
• There are some adjustability options with snaps along the upper arm and Velcro adjusters by the waist.
• Velcro panels on the sleeve cuffs were considerably smaller than seen on other REV’IT! jackets.
• The collar features a multi-position snap enclosure as seen on other REV’IT! jackets (a nice touch).
• Flex panels are located behind the elbow, but in my opinion, didn’t really contribute to increasing the comfort in sleeve motion.
• The Air jacket does not come with any sort of insulated or windproof removable liner.
• There is one interior pocket on the left.
• The interior material used on the collar is a soft, quilted material (nice compared to the abrasive collar on my Alpinestars Air-Flo jacket).
• The jacket features a short-length pants zipper and a two-snap belt loop.

The sizing of this jacket matches its sporty-styling; the chest fit more snugly for an M-size jacket than the more touring-oriented REV’IT! Cayenne Pro, Sand, or Dragon jackets.  The bottom of the jacket stopped towards the top of the hips, contributing to its aggressive appearance.  Overall, I would say that the Air jacket favors those on the slimmer side, with the snugness creating a better fit for letting air to pass through without having the jacket flap around.

The weakest point of the jacket is probably the protection.  The back pad is good, being constructed slightly differently from what I’ve seen in the foam back pads of other manufacturers.  While made of the usual dense foam material, it contains several large cut-outs in the interior, to improve air exiting out the rear of the jacket.  This is a nice touch to back protection/comfort that most companies wouldn’t usually care to think about.  One gripe that I have with the back protector is the rough cut of the foam; loose sections of threaded foam hanging off the cut-outs, and a section of foam actually missing from the pad (possibly torn).  The CE-approved Knox armor had its own set of issues.  While I found the overall sizing of the jacket to be spot-on, the placement of the shoulder armor was set too wide, covering more of the sides of my shoulder than the tops.  As well, while I think Knox armor offers great protection due to its combination of a hard plastic outer and foam inner, it doesn’t offer a lot of flexibility; this is evident in the elbow sections where bending the arm at sharper angles caused the armor to poke out annoyingly from the sleeves.  The armor is not adjustable, which I consider a big drawback.  It should also be noted that the forearm protectors are longer than those in the shoulders, although there is no difference between the left and right-side versions.

My opinion is that given the low price-point of this jacket, REV’IT! put out a solid product.  There are obvious areas where the company did some cost-cutting, but these can be forgiven.  If your dimensions allow for a good pairing with the protection in the jacket, the Air jacket is hands-down, an excellent buy as a hot weather option.  Otherwise, as most summer jackets will feature similar construction, you may be better off trying a higher-end REV’IT! jacket that utilizes more flexible armor (ex. the Turbine with Sas-Tec or Ignition with ProLife) or an Alpinestars or Dainese jacket, both of which offer good selections at similar prices.