Cloudveil 8X Dry Wader and Coat review

[Zach Matthews]

Hey guys-

Spent two days in a Cloudveil 8x Dry Wader and they didn’t extract a secrecy promise, so here is my take.

This wader competes directly with the Simms G3.  It is a slate gray color with a heavier bottom structure than upper.  The upper is a more breathable material.  The wader has built in stretchy gravel guards of an interesting material and a handwarmer pocket with zips on both sides as well as an outside pocket on top of that.  The straps buckle to the rear in one spot.

Good things about it:

1) The wader has drawstring cinches on both sized to allow you to go completely strapless without bunching in the middle.

2) The gravel guards are cut on an angle and stay down.

3) The wader is waterproof and durable.

4) You can look like one hep cat if you want to.

5) All zips are waterproof, even on the handwarmer pocket.

Bad things about it:

1) Simplicity is this year’s teal-orange combo.  It’s out.  This wader has a lot of pockets in the front and it is hard to crunch those down.

2) Strong resemblance to everything else on the market.

3) The wader and coat match exactly.  Which to my eye looks ridiculous.

4) The foot is a thicker neoprene and a little broader in the beam and didn’t fit as well as my Guides.  Fit in general is a little full.

5) The fabric is scratchy feeling and harsh – just like the G3s.  I prefer the soft suedeness of the Guides.

6) The built in wader belt is inconvenient to loosen to lower the waders, but otherwise a good idea.

On the balance, these waders are highly competitive with the Simms G3s and standing alone are a good product.  The only things I would have done differently if I aimed to hit their target market is add a buckle to the belt, remove the exterior non-handwarmer pocket, and soften the color so the coat isn’t an exact match.  They did a focus group and chose to do that but I think the group told them wrong.

One of the pre-production waders that a guide named Curt had (the guy on the crapper in their current ad) had an all-black upper and looked great.  I wish they had stuck with that for difference’s sake.

The Coat:

The 8x Dry coat is very nice, a worthy competitor to the Simms Guide coat and the SST.  It has a longer fit than either and can be worn around town.  Two big pockets and a hood, as you’d expect.  I didn’t care for:

1) The fact that the color was the same as the waders

2) The giant non-removable velcro patch for a fly pad, not good for wearing the coat to football games (but hey, that’s why they sell other lines!).

3) The hood drawstring is hard to get at, in a recessed pouch, with cold fingers.

4) The neoprene gasketed wrists are great for a guy with thick wrists but had to be folded for me, a true medium, and would not be at all waterproof as designed.  The neoprene there is way too thick, long, and nonbreathable and will almost certainly be redesigned in generation two.

Overall I think you are very safe buying this product.  They come with a lifetime of the product warranty, which as an almost-lawyer I will tell you sounds like a pretty subjective warranty to me, and Cloudveil is certainly going to be around a while (they got bought out by a deep pocket).  

I did not wear the PacLite coat, made of the material that made Cloudveil famous in skiing, but I would be more interested in purchasing one of those than in any other product I saw.  If anyone gets one please review it.  

Personally, the overall absence of simplicity and the very very high prices (highest yet, boys) will keep me away even with a writer’s discount.  I hope Cloudveil releases a simplified generation two of their products soon, as I am convinced they know more about breathable fabrics than their competition.  Right now they are borrowing heavily from everyone else for design ideas and the result is an excellent, but somewhat ordinary fishing system.

I will be writing an extensive article on the current state of breathable fabrics in flyfishing in the next few months.

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