I think this would tie for my favorite jacket (which is saying a lot for someone who loves jackets). The fit is perfect. The look is sweet. And most importantly... It actually works really well. I bought this in time for our trip to Iceland and Norway for a couple of weeks early summer. It rained and was windy pretty much the whole time. Let's just say it held up when every other piece of gear was soaked. Big fan. You can tell it is well made. Never bought anything from or heard of this brand before. Will definitely be using them going forward.

This Rab jacket is definitely a no brainer to pick up and add to the closet! The fabric is soft and stretchy, fits a little slimmer than other brands. Waterproof is on point, I wore it out during walking the dogs in a blizzard for a few hours never got any moisture inside, and breathed up to the standards Rab promotes. Will not be disappointed!

This is a pretty great jacket except for the hood really. I just wish they had a little more fabric in the hood so it wasn't such a tight fit. The fabric really gets stretched when put over a helmet. Other than that, it breathes great, which was a big concern for me seeing the waterproofing on the jacket. It has a nice athletic fit and looks good. I guess it would be nice if it had another half inch to an inch on the arms, but I've got pretty long arms and it's pretty close to the right length.

I'm 6'5" 195lb and I have the XL. It's a nice slim fitting XL with long enough arms for me.

I use this jacket as part of my backcountry skiing layering system. This jacket is my outer layer (over a single baselayer) for the uphill. It stops wind and snow but still breaths really well so I don't get soaked with sweat. When I'm stopped or skiing down I put a hardshell or down jacket or both on over the softshell and it becomes my midlayer. Reviewers who are complaining about this jacket being too slim fitting to fit layers underneath are misunderstanding the purpose of the jacket. This jacket is best worn directly over your baselayer in a situation where you are moving and sweating but you don't want the wind to cut straight through your baselayer to your skin. The slim fit and stretch makes it easy to move and easy to wear the jacket under a big down belay parka or under your hardshell when the weather gets really nasty and you're at a belay or ski transition.

For a softshell, I was pleasantly surprised at how well this jacket performed when put to the test. It breathes very well, and has enough stretch to it for layering underneath without being restrictive.. I spent a few days in Banff NP, land out of the 5 days I was there it rained for three and we woke up to snow on the fourth day. I didn't once have an issue with being wet, or being too cold given the conditions I was in.

Rab tends to fit slender body types, but does fit true to size.

I used this jacket on a trip to the Sawtooths in Idaho. The jacket was extremely comfortable and performed better than expected in all kinds of weather. We had hot sun, then clouds with heavy wind, finally a rain shower and when the sun set I never took it off. It comes with its own stuff sack which was great for putting it in my pack. It stretches and was so comfortable I even wore it when it was super sunny so I didn't get sunburnt.

Softshells are great if you know their limits, the situation I used it for was perfect. It is not a hardshell and should not be expected to perform as such, but it is much more comfortable than a hard shell and therefore you will wear it more often and it will find its way into your pack more than any other lightweight shell.

The fabric is soft and nifty, and the jacket is clearly quality. The fit is confusing. I used the official Rab sizing tool + the table and both said I should get a medium. I'm 5'9" and 155 lbs and I can't fit more than a long-sleeved shirt under this jacket. A thin fleece baselayer drags and pulls. The hood is similarly confusing. It tugs at my head unpleasantly and is too small to fit a warm hat under, so this limits the use as a shell over layers.
It's clearly a lovingly made garment, but it really doesn't fit me well and I'm concerned that the large will have an opposite problem, so I'll probably wind up returning it.

According to the normal Rab size chart, I should be a medium (38S blazer, 33-inch sleeves), but the medium was too small. However, the sizing tool on the Rab website for Kinetic Plus said I should use the large size. The large fit me, just like the tool said. Definitely check the size out at the Rab website and save yourself some trouble.

With the large, the sleeves are a tad long, and the velcro on the sleeves definitely mitigates this. The overall length is longer than my OR Helium II, so it is a bit more practical for standing around and is still good for hiking (because most of the extra length is in the back), but it is probably too long to use as a running shell unless you're tall. I was able to test out the jacket in a humid rain, and I'm not sure if it is that much more breathable than other high-end rain jackets under those conditions. However, it feels slightly warmer yet less clammy because of the softshell-like interior. The wind resistance is excellent, but it might be too warm to replace your windshell in the summer months (I haven't had it long enough to use it in the summer).

I wear glasses, so I really appreciate the hood. Under the brim, there is a stretchy material that fits kind of like the top part of a balaclava. This stretchy part helps keep the brim in place right over my glasses, so I don't have to wipe them off so much. Because the hood is so close fitting, though, it might add to the warmth, which might hurt the jacket's use in the summer, but again, this is just speculation.

One last thing: the maple color is less purple and more burgandy-like than the pictures show. The color is actually really nice, and I haven't felt out of place wearing it out on non-rainy days (which I've done a lot). It's a shame to call it a rain jacket--it is much more comfortable than that.

I was pretty psyched the first time I wore the Kinetic Plus in a thunderstorm. I was deep in Rocky Mountain National Park and stayed dry for 4 hours in torrential thunderstorms hiking back to the car. Honestly, after feeling how comfortable this material was it surprised me to see it perform as well as Rab describes it's waterproofing. My favorite part of this jacket is the hood. It fits perfectly with or without a helmet (and most importantly for me, it fits well with a man-bun.) Another cool aspect of the hood is the small fabric that extends below the brim and keeps your forehead dry and the hood from blowing off in the wind. I normally wear a Medium rain jacket and this Medium feels great for me (5'9" 143lbs) The one thing I wish this jacket had is a waterproof zipper. The jacket definitely stays dry but after a long day will begin to leak through the top of the zipper a bit.

Fit. Color (Steel), Comfort. All perfect.
I pulled the tags off during a rainy day in Montreal, and haven't regretted it a bit. It's the most comfortable softshell I own, and it's waterproof. Fit is Rab-like, slim.
5 Stars