In country shops around me you can pick up a wax jacket for less than 30 stock changes a lot, sometimes they are an "odd" shade of green, and somtimes they have plastic zips ( which i dislike ) but i have grown up in many of mine and they have lasted years. When i can buy a jacket that will last 5+ years for 30 quid, Barbour just cant tempt me. A Barbour would have to last 30 years to be worth while and any brand name is no match for a snag on some barbed wire.
I once made the colossal mistake of over waxing my coat, every imaginable seed head and dog hair adhered to me and despite going through the washing machine twice to try and remove the wax it was never the same afterwards!
The reason wax jackets are so good is not because they are particularly water proof, on the moors water will find its way through when visibility closes in and the wind and rain is side ways. It will keep the worst of the wind of, and its very much functional clothing, easily repaired and after a couple of years your old wax will stretch and hold its form unique to you, putting an old wax on is like a long hug from an old friend, there are a lot of unsaid words, memories and feelings in that sort of a hug, and to me, its the same when you put on an old wax.
My first wax came from a local country store and cost 29.00, which aged 14 felt like a lot of money! A new wax is a horrible thing, a wax should never be clean, it should be crinkled and stained and ripped and show use, turning up to beating i stood out like a sore thumb in my pristine wax. 7 years later i was forced to retire that wax, the most comfortable garment i ever had, with a unique smell of, muck, dog, and nitro powder, the pockets an inexhaustible supply of rusty rimmed cartridges, the pockets bulged the sleeves four inches too short. My best mate refuses to retire his!
