Arc'teryx Beta AR

The cheap rain jacket beads water for two winters. Then the coating gives out and the shoulders soak through in the first real downpour.

That is a budget waterproof jacket doing what it was built to do. It keeps you dry for a while before it wets out for good. The Arc'teryx Beta AR was built to do the opposite. It is a three-layer Gore-Tex hardshell from a Canadian firm that has made mountain shells since 1989. The seams are taped. The hood is cut for a storm. Arc'teryx warrants it against defects for the practical lifespan of the product. When it wears, the brand's ReBIRD service patches the fabric and reproofs it. A warranty fault is often mended at no charge.

Here is where the money sits. A Beta AR costs €649,95 today at Bever. Arc'teryx runs its own second-hand store. Used Beta shells move quickly there. On Marktplaats a well-kept Beta still sells from around €120. The pricier AR sits higher, often €150 and up. Your money does not vanish into the fabric. A large part of it waits on your shelf, ready to be recovered.

The €120 jacket has no such floor. Its laminate wets out within a few winters and eventually delaminates. The next one costs another €120. The one after that, another €120.

Run the two paths over twenty years. The Beta AR is bought once. Sell it at the end for around €200. The whole run costs you close to €450. The budget jacket gets replaced about every five years. Four of them come to €480. Every one lands in the bin worth nothing.

The cash lands in the same place. The difference is what you hold at the end. One path keeps you dry through two decades of weather. The jacket repairs when it tears and still carries a resale price a queue of buyers will pay. The other leaves you a drawer of dead shells and a receipt for each.

A cheap jacket depreciates to zero on schedule. A Beta AR holds a floor, because the repair network and the resale market keep it worth owning. For €649,95 you park capital in a shell that keeps most of its value while it works.

The verdict. Buy the shell that keeps you dry for two decades and still resells for most of a budget jacket's price.