Windcheater is a term used mostly in Britain that refers to a heavy, weather-proof jacket. The French call such a jacket an anorak, and Americans call it a coat or a winter jacket. Americans do have an item called a windbreaker, but it is a lightweight jacket for chilly but windy days, and not the same thing as a windcheater. However, you may find that many American promotional companies market an item that is neither the light windbreaker nor the heavy windcheater, bur rather a warm, lined jacket that is somewhere in between the two.



A windcheater is an expensive but significant gift to give to employees or significant clients or customers. They are elegant and useful, coming in many colors with your company's logo usually printed tastefully in the location of the breast pocket. They can be custom made and personalized to fit your company and your occasion.

Many promotional companies offer several different jacket-type items that they place in a category called windcheaters. This gives you, the buyer with a business or organization to promote, many different choices concerning what items to buy, how to have your logo imprinted, who to give these excellent gifts to, and how many of each kind will fit into your marketing budget.

Some types of windcheaters include:

• Windcheater in a bag. These are the in-between type of lined windcheaters described above. Not only do they have your logo embroidered or screen-printed on the jacket itself, but they can be rolled up and put into an attractive nylon drawstring bag—also imprinted with your logo-- for easy use as a just-in-case jacket.

• Raincoat. Raincoats are not properly considered windcheaters, but some promotional companies sell them in the category of windcheaters. Raincoats come in many different styles. You can get them in a thin nylon or rubber, with hoods that have drawstrings or snaps or with no hoods at all. They can come in any color or color combination, and some are even reversible, so that you can change from one to color to another depending on your mood and circumstances. Some raincoats come just to the person's waist, and some are longer, sweeping down to cover the knees and below. Whatever their style, they can all be printed with your business's name and logo. They are guaranteed to bring it exposure, because everyone has to go out in the rain sometimes.

• Winter jackets. These are more like what is usually meant by windcheater, although American-based promotional companies have different names for them, including parka and hiking jacket. Some of these jackets reach to the waist, a traditional American style, while some reach beyond the hips to the upper thighs, in a more traditional British windcheater style.

Each of these offerings comes with many choices. You can get them with fleece or flannel lining, with sleeves that detach or linings that can be removed. Some will be embroidered and some will be silk-screened, but each of them is designed to keep your customers warm and carry your name into the world.