For testing, we narrowed our contenders down to 11 women’s styles and 10 men’s styles. We sent all of the coats to a panel of six staff testers (including me), half in New York City and half in the Pacific Northwest. Three testers wore women’s styles (one petite, one tall, one plus-size) and three wore men’s styles (one regular, one tall, one plus-size). Testers spent a few weeks with these coats, trying them on and wearing them in the rain when they could. I tried all 21 coats in the rain and also ran dribbles of water down the sleeves over a sink to see how the water beaded and repelled from each one. I hung the coats on hangers to see if they looked wet or dripped excessively while air-drying. I also washed and dried the coats three times, checking for shrinkage, damage, or changes to their water repellency. I found that most of the coats barely shrank (some even stretched out a bit), and all of them completely maintained their water resistance. I also examined each with a magnifying glass to see how the fabrics held up after washing and found only a handful—typically those with cotton in them—that had signs of loose or fuzzy fibers. I compiled all of the testers’ feedback with my notes, and we settled on our seven picks. In summer 2020, Eve O’Neill tested the new version of Patagonia’s Torrentshell jacket, and we’ve added that as a pick in this guide.