Our favorite rain jacket is even more affordable now that REI is taking up to 50% off

When CNN Underscored editors set out to find the best rain jacket worth buying on a budget, they found that REI Co-op checked just about all the boxes with its Rainier coat. Oftentimes with cheaper apparel, you sadly get what you pay for. That can mean it’s worth splurging on something built to last instead of buying a cheap alternative again and again. But that’s not the case with today’s summer discounts: They drop these rain jackets for men and women down to as low as $50.

REI Co-op Women's Rainier Rain Jacket

Several sizes and styles of our favorite budget rain jacket are on sale for the best prices of the year. The best measurement options are on the Azurite Blue design, which is 30% off and stocked in just about every single size. A few options have received the full 50% discount, but they're only in larger or smaller sizes. Still, either of these markdowns beat the previous sale I spotted when the coats were 25% off for Independence Day weekend.

Read our review

REI Co-op Men's Rainier Rain Jacket

When CNN Underscored's very own outdoors expert Kai Burkhardt tested this coat, he found that the company’s affordable outerwear outperformed pricier options despite its lower price tag. Today's markdowns make the Rainier jacket even easier to recommend for those looking to protect themselves from sudden summer downpours without pouring all the cash out of their wallets. Three styles with a solid selection of sizes are down to $50, and you'll find a single option at $70, the Terra Red design.

After Burkhart’s testing, he found that the Rainier jacket was the best option for those who don’t want to spend $190 on a new coat. Even at its MSRP, this REI Co-op outerwear was nearly half the price of the next-best option. Now, you can save even more since these discounts drop the jackets down to their lowest prices of the year in several colors and sizes. It’s hard to recommend anything other than these Rainier jackets with such low price tags attached, especially considering how reliably they keep you dry in everything from light rain showers to intense thunderstorms.

The only other thing you should know comes right from our outdoors editors’ review is that the Rainier jackets are made of a 2.5-layer recycled ripstop nylon. In other words, it ditches the more comfortable interior lining that made Burkhardt fall in love with the higher-end (and best-tested) Patagonia Torrentshell. If you don’t love the feeling of plastic against your skin, one of the other best jackets we’ve tested may be worth the splurge. For everyone else, REI Co-op’s Rainier will do the trick for a fraction of the price.

Why these deals are worth shopping

I’m constantly tracking price cuts across multiple online storefronts to ensure the deals are as good as the retailers say. The rest of t he deals team and I dive into each product’s price history while cross-referencing reviews and guides from other CNN Underscored editors to determine if it’s worth your cash.

Why trust CNN Underscored

CNN Underscored’s deals editors scour the internet daily for the best available sales and discounts, then put them on your radar in real time. They utilize a range of techniques and consider a variety of factors — price history checks, available coupon codes, competitor pricing — to determine if a deal is worthy of coverage (and your money).

For this article, CNN Underscored senior deals editor Rikka Altland took a closer look at the pricing history of our favorite budget rain jacket to see how it stacks up with up to 50% in savings attached. Altland has been doing just that for over a decade, and that kind of experience extends to the rest of our deals team. Being an advocate for buyers to make sure we’re only recommending the best prices on the best products is what we’re all about, and that focus comes across in our work.

Some information for this report was gathered via edition.cnn.com.