Really weird. After the season is over I intend to go back out and try to replicate the conditions. I have other ash clothing I may try and purposefully take the ash raingear back out to see if they pay any attention to it. Just wondered if anyone else had had a similar issue. I talked with KUIU about it when I called the to return some of my unused ash and they said they had not had a rash of similar calls, but would monitor the situation. One guy that I talked with said that it was possible that the supplier had slipped in some thread or other material that was not to Kuiu’s specs and the jacket was more visible than it should be. I checked it with a black light. But didn’t see anything obvious.
The way the water was covering your rain gear could have made you unnaturally reflective in comparison to your surroundings. If the fabric is not broken in, it shines even with minimal sunlight. I've seen that often in construction. The old hand with well worn rain gear blends into the site while the new apprentice with brand new rain gear look like a beacon walking around the site.
The best explanation I’ve heard and could probably agree with would be the theory of reflectivity. It is possible that since the jacket was brand new with the tags just taken off it was more reflective than it might have been if it were broken a little. I’ll probably go with that theory until I can prove otherwise. I may wash it a couple times and try again. I have a pretty good supply of the Grangers that is recommended by KUIU so I’ll give that a go. All the other cloths ( all KUIU) had been was a couple times in that same detergent with good results. Thanks to everyone who weighed in. It’s been an interesting discussion.
I really hope this resolves the issue. I really like the ash color and have had zero issues while wearing it elk hunting.