If you're like me, there's never enough pockets in your Jacket for all your Gadgets. Phone, MP3 player, Digital Camera, Keys, Glasses, Thumb Drives . . . the list goes on.
Enter Scottevest. They have a line of Jackets, Hoodies, Vests and even Cargo Pants and shorts with the Gadget Guru's in mind.
I just got my first Scottevest Essential Jacket. It was a gift from Microsoft at the MVP Summit back in February. I had never heard of Scottevest before.
The sleeves of the jacket unzip to convert it into a lightweight vest.
The first thing you notice about the jacket is that there are a Gazillion pockets (ok, there's 19). The pockets are all different sizes and shapes. Each pocket has a business sized card in it telling you what the pocket was designed for. There are pockets inside the jacket on either side that use clear, touch sensitive material to hold your phone and MP3 player and won't interfere with the touch screen. I have my ZuneHD on one pocket and my iPhone in the other. The material works perfectly, the touch screens work just fine through the material. There's also a clear ID/Card pocket.
All of the pockets Zip closed and some have Magnets to hold the pocket closed in a breeze if unzipped.
The other pockets are:
- A sunglass pocket with a "Chamois" tether. It's a cord attached to the pocket with an alligator clip at the end to store you glass cleaner cloth.
- A Key pocket with a removeable keychain holder.
- A "PubPocket". This pockets big enough to hold a magazine or even a Kindle.
- Travel Document pocket for boarding passes, passport, bag checks . . .
- A Water Bottle elastic to hold a standard sized water bottle upright in the pocket.
- 2 Pen pockets, one on either side of the main zipper.
- Memory stick pockets.
- Hidden Side Seam pocket. It's hard to find unless you know it's there.
- Hand Warmer pockets.
- Change pocket inside the Hand Warmer pockets.
- A pocket inside a pocket. One of the handwarmer pockets can zip in the middle to turn it into 2 seperate pockets to keep you gadgets from banging into each other.
All of these pockets are placed in a way that they stay pretty flat even when full. The jacket also has a weight management system to keep heavy items from making the coat sag to either side.
The other features of this Jacket are the PAN (Personal Area Network). All of the pockets have a reinforced hole sewn into the pocket liner, that has access to the inner liner of the jacket. This is for running wires between the pockets.
There's also a wire management system for earbuds, one set for your MP3 Player and one for your phone. It's a series of clips and conduits that go from the pocket all the way to the collar. You can run the earphone wire up to the collar and then to each side of the jacket, where there are special "BudPockets" to store your earbuds where they won't just dangle and get damaged.
I've been wearing the Jacket for a few weeks now and I'm loving it. Even with all the gadgets I normally carry around, I'm not filling the pockets. I keep a set of earbuds wired into the jacket and have another set for when I'm not wearing my Scottevest. I could remove them easily enough, but again if you're like me you have 57 pairs of earbuds kicking around anyway, so I just keep my best set wired in there.
I keep a stack of business cards in the ID pocket and my FlipVideo camera in the camera pocket. I haven't found uses for some of the pockets yet, but I'm sure I will.
If you carry as much stuff as I do and always having a hard time fitting it all into your jacket, then Scottevest might just be for you too. You can buy yours direct from the Scottevest website.
