http://www.scottevest.com/

This company was highlighted in the WSJ today for it's travel-wear vest with a pocket suitable to carry an i-Pad.

The company's entire line is designed for travel and even as a means of avoiding carry-on luggage when flying.

Their coats, vests, pants and shorts could be an efficient and discreet way to carry survival gear.

I'm mulling a purchase. Have seen a lot of and own a couple of photo-safari types of vests but haven't to this point seen much in the way of jackets and coats designed to augment or replace carry-on bags.

Thanks for the link, those look great, similar in looks to my Royal Robbins field vests. I especially like the looks of the pants they offer but doesn't appear they make them for women--darn.

I’ve worn vests for years, especially in the summer. When I was riding horses daily they were a necessity, as for years riding pants had NONE or only a small key pocket. After years or trial and error my current favs are the field vest by Royal Robbin. I have a black and a tan and love them. Decent enough looking for travel or a run to town. Easy to wash and holds up after repeated washings.
https://www.royalrobbins.com/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=64&SEName=field-guide-vest


When it’s hot or in an area where there is brush the filson tin cloth is a classic. The downside is that it has no zip pockets. However, the pockets are deep and I’ve never lost anything. Mine is ten years old and still like new, wears like iron and easy to wash. Comes only in men's but it fits me fine.

http://www.filson.com/product/index.jsp?...rentPage=family

I like the concept of Scottevests but not the syle. They look to techie for me, I like more classic adventurer style. My favorite for the last five years of travel has been the Kakadu Oilskin Vest.

-Blast

I too love the style of those Blast. My local tack shop carries them and I always drool over them. Love the way they are designed and function. If I didn’t have dogs and especially horses with all the hair and grime that goes with them they would be my fav. My only complaint is they can’t be tossed in the wash.

From the cleaning instructions label of my vest:
"When dirty hose off then hang to dry."

So far that has worked. Izzy like my vest so much he bought one, too and did a review of it.

-Blast

Love oilskin -- thanks for posting that Kakadu vest, I'd never heard of them.

The Scottevest products are more discreet for urban and airport-wear. I may pull the trigger on the vest.

Rebwa -- I have that vest. It's terrific for shoulder season hikes.

I used to like vests, the many pockets seemed handy and very functional. I sometimes wore jackets that had loads of pockets. They worked out well enough. The biggest problems were that doffing the load, unloading, and finding things was a pain. I once spent a good amount of time trying to find a small device that I was sure I had in one of my pockets. I didn't find it. A few weeks later, while digging for something else ... there it was.

IMHO a good day-pack, musette, or other shoulder bag is better than a vest.

Unless you are boarding a plane.
-Blast

I've discovered the Scottevest company about 5 years ago. And is a happy owner of several products from them. In the last years their products quality dropped noticeably (cheap zippers, bad stitching) as my friends has reported. Just checked their web site - looks like they have far less options than before. That's sad - the EDC idea was very well implemented by their designers.

I'm still wearing their Tactical 4.0 system (Fleece vest + rain jacket, all with detachable sleeves) - very versatile and high performance construction. The fleece vest part of it was my primary EDC items carrier - it weights around 6 pounds but that's almost unnoticeable. Unfortunately my new job has a classic office dress code, so I'm only wearing it off duty now.

The roomy jacket part serves as a part of my grab and run BOB system. It has very reliable inner harness system which allows to pack a lot of stuff. Once in the airport I've managed to empty my luggage for more than 15 pounds, moving my stuff into the jacket pockets, in order to avoid the overweight fees

And you are right it's not very durable in the field (though quite comfortable) - I had to get a replacement for the inner fleece west after about 2 years.