Wearable Storage – The Next Evolution? – THG.RU

Wearable Storage – The Next Evolution?

The article first appeared in Tom’s Hard News email newsletter.

If you have traveled recently and experienced the security delays at airports, sporting events and public building checkpoints, you will appreciate the convenience of this idea: wearing one article of clothing that can store all of your electronic devices, and help to speed you through security, too. This clever wearable storage device is a vest, known as the SCOTTeVEST. Now, you can simply take off your vest with all your gear inside it, place the vest on the security conveyer belt, walk through security, and pick up the vest with all your gear at the end of the security checkpoint.

The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 is so innovative and practical, we’re surprised that no one thought of it before. Here is a look at the front of the SCOTTeVEST.

The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 is a highly utilitarian, wearable storage garment. It is marketed under the name ‘Technology Enabled Clothing,’ a company which, according to CEO Scott E. Jordan, “merges technology with fashion, allowing mobile users to be truly hands-free connected while moving freely about.” We first spied the SCOTTeVEST at COMDEX 2001, but the crowds were so large that we couldn’t touch or even get a close look at one. So, we ordered one from their website at www.scottevest.com. We were able to get the vest for less than the $199.00 retail price that we heard folks were paying. The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 retails on the Web site for $139.00, with a special $99.00 limited-time offer. Their Web site was easy to navigate, and we ordered the vest without any hassles. It arrived quickly, without our having to pay excessive shipping and premium “overcharges” that many online and catalog merchants charge.

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The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 arrived protectively packaged, and came with a one-page information sheet about Technology Enabled Clothing, and CEO and President Scott E. Jordan and his ideas behind the Technology Enabled Clothing system design. Also attached to the vest was a cleverly designed “Owner’s Manual” that looks like a two-sided clothing tag. The Owner’s Manual contains SCOTTeVEST marketing information on the front side; the back of the card shows the features of the vest, inside and outside, as well as instructions explaining how to wire or connect devices inside the vest to each other. This information is a plus, since it points out that there is no one “correct” way to connect the devices in the vest; the vest can be customized depending on the capability and compatibility of the wearer’s components. The documentation is informative and easy to read.

An item to note: the documentation on both the vest and the included information sheet references a “Patent-Pending Personal Area Network (PAN) System,” which is somewhat of a misnomer. True “PAN Technology” is more often associated with Bluetooth devices, which are able to communicate with each other wirelessly. The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 does not include any devices, cabling or wiring to permit true PAN Technology, and the documentation might initially cause purchasers of the SCOTTeVEST to think that the vest as purchased is either wired or PAN Technology-enabled. The SCOTTeVEST Version 1.0 permits networking capability among handheld electronic devices that can be wired together inside the vest, but the devices and the cabling must be purchased separately and installed in the vest by the wearer, and these devices must be compatible and capable of talking to each other.

Now for the specifics of the vest: the SCOTTeVEST is much more attractive than we had envisioned from the Web site. We expected a standard, indoor nylon vest of average quality and make, with ho-hum features. After all, it’s a vest – how exciting could it be? Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised when the vest arrived! This is a good-looking article of clothing that will appeal to both men and women. The SCOTTeVEST is a zip-up-the-front, jacket-style vest, with more innovative storage options than we have ever seen in anything wearable. This vest may be the geek’s equivalent of the ultimate fishing tackle vest!

With ten easily accessible pockets on the outside of the vest, there is plenty of storage space for equipment and gadgets. Here you see a picture of the vest open on one side, and closed on the other.

As you can see, the front outside of the vest has ten (10!) easily accessible pockets (eight regular pockets and two subdivided velcro ones), all with zippers and tabs to help keep valuable electronics where they belong. The vest is fashioned with side vents and a stand-up collar, with an average-sized, comfortable cut. The front zipper of the SCOTTeVEST is a two-way zipper made of heavy duty nylon.

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The SCOTTeVEST has two outside, adjustable, velcro-backed cloth “cinches” on the back of the vest, which adjust the fit so that the wearer is comfortable and doesn’t feel like he/she is wearing either “Abdullah’s Tent” or a tight spandex jacket. The fabric of the vest is water-repellant, non-shiny microfiber nylon, and has a substantial hand – it feels more like heavy polished cotton than the traditionally stiff, noisy nylon fabric used for many utility garments. Also, the SCOTTeVEST is machine washable and dryable! (Or, for those city folks who don’t do laundry, it can be taken to the dry cleaner, too.) The vest is double-stitched at all the seams and stress points, and is a very well-designed and constructed garment, even aside from its technological pluses. All of the outside zipper pockets are concealed, covered with flaps for water repellency and equipment protection in the pockets, and have handy pull tags so that they can be easily located and accessed. As you can see, the SCOTTeVEST logo appears on the front of the vest six times and the “SeV” logo twice, which we thought a bit redundant. However, we didn’t feel this detracted from the overall attractiveness of the garment.

The two top pockets on each side of the SCOTTeVEST are square and very roomy, secure with velcro flaps, and are self-contained. The middle pockets on each side of the vest are very large, side slash entrance pockets with zipper closures, and each one opens the entire width of the front of the vest. A pocket-within-a-pocket velcro subdivider holds your favorite drink (one with a very secure lid) in a concealed beverage holder area. Inside each of these large pockets, velcro subdivides it into two compartments for storage convenience. Additionally, there is a sturdy nylon loop with a clip inside the right front slash pocket to help keep track of keys and other easily misplaced items.

Centered in the front of each side of the vest, the “SeV” logo tab conceals a flapped, zippered, self-contained slash opening pocket directly underneath the top flap pockets for more storage. These pockets are large enough for sunglasses, small binoculars, or whatever other essentials need to be carried. The bottom pockets on each side of the vest are rectangular and zipper-flapped, and are just the right size for film cannisters, memory sticks, and small accessories.

The most innovative feature of the SCOTTeVEST is the system of pass-through “open areas” incorporated and sewn into most of the pockets of the vest, so that conduits from electronic equipment (cell phone, PDA, mini laptop, battery chargers, digital camera, CD/MP3/MD player, etc.) can be interconnected through the inside of the vest pockets and in use while the vest is being worn! You can now be a walking James Bond or Emma Peale with all of your technology devices safely stowed and invisible from the outside, yet readily accessible when needed! Even “Q” would be pleased with this design.

Further, all of these devices can be interconnected to each other (as compatibility allows) by connecting the wires inside the garment pockets and channels. The SCOTTeVEST has small conduit channels sewn into the vest, also. When you place electronics with attached wires into the pockets with the passthrough holes, they can be easily wired through to other electronic items in the pockets below, above, and across the vest, while being invisible from the outside and protected inside the garment. Another plus is that all of the connecting wires for these various devices remain inside the vest in each designated area, so there are no tangled wires, misplaced devices, mixups as to which wire connects with which device, etc. Talk about a cool feature!

In addition to the “all in one place” organization and convenience, the gadgets that are plugged in to each other stay connected while you are wearing them, thus eliminating the updating and synching time for each device at the end of the day.

Talk about additional storage options! Four roomy inside pockets and one inside hidden pocket hold lots of gear. Here is a picture of the inside front of the vest.

Now for the SCOTTeVEST’s inside features. The inside of the vest has additional storage as well! There are two large pockets (one on each side) inside the front panels that open from the middle of the vest’s interior to the bottom, and close with velcro. Two additional large, rectangular, mesh pockets which secure with velcro are found on top of the large panel pockets just mentioned. Just under each zipper flap inside the vest are two long rectangular openings where equipment and headphone wires can be run and secured in place behind velcro-backed flaps. At the top of each middle rectangular flap is a slot sized perfectly for stylus and pen, great for the gearhead who is forever misplacing them. There is even a secret pocket area in the upper left hand shoulder area that is large enough to store a driver’s license and credit cards. And, of course, the vest has an identification tag sewn into it where the owner can write his or her contact information in case it is ever lost.

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The top back half of the vest is lined with soft mesh, as are the inside neck and arm holes. There is a locker loop for easy hanging. The front of the inside collar has two small, sewn-in elastic loops on each side to hold earphones and keep earbuds in place.

The inside upper back of the vest is lined with soft mesh for comfort and ventilation.

The upper back of the SCOTTeVEST is mesh, covered with a pleated flap to help provide ventilation for the electronic devices, as well as to keep the wearer from overheating. The “SEV” logo appears in the top center of the vest, just in case viewers didn’t catch the logos on the front of the vest.

The back is vented to help keep the wearer and his electronic devices cool. We tried to prop the back vents open, but they are a little hard to see in this picture.

Specifications Of The SCOTTeVEST

Conclusion

For camera buffs, gearheads and electronics geeks, the SCOTTeVEST is an innovative piece of wearable technology storage. We recommend this as a “must have” for people who travel, those who cover news, sporting events or trade shows, and for people on the go who need all of their gadgets in one convenient carrying place.