ScotteVest (SeV) in depth review geek clothing & response from Scott
As a complete and total geek, the idea of clothing with pockets for all my gadgets with a tunnel system to deal with all their wires was a dream come true. When my wife bought me the ScotteVest 5.0 Fleece Jacket early in 2009, with the added touch of the Leo Laporte TWiT logo, I was thrilled to have the ideal birthday present. Six months later I was even following Scott Jordan on Twitter as a loyal fan. Now, more than one year since my first SeV product, and having purchased 11 other jacekts, shirts, and pants since then, I can’t believe how much money I spent on such poorly made products. This article is not just a one-off short term trial of one piece of their clothing but rather an extensive test of many of their products over a one year period.
I guess ‘technical clothing’ would not be the appropriate term. This is usually used for high quality gear that can withstand some extreme weather conditions for outdoor sports. They actually refer to their products as TEC - Technology Enabled Clothing. The SeV products are really clothing items for geeks like me who never have enough pockets for all their electronic devices. The SeV clothes are so poorly made that not only can they not survive outdoor activities, they cannot survive regular wear and tear, are frequently defective on arrival, and some of the items can’t even survive their first wearing. Their excellent customer service policy of replacing any defective items should not be an excuse for their shotty construction. Zipper pulls, snaps, and velcro all break right off and seams come apart too often.
ScotteVest products are designed in America but all workmanship is outsourced to China for the products I purchased. Also, I use the term design rather loosely as their clothing really lacks any style unless you happen to be box shaped and color blind. For the most part, there is no tapering of any of the clothes and their colors are mostly black, gray, khaki and a dark green; mostly colours for guys over 70 years old; perhaps because their vision isn’t what it used to be.
ScotteVest 5.0 FleeceThe original purchase was the 5.0 Fleece Jacket. Pictured here is the one without the TWiT logo as that one is Sold Out at the time of writing this review. This item has actually survived nicely and is the reason I went on to buy more SeV products. Although I like all the pockets and the tunneling system for the wires, it really is very boxy, not tapered at all, so fits more like a potato sack than a piece of clothing. The versatility of being able to zip off the sleeves, carry an iPod, iPhone, camera, bluetooth headset, tunnel the ear bud wires through the lining has been a lot of fun. On close inspection though when you notice that there are holes in your arm pits because the zippers don’t even meet properly, you begin to realize that this is a ScotteVest hallmark - absolutely crappy zippers are consistent through all their products. Getting the sleeves zipped on or off is a bit of a struggle because they are so poor. If they were to actually use good quality zippers it would significantly improve their clothing.
ScotteVest TEC HatMy second SeV product was the TEC Hat, also TWiT branded. This was worth the price (free bonus) and became very useful when I began to buy other SeV products that have hoods that are brimless so I began to wear this cap under the hood to keep my glasses dry on rainy Vancouver days. As with most SeV products, this is not waterproof so expect to get wet. There are a couple of pockets in the hat for loose change or a house key if you decide to go running with it and have no other pockets. The styling makes this the kind of hat your father or grandfather would wear that they picked up at a flee market; again somewhat boxy sitting on top of your head rather than fitting the head properly like a sports cap.
ScotteVest Pack Windbreaker
The Pack Windbreaker and the beginning of my woes. With winter ending, I no longer needed the heavy Fleece so the new Pack Windbreaker looked perfect. With its light weight and the way the jacket folded into its back pocket, it looked like a great update on the original packable K-Way jacket of the 1970s that I used to wear as a kid. I wore this almost every day for a few months as things fell apart. Of course, the zippers were lousy, as already mentioned with their other products. The main zipper would frequently be difficult to get started and would frequently get stuck part way up. The eyelet around the hood pullstrings came off as did the velcro on the inner ear bud pockets. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to come apart next so I contacted customer service. This is when I learned two interesting things; first that they really do want their customers to be happy so they said just send back the jacket for replacement and second, that they don’t actually manufacture any of their products. This is because the customer service rep had to contact the manufacturer of the jacket before giving me the return authorization. The manufacturer? Wait a second, I thought ScotteVest was the manufacturer. I guess they don’t really make anything; they are a marketing company. Like so many great American companies, they have an idea, then find the cheapest way to get their products made. This didn’t really seem to bother me at the time as I was so happy that they would replace the jacket and even send it in the other color (drab grayish geen instead of drab gray which turns out to confirm another consistent thing with SeV products - colors to appeal to men over 70 years old and not just lousy zippers.)
ScotteVest Performance T-shirt
I was so happy with how I was treated by customer service that I continued to buy, buy, buy. I bought a few Performance T-shirts in both short and long sleeves. These are actually holding up even after a few months of wear. They even have red and blue colors and some tapering to the fit. Of course, the zipper pulls rarely lie down properly but it wouldn’t be an SeV product if it didn’t have lousy zippers. Pockets are located in front of the shoulder and down above the hip on one side and they have access holes for earbuds as to be expected from SeV clothing. Of course, this is not really original anymore as many other companies now have sports T shirts with mp3/iPod pockets.
ScotteVest Performance Polo
The Performance Polo, as with the T-shirt, is actually of reasonable quality again with the same zipper problem. Colors are more limited and the should pocket should really only be used to hid a credit card and a few spare bills as it is very awkward to have an mp3 player or phone constantly in your way in that location. Of course, as a sign of their lousy workmanship, one of the two polo shirts that I ordered had the end of one of the ear bud loops not sewn in at all so instead of being a loop, it was just a long piece of rope. So, once again I had to return this for an exchange.
ScotteVest Evolution JacketAnother winter closing in and somehow still buying this crap, probably because the performance shirts were working out well and that Customer Service was so nice. A great lesson I guess for business is the importance of good customer service. That being said, even better would be quality products which SeV fails at accomplishing. My Evoluation Jacket has all the pockets and tunneling I’ve come to love, a big rear pocket that can hold a netbook or iPad, and a hood for the rainy vancouver winter days. Oops! The hood can’t even keep rain off the face as it has no brim to it? And a snap under the collar in back broke off the very first time I unsnapped it to thread my earbuds. Also, as with the Fleece, the sleeve zippers don’t meet and are difficult to re-attach as the zippers are such poor quality. What did I expect, quality and good design? Shouldn’t I have learned by now?
ScotteVest Travel PantsThe Travel Pants seemed like a good idea! Why just have lots of pockets in a jacket if much of the travel time I would not be wearing a jacket? The belt that comes with the pants is a thin ribbon with a buckle that only fits one way but no easy way to tell which way. If the belt gets twisted, which is easy because it is a ribbon, then you can click the buckle toggle and never be able to open it again! Yes, that’s what I did. I was fed up with dealing with customer service and all the problems with their products that I just bought a new belt and thew out their crappy one although they did offer to exchange the pants/belt if I would return it to them after they contacted the manufacturer. A month or so and just a few wearings later and the innser seam below one knee came apart over a 3 inch length. I sewed this up and was able to admire the poor craftsmanship when it comes to the seems on these pants. A quality product would at least make sure the material overlapped well before sewing and some would double sew the seams and even add an extra layer of piping to reinforce the seems. Not ScotteVest! They didn’t even align the material properly to do a proper seam closure. Of course that would requires some degree of quality and pride in craftsmanship.
ScotteVest Cargo PantsThe Cargo pants have faired better than the travel pants to date but I have only worn these a couple of times and they haven’t even been washed yet. I do like the idea of these being able to pass as a normal set of pants (or trousers in the UK) with lots of pockets and even tunneling for wires. Not sure what would be wired in my pants but crazier things have been known to happen. Perhaps these will hold up like the performance shirts as something wearable but I will have to see if it survies its first washing.
ScotteVest TEC ShirtSurviving its first washing is not the worry when it comes to the TEC shirt that is coming apart on its first wearing. Oh yes, nothing quite like traveling overseas proudly sporting a new SeV shirt with my passport tucked into an upper inner pocket. By the time I arrived at my destination, the zipper pull was no longer on the pocket! You’ve got to hand it to Scott Jordan, once again proving that he is very consistent with finding the crappiest zippers for all his clothes. I can’t wait to see what else comes apart on this shirt aside from the zipper pull. The zippers don’t pull smoothly, even those with their pulls intact and I’m sure some seams will give way before long.
The idea of pockets in clothes isn’t really something that can be patented so anyone who can build a better mousetrap can do so. There are so many cliches I can use for how stupid I have been in buying so many ScotteVest products such as fool me once, shame on you; fool my twice, shame on me. They have a really good idea and are beginning to show some better color choices, at least with their performance clothes. The Performance T-shirts and the Cargo Pants are actually the only items that were not defective upon arrival or quick to fall apart (but time will tell.) However, most of the rest of the SeV line is drab in its colors, lack styling such as a tapered fit, and have shotty workmanship with their zippers, snaps, velcro and seams all made from the cheapest sources possible. Everyone has performance clothes with pockets for iPods and holes for ear-buds nowadays. SeV has really helfpul customer service with a great policy of exchanging damaged goods. That being said, they really need to make better quality goods. They should start with a significant investment in better zippers on all their prodcuts and should take better care in at least sewing seams properly if not double-reinforcing them. If they can’t improve their quality, as anyone can put pockets in clothes, other companies will come along and build the better mousetraps that Scott Jordan can’t.
Addendum (from letter to drafted to customer service written 05Apr2010 with no reply yet as of 17Apr2010 but ended up stuck in the outbox so never got to them and just realized that on 23Apr2010 otherwise they would have acted on it): As nice as it is to have good customer service, I can’t help but to think that things would be better if your company concentrated on improving the quality of their products. I have bought many items from you over the past year and here are some general comments that perhaps can be used to make your products better. I think your customers would like to see quality craftsmanship and would be willing to pay a bit more for this. I had originally assumed that your company manufactured its own clothing but when you kept referring with each return about having to notify your manufacturer, I realized you are a sales and marketing firm. I wonder if this means quality doesn’t matter as long as you can show a profit and there is more money to be made by churning out higher volumes of lower quality clothing than to make better products. That being said, I know that Scott does take the products very personally and is proud to have his name on these items. I think he would like to be making the best quality possible with reasonable pricing.
Zippers: your products almost all share this as a problem. You use really lousy zippers on everything you make. Pay a bit more for better zippers.
Seams: little effort is made to sew things together well; your clothing appears to be thrown together, without even properly aligning the material, then sewn with thin threads with no effort to reinforce any seams. Performance gear needs certain seams, if not all seams, sewn in two layers with additional piping to add reinforcement where more stress might be applied. That being said, your clothes fall apart even at unstressed areas suggesting they are just poorly made.
Style: drab colors best suited for grandfathers and almost no effort for form fitting (only exception being colors and tapering added to the performance line.)
You have a great idea with adding so many pockets to clothes and holes/tunnels to wire them together. Unfortunately, anyone who makes outdoor clothing can add pockets and holes and are doing so. I hope you can look at improving your quality to match that of your excellent customer service. Please remember that I am not writing this based on just purchasing one item but rather on purchasing: Fleece 5.0, TEC Hat, Cargo Pants, Travel Pants, TEC Shirt, several performance Ts in long and short sleeves, Polo shirts, Pack Windbreaker and an Evolution Travel Jacket…almost all of which have had problems and all in the past year. You might say I have invested a lot in your company and expect better.
Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
Scott Jordan came across this review today and has responded with an audio message to correct what he considers to be some factual errors in my posting. http://www.mobypicture.com/user/scottevest/view/6387858
To summarize some of his key points:
- the gap under the sleeves is required for the zippers to work properly for zipping & unzipping and this gap also provides some degree of ventilation
- they have been improving the quality of the zippers over the past year or so and are always working on improving their products
- ScotteVest has always had a liberal return policy which they post on their website
- they are not just a marketing company; as with most every other american company, items are designed in the U.S. and contracted out to be manufactured in China to their specifications
- Scott would like to stress that he does indeed care about his customers
Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
It turns out the detailed message I had drafted to Customer Service was stuck in the outbox of my laptop and therefore was never received by them. After Scott and I both did thorough searches of our in and out boxes, I have realized that the message never did reach them. My apologies for thinking that they had not responded to my concerns. They certainly have responded now and I appreciate the time they have taken to address the issues.
Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
Julie from ScotteVest customer service has sent a reply to the latest posting. I asked if she or Scott would like to just post their reply as a comment on the blog but they would prefer that I just copy and paste as per below (clicking on the image will enlarge it to full size.) They continue to stand by their products in terms of exchanges and refunds; hopefully their quality is improving as they say to match their excellent customer service. Perhaps I am getting too philosophical in bemoaning the loss of manufacturing in North America in favour of countries that can provide lower production costs, but that happens to be how I feel. We need more than just business people making money for a select few but rather jobs to keep more people gainfully employed. It all started with Roger and Me and has declined ever since.
;)
email from SeV Customer service (CLICK to enlarge to full size)
Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
(The following comments were copied from original submission dates and posted as a journal follow-up article in preparation for changing to DISQUS for future commenting on my blog.)
7Oct2010 anonymous reader commented:
Also Rob, another thing: They (Scottevest) have removed the weight-management system (which is extra fabric on the shoulders and shoulder-area, intended to disperse/transfer all the weight of the items IN the jacket, to your shoulders, instead of on your back, neckline, back-of-neck, and pretty much anywhere else), but unfortunately still market the products as having the weight-management system (which is VERY misleading, and could also be construed as LYING to the customer, which is, after all, the one that keeps the company running. no customers, no company. the company MUST DO what the customer asks).
the other issue is, lots of other customers have also already talked to Scott Jordan (the CEO, owner, and founder of the company (along with his wife who is the co-founder)) about this, and he keeps on claiming that “it is not needed”. let’s get one thing straight: the guy has a CHIROPRACTOR, to keep his back straight and balanced. not everyone has that luxury. perhaps he does not FEEL the extra weight go on his back and the back of his neck, but other customers (myself included) DO.
he MUST *BRING BACK* the weight-management system, or change the information on the website to reflect that they no longer use the extra-fabric-on-the-shoulders (ie. the weight-management system) anymore.
i own a SeV jacket with 25 pockets and i never use it. at the very most, i only use 1 or 2 pockets; but i just carry OR my wallet OR my mp3 player, because if i carry more things, the jacket starts weighing HEAVILY on my neck (which is already made worse by the fact that the jacket has a metal-snap in the neckline area intended to hold in place the y-juntion part of your earbuds or earphones so your earbuds or earphones don’t slide side-to-side or left-to-right or right-to-left when you put them on or take them off. and that metal snap is already pressing on the middle of the back of your neck, where your spine is, which can be a HUGE discomfort. added that to the fact that the neckline of the garment is not designed like other garments, in which from the back of the head you go straight down. instead there is a sort of “curve” that makes your jacket actually hang down on your neck before then curving down your back and back straight down. and the neckline itself is really thick also, because the hood is intended to fold in into the neckline and be stored IN the neckline. which is ALSO *REALLY* uncomfortable for people with thick and/or wide necks)
i also own another SeV jacket with 18 pockets but i don’t use that one much either, because it also has the already-mentioned-in-the-previous-paragraph problems.
SeV’s original design-team consisted of clothing-designers AND engineers. however, now they just have 1 clothing-designer. i’m aware that someone previously e-mailed Scott Jordan asking if they still have their original design-team of clothing designers AND engineers, but so far, no reply from Scott Jordan (however, by watching various videos of Scottevest, it now seems pretty clear they don’t have their original design-team. now they just have a design-team of ONE designer, one Kristin Blanck). however, you NEED to have ENGINEERS if you are going to design a convergence of luggage, apparel, clothing, gadgets, technology, and whatnot (basically, clothing that allows you to carry alot of gadgets, use them easily, access them easily without taking them out of their respective pockets, and not look like you have anything on you, and not FEEL like you have anything on you. which was the original idea)
Anonymous Reviewer
anonymousreview@reviews.com
7Oct2010 my response:
Thanks for the additional information Anonymous. That explains why when the pockets are filled I feel like I can topple over As a further side note, in Scott’s comments above, he refers to how they now have improved zippers. Well, the replacement jacket I received had its new and improved zipper break…the bottom part now comes apart when zipped up so I can’t even close it. Fortunately now many quality companies including sportswear ones are making clothes with pockets for devices that are not just of better quality construction but also much more stylish.
Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
11Jan2011 another reader confirms the poor quality of the ScottEVest products:
i couldn’t agree more regarding what you replied Rob. Scott’s products’ zipper-quality is EXTREMELY *CRAPPY* to say the least, AND, you can’t do squat to repair ‘em and/or fix them.
they should bring back the weight-management system, improve the weight-distribution, improve the quality, and do all the other things that Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Fila, The North Face, and other companies are doing to make TRIPLY-sure that their products are of AWESOME quality.
Anonymous
olmedoicaza2002@yahoo.com
Performance clothes, ScotteVest, SeV, TEC, iPad, iPhone, mp3, review in Gadgets |
Reader Comments (3)
Also Rob, another thing: They (Scottevest) have removed the weight-management system (which is extra fabric on the shoulders and shoulder-area, intended to disperse/transfer all the weight of the items IN the jacket, to your shoulders, instead of on your back, neckline, back-of-neck, and pretty much anywhere else), but unfortunately still market the products as having the weight-management system (which is VERY misleading, and could also be construed as LYING to the customer, which is, after all, the one that keeps the company running. no customers, no company. the company MUST DO what the customer asks).
the other issue is, lots of other customers have also already talked to Scott Jordan (the CEO, owner, and founder of the company (along with his wife who is the co-founder)) about this, and he keeps on claiming that “it is not needed”. let’s get one thing straight: the guy has a CHIROPRACTOR, to keep his back straight and balanced. not everyone has that luxury. perhaps he does not FEEL the extra weight go on his back and the back of his neck, but other customers (myself included) DO.
he MUST BRING BACK the weight-management system, or change the information on the website to reflect that they no longer use the extra-fabric-on-the-shoulders (ie. the weight-management system) anymore.
i own a SeV jacket with 25 pockets and i never use it. at the very most, i only use 1 or 2 pockets; but i just carry OR my wallet OR my mp3 player, because if i carry more things, the jacket starts weighing HEAVILY on my neck (which is already made worse by the fact that the jacket has a metal-snap in the neckline area intended to hold in place the y-juntion part of your earbuds or earphones so your earbuds or earphones don’t slide side-to-side or left-to-right or right-to-left when you put them on or take them off. and that metal snap is already pressing on the middle of the back of your neck, where your spine is, which can be a HUGE discomfort. added that to the fact that the neckline of the garment is not designed like other garments, in which from the back of the head you go straight down. instead there is a sort of “curve” that makes your jacket actually hang down on your neck before then curving down your back and back straight down. and the neckline itself is really thick also, because the hood is intended to fold in into the neckline and be stored IN the neckline. which is ALSO REALLY uncomfortable for people with thick and/or wide necks)
i also own another SeV jacket with 18 pockets but i don’t use that one much either, because it also has the already-mentioned-in-the-previous-paragraph problems.
SeV’s original design-team consisted of clothing-designers AND engineers. however, now they just have 1 clothing-designer. i’m aware that someone previously e-mailed Scott Jordan asking if they still have their original design-team of clothing designers AND engineers, but so far, no reply from Scott Jordan (however, by watching various videos of Scottevest, it now seems pretty clear they don’t have their original design-team. now they just have a design-team of ONE designer, one Kristin Blanck). however, you NEED to have ENGINEERS if you are going to design a convergence of luggage, apparel, clothing, gadgets, technology, and whatnot (basically, clothing that allows you to carry alot of gadgets, use them easily, access them easily without taking them out of their respective pockets, and not look like you have anything on you, and not FEEL like you have anything on you. which was the original idea)
Thanks for the additional information Anonymous. That explains why when the pockets are filled I feel like I can topple over As a further side note, in Scott's comments above, he refers to how they now have improved zippers. Well, the replacement jacket I received had its new and improved zipper break...the bottom part now comes apart when zipped up so I can't even close it. Fortunately now many quality companies including sportswear ones are making clothes with pockets for devices that are not just of better quality construction but also much more stylish.
i couldn't agree more regarding what you replied Rob. Scott's products' zipper-quality is EXTREMELY CRAPPY to say the least, AND, you can't do squat to repair 'em and/or fix them.
they should bring back the weight-management system, improve the weight-distribution, improve the quality, and do all the other things that Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Fila, The North Face, and other companies are doing to make TRIPLY-sure that their products are of AWESOME quality.