Scottevest Revolution Jacket: I've a friend who travels a huge amount for work. He likes to fly light with the minimum of luggage, so will often do a short hop overnight with everything he needs packed into the pockets of his coat. (He's not a guy whose industry demands a pressed shirt a day.)
This is the gear for him. And it could find a few other converts too, because Scottevest’s Revolution jacket is like luggage you wear. Twenty-six pockets mean you can wear on much of what you might carry-on. Or carry around your day bag contents without a bag.
But the Revolution isn’t simply a zipathon, it’s been carefully thought out and designed, and is in fact the successor to the Scottevest Evolution. (Yes, not quite sure the naming sequence is holding up here.) So there are clear pockets for touch screens or other kit you’d like to see; hidden conduits and tabs to hold headphones in place; magnetic closures on some pockets for quick use; places for cameras, documents, water bottles. Even somewhere to put your hands.
The Revolution doesn’t come with washing instructions (machine washable BTW), it comes with a map. Seriously. And an X-ray where everything can go.
Given that many of us can lose something in the pockets of our jeans, the Revolution has discreet labels on some pockets, though none that say “smalls go here”.
It’s waterproof, with sealed seams and a detachable hood, so it does the jacket part very well too. At the moment Scott Jordan, the brand’s founder, is sticking to Henry Ford’s dictum re the colour, but that’s okay with me. Frankly, a jacket with 26 pockets would probably have to be in sequinned pink to put me off. And even then, the fact that one of the pockets is custom-designed for an iPad might win me over.
Cost$175 (€128) from scottevest.com.
Moonwalker Hikingtrailer
This is almost like some class of a fancy wheelbarrow that you pull, but I’m not sure its German makers would appreciate that comparison. In fairness, it’s a pretty useful piece of kit for the great outdoors. Though the steepness of the price could be a bigger stumbling block than the terrain you’d haul it up. More of that anon.
The one-wheeled Hikingtrailer is actually made from steam-shaped ash, with the load spread through a harness at your waist and over the shoulder. This lets you go hands-free too, of course, if you’re a devil-may-care hiker. Or you’re simply changing playlists on your MP3 player. It also means the weight is much better distributed, so you can transport much more than with a conventional rucksack.
There’s a disc brake on the wheel to stop it turning you into the load for an unplanned downhill run and there are all manner of accessories and bolt-ons from lights to bags that can go with it, including converting it for bike use. In the fashion of these gadgets, Moonwalker likes to think of it as a “system”.
Part of the system too is that you can actually convert the whole thing back into a conventional, if little unwieldy backpack, should your route prove too perilous to pull up. The average hillwalker would probably rightly baulk at the price tag, but for a heavy camper or a photographer say, or indeed the emergency services, it could be a back-saver. And, sure, nobody would even look at you twice as you drag your picnic up the Sugarloaf. It weighs 7kg and can take up to 45kg.
Cost€899 from moonwalker.com
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