A strip of tape is visible when a headlight hits the strip. A retroreflective weave is visible when a headlight hits you. That is the whole argument for the Jacket, and it is why a coat that looks gray on the office hook turns silver the moment a car looks at it.
What retroreflective actually means
Most surfaces scatter light in every direction, so a little comes back to the driver and most goes nowhere useful. A retroreflective surface sends light back towards where it came from. The headlight is right next to the driver's eyes, so the driver gets almost all of it back. That is why reflective kit looks dull to a pedestrian on the sidewalk and blazing to the car behind you.
Now think about a strip. It sits across your back or down one arm. Turn in the saddle, lean forward, sling a bag over your shoulder, and the strip is at the wrong angle or out of sight. On the Jacket the whole shell is the reflector: shoulders, sleeves, back, hood. Whatever part of you the light lands on answers it, and you read as a person on a bike, not a stripe floating in the dark.
The flash test
You can check any reflective kit at home, ours or anyone else's.
- Hang the jacket in a dark hallway and step back a few yards.
- Hold your phone flashlight right beside your eye and switch it on. The reflective parts light up.
- Now hold the flashlight out at arm's length to one side and look again. The glow drops away.
The first view is what a driver sees. If only a thin line lit up, that line is all a driver gets.
Gray by day, on purpose
Reflective material does nothing in daylight, so we did not make it loud. By day the Jacket is a quiet gray shell in 100% recycled polyester, with a two-way zip, a dropped hem that covers your back when you lean over the bars, and a regular cut with room for a layer underneath. Taped seams, a 10k membrane and waterproof zips see off a forty minute commute in heavy rain.
Look after the reflective shell and it keeps working: a cool wash, no fabric softener, no tumble dryer, and never an iron on the reflective panels. Softener is what kills a membrane.
It is $120, made in Portugal, and part of everything we make for being seen. Nothing about it is loud until a car arrives.
