What has it gots in its pocketses?

I have a new clothing obsession. And it's one that already feeds my psychologically unhealthy (and wallet-busting) love of jackets, sweaters, and pullovers.

It started as capricious_k  and I began preparing for our trip to Germany. She'd already purchased a fashionable trench coat that would serve her well in the mostly urban travel with occasional countryside stops that we were planning. I've got a dozen jackets I could bring on the trip, but none of them were quite perfect for what we had in mind. I began some online research for an appropriate travel jacket.

I was getting pretty intrigued by a microsuede jacket by TravelSmith. TravelSmith are mostly an online-only store, but they do have an outlet shop in Berkeley so we swung by there one weekend. They only had it in XL, so that was a no go. But while poking around on their website I noticed another intriguing jacket by a company called SCOTTEVEST that advertised 39 pockets. 39 pockets?!? Whooaaaaah.......

An obsession was born.

It turns out Scott, the founder of SCOTTEVEST (aka SeV), has a love of nice clothes and a passion for gadgets, so he started a business combining the two. His company produces clothes that look great and are designed to carry tons of stuff in cleverly-built hidden pockets that are perfect for traveling.

Typically when I travel I wear some outdoorsy jacket and combine it with a fanny pack to carry around the extra camera, travel documents, reading material, spare batteries, etc. that you always seem to need (or at least want). The results are typically bulky and not always comfortable. And when traveling overseas I always felt like a thief magnet while I had my passport on me. These are the exact types of problems that SeV gear is meant to overcome.

For our Germany trip I acquired the SeV Explorer Jacket and it was the perfect traveling companion. Quite stylish without screaming "tourist." Its medium weight kept me warm without being too hot, and it layered well with shirts and pullovers. Best of all, its 20 pockets easily carried all my things with room to spare. At my maximum load I was carrying prescription glasses, sun glasses, passport, scratch paper, pen, iPhone, iPod, headphones, maps, scarf, digital camera, wallet, loose change, and a water bottle all at the same time -- and I could have easily added more stuff. The weight was distributed evenly and no one could tell just by looking at me that I was carrying all this stuff. It was magic!

I've only got one quibble with the jacket's design -- a couple of its inner pockets are sealed with very small, lightweight zippers. These had an occasional tendency to catch the liner fabric and derail the zipper, which took a few minutes to undo. I was so satisfied with the jacket, however, that I wasn't deeply annoyed.

I can't imagine going traveling again without an SeV product to haul my gear. I've already picked up a pair of pants and a travel shirt from them, and I want more. I've got my eye on their new Quantum Jacket to replace my current ski/bad weather jacket, and they've got a light-weight version of their famous travel vest due out next year that sounds perfect for warm-weather locations.

The obsession continues.