In typical lighting, the SUGOi Zap Rain Jacket looks like a standard-colored jacket. © Cyclocross Magazine
As the we left daylight savings time and enter earlier nights, we often look for ways to train earlier or embrace the darkness, as we showed how in yesterday’s how-to article.
We mentioned that high visibility clothing is one of the essential ingredients when contending with traffic at night, especially on the long days after returning back form one of the few remaining Wednesday Night Worlds. While safety should always be our top priority, sometimes it’s hard to pull the trigger on a reflective jacket that makes you look like a school crossing guard.
Enter SUGOi’s Zap Bike Jacket, which in daylight and incandescent lighting situations, looks like your typical jacket. At night, however, the surface of the clothing reflects the artificial lights of cars and streetlights. Instead of the blurry and misdirected light we are used to seeing from reflectors, the jacket contains the light, revealing the clear shape of the cyclist’s upper body.
Below we have close-up pictures of the fabric in standard light and another below hit with artificial light as well.
Here is the Pixel fabric in high-lit conditions. © Cyclocross Magazine
The Pixel fabric strongly relects light from a car or another bike, which is even more apparent in low-light situations. © Cyclocross Magazine
The effect of SUGOi’s Pixel fabric is almost spectral, but it certainly grabs your attention. © Cyclocross Magazine
As you can see, the Zap Jacket offers an interesting effect of reflection, not too unlike the 3M reflective material that Chrome uses on many of their Messenger Bags for the last year. The Zap Jacket comes in five outerwear sizes (S-2XL) with the price tag of $160.
The models are currently available in the red shown here. SUGOi also has a color option for the more conservative black-is-best jacket lovers, and also a neon yellow for day time high visibility as well.
For more information: sugoi.com
