December 4th, 2014 1:23pm
At this past years Interbike we noticed that besides everyone jumping on the fat tire bandwagon, the biggest innovation seemed to be with new materials being introduced in the soft goods category.
Materials designed to fit better, breath better, regulate your body temperature and even hide ride necessities like food, tubes etc. But nothing matched what we found at the Sugoi booth. Sugoi, a long time leader in performance cycling gear has developed the highly reflective ZAP technology that is nothing short of a miracle. ZAP technology is a material with thousands of embedded beads that are virtually invisible on any garment in daylight but come alive at night when light hits it.
What we saw was the ZAP jacket but they also make other pieces. With nothing more than a simple camera phone, we took some pictures of the ZAP jacket with and without a flash. Even in complete lit environment, the flash on our little camera made this jacket light up.
The Hi Vis yellow in normal light vs reflective activated by light and the three color options
The change of weather, shorter days and distracted drivers make the need for high visibility clothing more valuable than ever.
Besides the obvious safety benefits, the bonuses to this jacket are numerous. First, it doesn't have any of the obvious reflective stripes or materials that usually come with such reflective clothing. The company says it is waterproof so you can wear this pretty much anytime. It comes in three usable color offerings ranging from trendy Hi-Vis yellow to a more subtle black.
Having seen this first hand, it is nothing short of amazing technology and moves to the top of the list of clothes to own.
Its not often you can buy a jacket for warmth and safety that looks this good and performs so well. The jackets should be hitting the market now and would be a perfect gift to yourself or a Christmas present for that cyclist that you want to keep around for a while.
At the the Interbike tradeshow where new fabrics and materials where the biggest winners, the ZAP Line up of jackets, hats and shoe covers takes the prize for most relevant innovation.
Don't just take our word for it. Watch it yourself in this video to see how truly remarkable this stuff is, then get to your local bike dealer and order yourself some.
MSRP for the ZAP Jacket is $139
Location: News >> Sugoi's Amazing Cycling Reflective Technology
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