Solar Vest Charges Gadgets, Shreds Cred

This is the Solar Vest. If you didn’t know that it was a solar vest, may we draw your attention to the giant, two-inch high letters on the back which spell out “SOLAR VEST”. This is, incredibly, touted on the product site:

In case your friends think this is only an ultra-fashionable vest, the words “SOLAR VEST” in big stitched lettering on the back let them know this is really a high-tech solar battery.

The vest, as you’d expect, is covered in expandable “nerd-pockets”, suitable for all kinds of devices, including the honking great charger and battery pack that comes with it. Also supplied are various tips to hook this charger up to your devices, and the pack will output 5V, 6V, 9V and 12-20V from its 8800mAh battery (roughly equivalent in storage to a nine-cell netbook battery).

It’s easy to scoff, but if you think of this as a replacement for a be-pocketed photo vest, only with added charging power, then it comes out looking a lot better, and at €100 ($140) it is actually quite a deal, considering I paid around that for just a netbook battery. Available now, possibly not washable,