SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket Review

I’m always on the hunt for new jackets to wear during the spring and fall seasons when it’s usually windy, a little cold, and sometimes raining out there.

The SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket definitely caught my eye and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it to try it out, especially after being such a huge fan of their travel boxers.

In the winter I typically travel with a heavy duty winter jacket that’s able to keep me warm when the temperature starts to dip below 10°C or so, but the rest of the time I find myself overheating and having to carry my coat around.

That’s where the SeV Pack-It Jacket comes in.

The Pack-It is a lightweight and water resistant windbreaker and the reason I love it so much for traveling with is because it packs down really small and I can easily toss it into my backpack (or even attach it to the side) so that I always have it with me.

I’ve had the Pack-It Jacket for about a month already and I’ve worn it in a variety of outdoor conditions so I think it’s finally time to give it a thorough review.

SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket Review

Lightweight and Portable

Upon opening up the Pack-It Jacket for the first time I quickly noticed how lightweight it was.

I’m not sure what the total weight is but it’s very light to wear and also hardly takes up any space when it’s packed away.

To make it super portable it’s possible to stuff the entire jacket into one of the pockets, rather than having to fold it up and hopefully find room for it in your luggage.

When it’s stuffed away it can be packed down very flat and doesn’t even take up as much space as one of my t-shirts.

This makes it really easy to bring traveling and there’s even a small string that you can use on the outside of the pack when it’s packed down to attach to your backpack for quick access or more interior storage space.

Pockets

Coming from SCOTTeVEST, it wasn’t surprising to find out that the Pack-It Jacket came with a whole bunch of different pockets.

This makes it easier to travel or walk around with a few extra accessories and it’s great to be able to leave my smartphone, camera, travel wallet, and any other smaller items in my jacket rather than carrying them or stuffing them into my pants pocket.

In total there are 8 different pockets in the jacket, with one of them even being large enough to use for a tablet.

There’s also a small hole in one of the hand pockets so you can slide your headphone cord through and listen to music with the headphones coming through the inside of your jacket.

This helps to keep them shielded from the wind and rain when you’re walking around and also helps to prevent you from looking like a tourist scam target since your headphones won’t be hanging out and obvious to everyone else.

Having so many pockets is great for travel. It’s easier to carry your passport, smartphone, and everything else on the inside pockets. There’s no need to bring your daypack or worry about pickpockets.

Materials

The Pack-It Jacket is made from a lightweight poly fabric that has been treated to be water and wind resistant.

To the touch, the jacket is quite smooth and even when it’s packed away it doesn’t seem to gain any wrinkles or weird folds.

There aren’t any scratchy fabrics or weird stitching that I could find on the inside or outside of the jacket and it feels like a quality design when I try to pull at the seams or yank on the zipper.

Wind and Rain Resistance

One of the main selling points of the SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket is that it’s lightweight and that it’s also going to protect you from unpleasant outdoor elements, such as wind and rain.

Keep in mind that the jacket claims to be water “resistant” and not waterproof, though I found it effective at keeping me dry in light and medium rainfall periods out in the city.

I never got stuck in any heavy rain, but I would expect that you would still stay pretty dry if you only were in it for a few moments like running to your car or trying to get to shelter.

I did get caught in light and medium rain quite a bit and apart from the rain dripping into my jeans and getting them wet, the jacket kept my upper body completely dry.

The hood is a great addition to prevent water from dripping down my chest or neck, and the drawstrings are effective at keeping the hood tight around my face when it’s raining.

As for the wind resistance, I also found that the Pack-It Jacket did well in this regard.

On really windy days I would only feel the wind on my legs or if it happened to blow down the front of the jacket, otherwise it offers a suitable amount of wind resistance – especially if you’re wearing a sweater underneath.

The wrist cuffs help to prevent wind from blowing up your arms but I did notice that it would blow down my neck if I didn’t have the jacket zipped all the way up.

Problems with the Jacket

I really only had one main issue with the Pack-It Jacket.

The only thing I didn’t like was how flimsy the hood was.

Any time that I wasn’t walking directly into the wind the hood would constantly blow up and get stuck on the back of my head or be blowing side to side depending on where the wind was coming from.

The hood had no problem actually staying on my head when it was on, but when I wasn’t wearing the hood it was flapping around any time that the wind started blowing.

This problem could be easily solved with a little attachment point to keep the hood station until it was needed, or just by adding a sturdier collar or cap-piece at the end of the hood to give it a bit more weight.

Otherwise, apart from getting annoyed with the hood on windy days, I didn’t find anything else to complain about with the jacket.

Using the SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket for Travel

I would definitely recommend taking a look at the SeV Pack-It Jacket if you’re looking for a lightweight and packable windbreaker/rain jacket for traveling with.

It’s a good choice for the spring and fall when it isn’t too cold and you still need something light to keep you warm and protect you from any wind or rain.

It’s great for traveling with because it packs down quite small, hardly weighs anything, and all of the pockets really add a lot of versatility when it comes to what you can carry with you during the day.

I also find that it’s reasonably priced, especially compared to some of the other jackets that can cost hundreds of dollars without even being designed for winter use.

Since it hardly takes up any space and it’s a lot more suitable to travel with than an umbrella, I would definitely recommend checking out the SCOTTeVEST Pack-It Jacket if you’re in need of a lightweight jacket to take with you on your next trip!

A few more photos of the jacket: