High viz jacket technology with built-in LEDs promises to make night walking, running and biking a load safer.
This is sort of genius in the making: a high visibility jacket, with its own built-in, super-bright LEDs – white ones in the front, red ones at the back – along with a healthy dose of reflective material all round.
I say 'in the making' because as it stands this jacket from LEDwear isn't really honed for outdoorsy people, but we understand there's stuff in the pipeline, notably a close-fitting, stretchy, gilet, that will be.
If you've ever run or cycled or walking along unlit roads at night, you'll appreciate just how crucial it is to be as conspicuous as possible and that's what the LEDwear Aurora is all about.
How It Works
It works like this: on the front there are two strips of four white LEDs on either side of the chest and on the back, another eight red LEDs sat lower down. The lights are connected by wiring which sits between the outer fabric and a drop liner and connected to a removable battery box which holds three AA cells and also incorporates the switch. You get a choice of fast flash, slow flash and constant on.
In daylight the effect is pretty bright and distinctive, but venture out into unlit territory and it's properly, eye-catchingly bright, particularly once you add in the reflective strips shining brightly in the glare of car headlights.
Splat Avoidance
I can think of at least one occasion, walking a section of busy Lakes road after coming off High Street in the dark and nearly being wiped out by an oncoming, overtaking car despite our torches, when a LEDwear top would have been a real life-saver.
As I started off by saying, the Aurora isn't really a technical garment, but I understand that there's stuff coming out that's should be. A light, stretchy gilet with the same level of brightness would be ideal for night running thanks to all-round visibility or possibly for throwing in a walking pack if you know you're likely to be covering a road section in poor visibility.
The jacket here tips the scales at 670 grammes, but a gilet should weight considerably less and we're promised that other cunning things are under development too – can I vote for a slimline USB-rechargeable battery please, LED placement to clear packs and straps and a slimmer, more technical cut please.
We're also a little dubious about how well the wiring and LEDs will stand up to long-term abuse and we'd like to see them a little more obviously sleeved away and sealed.
In the mean though, I like the concept a lot and I'm looking forward to seeing what LEDwear comes up with next.
There's more about the company at www.ledwear.co.uk.
