One of our industry friends sent us a link to the Habelis Bomber Jacket. It’s live on Kickstarter right now, and is a pretty slick piece of kit. Imagine a bomber jacket for cyclists, with all the features you could ask for. Then kick it up a notch, but making it reversible, and crazy reflective. So you’ve got the dope, stealthy black jacket for those off-the-bike times. You know – work, the pub, church… But that flat black won’t keep you safe. So turn it inside out, and BAM!, you’ve got visibility for days.
First, check out the video, which shows all the features, and how effective and protective from the reflective perspective it is. Whoa, did I just start some bad freestyle rappin’? That was not my objective, my thoughts are defective.
I should mention that Habelis is a something of a collective. And rhyming is infective. (Also, my spelling of that last word may be defective). I met Anthony forever ago, which was Interbike 2012. He’s the guy behind RydeSafe, the cool decals that have been keeping cyclists visible and kinda funky-stylish for some time now. He’s a legit player in the cycling industry. And Jacob has some serious design cred. More important, they took a fresh approach to this jacket. Watch the video, visit their Kickstarter page. Clearly, there’s a lot of love in the details. And without compromise.
Now, you’ve probably taken a look at the price. It’s not cheap by any means. Quality goods rarely are. If you look at what you’re getting though, it’s priced pretty fair. Take a minute to consider what a nice bomber jacket and a decent reflective cycling jacket would cost you. Also, keep in mind that it’s made in New York. They’re not having them made cheaply overseas, and bringing them in by the container-full. Local workers, local wages, local tax dollars. And real-time quality control. So much to like here.
In the end, it’s up to you if the Habelis Bomber Jacket is for you. For the next nine days, if you could share a link with your cycling friends, they would appreciate it.
Cheers,
Brian