I don't write many reviews and when I do it's for a great product. What I love about this vest is it's pocket lay out and the mix of zippers and Velcro. I'm not a fan of Velcro and prefer zippers for security sake. The blend of both is just right and nice sizes for me since I have various sized items in it. I use it as my diagnostics vest, I'm an Arborist. Here is the real kicker, the price! I don't know it's so inexpensive. The quality is well done, not top of the line but good and for the price it's amazing! I'll probably order another for camping. The length is nice, not as long as some others and not too short. Any shorter and it would be too short. I'm 5'7" and athletic build, not thin and not heavy. It would fit someone slightly heavier than me, 165 pounds, but not much more. I have a vest I paid over $100.00 for and was waiting for this one to come in to decide which to keep, maybe keep both. As I was loading the vest up I knew the other vest was going back. It's really great and the price is perfect, you really can't go wrong. I feel like 4 stars may be most accurate but because of the price I might give it 5. I think it may be the best vest for the money out there hands down. And I don't know what vest is better at any price unless it's a dedicated fishing or hunting vest, which I don't want that look walking around town or meeting clients. I will with this one, but again, I'm an Arborist and I can get away with that just fine, I'm pretty lucky there. Otherwise I'd keep the expensive travel vest I have. It's over priced and not as practical, imagine that. There is a trade off for function vs style. This vest here is pure function at an amazing price, I'd say it's one to seriously consider.

Fantastic at airports and on plane. The tight fit is only because I kinda stuffed it a bit too much. Passport and boarding pass in one pocket, phone and mini laptop in another and of course cords. Liquids in bag in another. Always carry alcohol wipes, I don't care if the airline says the plane has been disinfected. Chapstick and anything I didn't want to dig out of the under the seat bag went into the jacket which can be easily removed and placed in bin at TSA. Inside pockets great for cash and credit cards. It's also great for sightseeing. Your valuables are not accessible to pickpockets. It also gave me room to put a change of clothes in my under the seat bag. I had also bought a regulation size backpack for the overhead. Since overheads get filled quickly, a change of clothes is necessary when they force you to gate check your carry on. And we all know how luggage can be lost. This was for overseas flights, imagine how convenient for domestic. Very sturdy, washes great.

Hard to complain, at a price like this. I got the black mesh version. It was almost perfect, but needed two quick tweaks and (months later) some minor fixing. This has been part of my EDC (every-day carry) for about three months now. I've updated this review with some additional minor suggestions. Overall it has held up well under daily use, and been very practical aside from lack of thin, vertical pen pockets.

QUALITY: Exactly as-expected. This is light-weight nylon stuff, not combat-ready tactical gear, ha ha. It has a bit of a tactical look to it though. The pockets and their distribution are practical. The stitching is generally well-done and consistent, though I did encounter two minor problems: One zipper's end wasn't quite sewn in properly, so that zipper kept opening from that end by itself. I fixed that in under 5 minutes with some needle and thread (just sew across the zipper right near the end). One of the velcro bits also wasn't quite sewn down properly (or a thread popped, I'm not sure), so that also required a couple of minutes of manual sewing. All else is well. The zippers themselves are sturdy enough, the plastic-toothed kind, but with metal pulls. The variety of pocket sizes is great, from just big enough for a pocket knife or mini-flashlight, to big enough for a big map book. I've been wearing this every day for two weeks (update: three months) and it's doing fine, mostly. I expect to have to replace it in 6 months or so, if I continue using it as part of my EDC (every-day carry), since light nylon doesn't last forever. I've had another brand of utility vest before, very similar to this, and this one is at least equal in materials and construction quality, and actually has a better pocket layout. Update: After 3 months, I've had to stitch across the ends of two more zippers (ones that I use over and over again). These repairs just took a couple of minutes. I'm also going to replace the hook-and-loop strips on this with genuine Velcro. The kind it came with is weak. I can't recommend keeping anything valuable like a cell phone in any of the pockets closed with that stuff, as the items may fall out.

FIT: I found the size to be as-expected. I'm lean-ish (170 lb, 6 ft tall), and normally wear men's size L (US) shirts, so I ordered XL in this, expecting to wear it over shirts and even hoodies or light jackets, and that was the right size for me to get. If you are portly, muscular, or pregnant, you'll need to order at least a size up from your shirt size (maybe several sizes if you are extra-thick and want to wear this over thick garments). Anyway, this did not run obviously small the way many Asian clothes do. Empty, it's very light, and you can hardly tell you're wearing it. Stuffed with things, it allows you to distribute a lot of small-item weight. My shoulders, neck, and back are happy about the load reduction by moving stuff out of my backpack to a more body-distributed load. If you really pack this full, it'll be front-heavy, since most of the pockets are naturally in the front. But if you use a backpack, this'll be a good balancing thing to do anyway. The large back-covering pocket (which I suppose is for large maps) would actually be pretty cool to put flat foam in (cut to shape) for extra padding between vest and backpack (or vest and chair).

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT: This would be more comfortable if it had a shirt-style collar, or continued to have just a hemmed one but with some padding. While wearing a backpack, the current neckline of this can dig into your neck a bit, requiring some periodic re-adjustment. Also, it would be awesome to have an option to get this with the mesh parts, but with the nylon cloth parts replaced with cotton canvas. The ventilation of the mesh is great, but the synthetic cloth (especially at the lower back) promotes localized sweating. I agree with an earlier reviewer's comment that the velcro on the pocket flaps should be longer, so that it goes from its current position in mid-flap all the way to right near the edge of the flap, permitting you to over-stuff the pockets with taller items. The velcro needs to be better quality. The kind it came with is too weak to be practical. I plan to modify this to have that feature myself, since a spool of velcro is cheap and easy to sew (plus there's a kind made to stick permanently to cloth; I'll try that and sew them down if they don't really stick enough). The vest also would be better with some MOLLE loops, though I like that it has both some D-ring/carabiner attachment dongles, and zipper pulls with loops big enough for more D-rings and such to be clipped to them. Finally, it would be VERY helpful if this had pen/pencil holders sewn in, capable of holding thick pens. My main daily frustration with this thing is digging around in a pocket for a pen. I may try sewing my own vertical pen pockets on.

Highly recommend this vest, it is not very expensive yet it's very well-made. Lots of pockets that are very useful, some zippered some Velcro. All you need for travel to keep your items safe from pickpockets and handy for use.

For less that $30 this looks pretty good and has a good array of many pockets. I had to send it back, however, because the size I ordered was too small. Another one is coming the next size up. Fingers crossed.