Review: Koyono BlackCoat “Sports”

I own technology and, as I assume the vast majority of my readers here do, I own clothing as well. It shouldn’t be too far a leap then to think about clothing that is technology and technology that is clothing. Despite some interesting, future-looking National Geographic articles I’ve read, and maybe running shoes or some sunglasses that I can think of off hand, we aren’t quite there yet.

What we do have right now, however, are some articles of clothing that help carry and extend our technology without really having become the technology itself as yet.

That was a bit long-winded, but along these lines Koyono has come out with a number of well-styled, tech-savvy clothing items that are built to augment our iPod. In this article, I will specifically consider models of their BlackCoat line of jackets that have iPod remote controls and carrying systems built right into them.

At the outset, Koyono obviously spent a great deal of time and care to design really stylish, avant-garde coats and then and only then integrated iPod-ness into them. They have versions of these jackets that just have the pocketing system, with no controls at all, and I can honestly say that these BlackCoats hold up admirably well as clothing, relying on superior function and style to incite your unalloyed clothes-lust. I have worn the “Sport” BlackCoat they sent to me to review on its own, for its own sake, on those rare occasions of my day-to-day life where my iPod would not be an appropriate accessory. And have gotten enough ‘nice coat’-type comments from people to substantiate my claims as to the out and out raw ‘in’-ness of these jackets. I’m not seventeen anymore. After a certain point looking good is more important than how many gigs you have under the collar.

As to the coats themselves then, there are three main iPod models, the ‘Safari’, the ‘Sports’ and the ‘Work’.

The ‘Safari’ BlackCoat looks, well, like a safari shirt, like something you’d wear around casually in the summer. The ‘Sport’, my favourite, looking like a cross between a windbreaker and a traditional sports coat, is something you could, as I have frequently, easily wear to the office, if it’s not too formal of an office. The ‘Work’ is more of a style piece, resembling a snazzy windbreaker or club coat much more than the ‘Sport’. It is something you’d most likely find yourself wearing around town on stylish errands, out when for a night on the town perhaps.

Now, what makes all these jackets iPod jackets is that they have a signature Koyono keypad built unobtrusively right behind their front button flaps. This rubberized strip has raised track forward and track backward, volume up and down, and pause and stop icons built right onto it. Unobtrusively facing inwards so you won’t have to advertise your iPodness to the world, with just a little bit of practice this keypad allows you to just reach into your coat and discretely operate all these controls by touch alone.

The iPod itself is stowed out of the way in an inner pocket next to the keypad, connected to the controller by a separate 30-pin dock connector cable. At some point you’ll probably want to wash your BlackCoat, so having this most delicate part being removable is a good thing. The keypad and remaining features are rugged enough to survive hundred of sensible washes, so you’ll probably lose the coat long before you wear it out.

How do you use it then? Well, you set up your playlist, plug in your iPod, wadge in your ear buds, and then go for a walk. You can hop from song to song, adjust your volume, hit pause and play as needed as you go about your regularly scheduled life. Very nice/

A small thing that might have gone a long way towards making these BlackCoats a lot more iPod savvy would possibly to have been to provide a dedicated way to direct the iPod headphones up towards the collar area, and maybe even provide a way store them once they’re there, but when not in use. Some sort of channel or sleeve sewn up inside the coat from the iPod pouch towards where your ears actually are would really be great.

I can see, however, that if you were ever going to want to take your iPod out, to play Mahjong or Solitaire say, or to listen to when not wearing the coat, having to fish headphones in and out from a dedicated inner sleeve would be a negative. A real pain actually. This preference of mine is somewhat ambivalent then. I would have been pleased to find something like this to handle the headphone issue but, since there isn’t, I can make do pretty well despite it.

I really like being able to turn my iPod on and off, and adjust the volume as I go about my commute. Where I might usually just reach into a pocket or down to my belt to do these same things, being able to keep the iPod tucked safely away on rainy and/or blustery days is the value add of this system. It’s something you could live without, but once you have the capability you really appreciate it.

All told, I’d give these jackets a nice, clean 85%. They look smart, very smart. Their iPod controls are well-executed and well-thought out. The pockets and pocketing all works very well.  And did I say they look great? They do. As I said, I can imagine a life without one of these jackets, but I can also imagine using these jackets without my iPod, which is a great big plus in their favour. Really stylish, technology-aware clothes. I like that. Well done, Koyono. Well done.