The Gear Junkie Scoop: Saucony ViZi-PRO Collection

The Outside Blog

Dispatches

Thursday, October 15, 2009 2

The deer hunter comments started coming the first time Iput the jacket on. Indeed, the obscene-orange ViZi-PRO Collection -- a line ofapparel from Saucony to be released this month -- is made with "thebrightest, most reflective fabric on the market," the company touts.

Jogging in the woods, a hunter might see you from a mileaway in these neon-orange fluorescent duds. Running on the road or crossingstreets on a jog, the gloves, hats, tops and jackets in the line are made tokeep you "outrageously visible at all times of day."

The ViZi-PRO color is so bright it almost hurts to lookat. Saucony dug into color science during development of the line. Thecollection is inspired by national safety standards established to protect lawenforcement and utility workers, Saucony says.

Saucony chose the "high chroma-fluorescentorange-red" color over the more common fluorescent yellow-green becausethe orange offers even higher visibility, its research states.

If you want to get wonky, Saucony delves into alight-wave discussion when pushing this product. According to the company,light at shorter wavelengths is absorbed by objects and emitted at longerwavelengths, making a viewer see a brighter, fluorescent-type color. TheViZi-PRO orange, Saucony says, is one of the brightest colors duringboth day and night due to the longer wavelengths emitted by the color.

Further visibility touches include reflective fabric in swathsand seams that ignite in a car headlight beam. Plus, Saucony added "LEDholsters" on the sleeve of ViZi-PRO jacket and on the line's gloves. Flicka switch on an included battery-power LED unit to make it blink and drawmaximum attention to your body running through the night.

Saucony mentions the proliferation of drivers who may be"juggling GPS, text messages, phone calls, dogs in the front seat, babiesin a car seat" and more. For anyone concerned with being seen in ourincreasingly distracted society, the ViZi-PRO Collection offers one of the mostvibrant apparel options ever invented.

The Saucony ViZi-PRO Collection, including the HDSonicLite Jacket ($90), Conversion Glove ($35), and Slim Beanie ($15), will beavailable in stores and on www.saucony.com later this month.

--Stephen Regenold covers outdoors gear at www.gearjunkie.com.