Well, I finally received my BauBax Jacket. I purchased two BauBax Sweatshirts in July 2015 for $229 total and received them about three weeks ago. I waited an extra six months beyond the advertised estimated delivery date which is likely better than many other backers who have yet to receive their jacket or only just now received it. The delays started generating news stories in late December and backers have grown increasingly frustrated, likely caused by hearing news about two other highly backed projects that ran into problems, the Zano Drone and the Coolest Cooler.
I wore my BauBax jacket for three weeks straight to get a good idea of how it would hold up to the intensity of travel and also to test the usefulness of the fifteen much touted features. During the test period, the temperature ranged from 45-80 degrees F. On the 80 degree day, the sweatshirt was very uncomfortable (great for outdoor wear in 45-65 degree weather). So how did the rest of my experience go? Read on to find out!
The Bonus Stuff
Let me cover the bonus stuff that came with the shipment first. I received two “Pocket bottles”. These small plastic collapsible drinking bottles aren’t high quality– in fact one of them leaked all over my bag. So word of caution on those. I also paid an extra $25 to get a pocket blanket. The blanket is pretty small, something other backers have remarked on. Each sweatshirt came with a collapsible pen that clips to the zipper (some pen refills are included in one of the pockets as well). The package also contains some 3/4 length gloves to supplement the built-in sleeve gloves. The gloves were pretty low quality– they fit and would do in a pinch but if you lost them in an airport you probably wouldn’t mind it too much.
I was pleasantly surprised by the pen, although I couldn’t see myself using it for much more than filling out a customs card. What I’m most afraid of is leaving it on the sweatshirt before washing it. During the three weeks of wear, I had this thing stashed in a drawer. Leaving it clipped onto the front zipper just felt unseemly.
The Sweatshirt
I received the sweatshirt in black and sized small (I’m 5’2” / 125lbs on a good day).
Fit
It actually fits me pretty well, although for many other backers, the fit was apparently a bit snug.
Quality of Construction and Look
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality, perhaps because I pretty much read only horror stories from other backers. The different components are built of different materials. For example, the inside of the hood is a stretchy soft fabric while the outside and the “eye mask” is built out of a thicker fabric. The inside of the sleeves are made from an almost fleece-like material. I haven’t washed it yet so don’t know if it will hold up over time. It may not wash it too much in order to extend the useful life of the sweatshirt. The zippers are standard. One complaint is that the sweatshirt picks up animal hair (cat or dog) pretty easily. So watch out for that. In terms of looks, I’m not much of a judge, but it seems fine to me. I wouldn’t wear it to a fine dining establishment but it seems ok for traveling and everyday wear.
Features
So one of the biggest selling points of the BauBax sweatshirt is that it has all of these neat features built-in so that it has maximum utility while you’re on the road. Do these features live up to the hype?
- Earphone holders: they are loops to route your earphones through. I’ve yet to use them.
- Drink pocket: not sure I’d actually keep a drink in there but it seems useful for storing a small wallet or a bunch of credit cards.
- Sunglass pocket: this is a useful interior pocket that I’ve kept my iPhone inside.
- Microfiber cloth: the sunglass pocket has a microfiber cloth built into it. Seems like it would be useful, although I’m not sure it will hold up in the wash (it doesn’t seem to be removable).
- Pen…
- and Stylus: as previously noted, this was stored in a drawer during the testing period.
- iPad pocket: this is a huge interior pocket. I think you can store papers on there if you want, or if you’re really pushing it, an iPad. I can’t see how that would be comfortable although for plane boarding purposes this might be a really useful pocket to have.
- Handwarming pockets: these are the pockets on the outside of the hoodie. Somewhat shallow and lined with microfleece. Not bad.
- Neck pillow: mine inflated quickly and deflated quickly as promised. However, it is really thick. During the testing period I left it out. I can’t see myself wearing the neck pillow around (it is inserted into the hood and pinned down with buttons) comfortably.
- Eye mask: a piece of extra fabric built into the top of the hood. I can see how this is useful, although for every day wear it doesn’t come in handy and creates a weird bulge at the top of your hood.
- Passport pocket: another nice exterior pocket. Comes in handy. Good for storing keys.
- Phone pocket: nice interior pocket. I did keep my phone in here at times.
- Portable charger pocket: this is a weird open top interior pocket. Didn’t use it.
- Blanket pocket: also unused during testing, interior pocket.
- Built-in gloves: these have thumbholes and will be handy when it is colder out. They are kind of bothersome for sliding your hands through when you put on and take off the sweatshirt.
Final Verdict
I wore it for 21 days straight so at this point it has cost me about $5.45 / wear. I think if I wear it another 80 or so times I’ll be happy with the purchase. I’m not sure I can unreservedly recommend it based on the price and the company has burned a lot of goodwill with customers. But overall I think it is fine. BauBax, like Coolest Cooler and Zano Drone before it, is another cautionary tale for crowdbackers: don’t treat crowdbacking and fundraising sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter like Amazon. You aren’t shopping, you are backing necessarily risky ventures. That being said, for entrepreneurs, they would do well to remember not to overpromise. Better to underpromise and overdeliver than vice versa.
Do you have a BauBax jacket? Do you like it? Hate it? Meh? Leave us a note below!
Please note that we have been in business for 16 years and did not get started on a crowdfunding platform. I do not know what issues you’re referring to but our customer service record is amazing and our product is as well. Please get your facts straight
Scott
Ceo SCOTTEVEST
Got it. Revised by deleting that section. Thought I read something along those lines somewhere but since I can’t source it, I’ve deleted it.
I was considering buying a jacket but after your arrogant comment, and completely dismissing all constructional criticism you made my mind up for me. I’ll stick with a company that is not insecure and willing to accept returns. Companies that ignore customer dissatisfaction will find themselves seeking for ways to stay in business. Your statement Scott is not substantiated, and simply saying your customer service track record is amazing means nothing if it is not acknowledged by the customer. On a side note nicely written article Welton I enjoyed the review.
Thanks Jacob. There have been so many consistently negative comments made about their customer service. Part of the issue, I think, is that they are a victim of their own success– I doubt they thought that they would go viral in the way that they did and they weren’t equipped to handle that level of interest in their product. Physical products are always tough, especially something like clothing where there is so much customer variance. And now that I’ve had even longer with the product, I can honestly say that the product isn’t really worth it. Is it a good product? Yes, but the price point should be lower. To get more mileage out of the product, I’ve started wearing it to the gym.
I just read your review. Thanks for writing. I have had my Baubax jacket for a couple months now. I chose it and don’t have a Scottevest as Baubax had a much wider range of jackets available in tall sizes. The jacket is nice, but the pen fell out at some point that I did not notice.
While the jacket is nice, the customer service has been absolutely horrible. It takes weeks to get a response, and that response is very impersonal. It’s taking months to accomplish an exchange of a jacket I ordered for my fiance that does not fit. The pen fell out of it’s socket, and they won’t say when a replacement will be available.
So while I’m happy they had Tall/extended sizes available, I won’t be ordering from them again. AT least not until they get a decent customer service department installed.
Yea I actually ordered two blankets but only got one. After hearing all the customer service complaints I figured it wouldn’t be worth my energy to try to recoup the costs of the missing blanket. Thanks for reading!
I ordered a bomber jacket (Women’s-XL) for myself and it is way too small and the sleeves are very short. I also ordered a bomber jacket (Large-Mens) for my fiancee and got a Women’s-L. I have contacted them by email and it took a long time to get a response and asked if I could return them for a different size/style and haven’t heard back… 🙁 Frustrated as I spent a good bit of money with them… 🙁
It probably should be noted that ScottEvest doesn’t accept returns; all sales are final, according to their website. I would consider that customer indifference. Pretty easy to maintain a spotless record under those circumstances, IMO.
Scottevest does returns within 30 days of purchase, unless you’re buying off the clearance or larger discount sales (which are stated to be final). And customer service at Scottevest has been good ins responding to me. Have no experience with Baubax, since I didn’t get on that bandwagon.
Now that it is cool enough to wear my ‘bomber’ jacket…
I find it TOTALLY INADEQUATE !
This was promoted as a ‘travel’ jacket….so WHY not one pocket, other that the iPad pocket can retain my TRAVEL WALLET ??? I even purchased a smaller wallet and it still didn’t FIT….
The ‘gloves’ get in the way more often than not, the hood with inflatable neck pillow’ is a total unnessesaty feature…
In summation, since I cannot return it for refund, I’ll just give it to Good Will..maybe some homeless person can somehow use it…
Order #12610004 – After the extended wait, I received it but the XXL windbreaker was WAAAY too small. I called BauBax and they told me to return it…which I did….months ago. I still haven’t received a refund or a replacement.
I ordered both a sweatshirt and a windbreaker. Sweatshirt is way too heavy and just as you’ve mentioned in your review there’s a bulge created by eye mask so using the hood is rather awkward. I also noticed that sewing is of rather low quality.
I am however very happy with the windbreaker! I wish the hoodie was designed in the same way! Eye mask is made of much thinner material and it doesn’t interfere with everyday, normal use of the hood. The windbreaker is also much lighter than sweatshirt.
I think I will be using the hoodie only for airplane travels, but the windbreaker is already my new favorite daily jacket.
Dear Welton,
I’m Jorge Barros, co-founder of Graphene-X. We are launching a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund the first Graphene based 3-layer jacket. The main point of this jacket is that it’s a jacket you can use for just about everything (city life, sports, play, etc…). It’s ultra-light, waterproof, breathable among others and has top notch technology integrated, as Recco Rescue System and ecofriendly durable coating.
Some time ago I had the chance of reading your article about the Baubax jacket here and really liked how you covered it and the style of your writing.
I wonder if you would be interested in writing something about our jacket/campaign? I believe your audience could be interested and of course I’ll be happy to share with you any information you need or do a call whenever is best for you.
We are launching this October 15th and you can take a further look in the following landing page: http://www.graphene-x.com.
Thanks again Welton and I’ll be looking forward to hear from you soon.
Best regards,
Jorge.