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One of My Favorite Things: Baubax Travel Jacket

Submitted by Bethany on Mon, 01/14/2019 - 10:00

Perhaps you've noticed that in almost any picture of me lately, I've been wearing what looks like a simple gray sweatshirt. It's not much of a fashion statement, but let me tell you all about this magical piece of clothing - the Baubax travel jacket!

 

I first wrote about this jacket way back in April of last year, on the night I discovered it through an ad on my Facebook feed. Sure, those ads can be annoying sometimes, but other times they drop the perfect item into your lap. Such was the case with this travel jacket!

It was a Kickstarter campaign - which is a way for startups or companies to secure funding for a project from people who will then benefit from the project - usually by receiving the product at an early or discounted price. Backing a Kickstarter project can be risky - if they don't get full funding it won't go through (you don't lose money, but also don't get what you wanted) or if they do get funding often there can be problems with the project. In this case, I got my jacket about three months later than the estimated delivery time, but luckily the wait was worth it! 

So what's the big deal with this jacket? It comes with 25 features - all designed to make the jacket perfect for travel! If you want to see all 25 features the jacket comes with you can still see the initial Kickstarter page here.  I received the jacket just before Thanksgiving, so I have been using and wearing it pretty much daily for almost two months. I figured it was time to give you all the low-down and let you know what I love - and what I could leave about it. 

So let's start with the awesome - what I love. First of all, it's a super cozy and warm sweatshirt (you could also get it as a vest, bomber jacket, or windbreaker). It has a hood, which I desperately needed by November as my ears were starting to be chilly. It has pockets to keep your hands warm, and extra fabric that pulls out of the sleeves to wrap up over your hands (kind of like fingerless gloves). There are tons of zippered pockets - they were designed with specific uses in mind (cell phone, tablet, passport, etc) though I've kind of figured out on my own which pocket works best for which items I carry most often. There's a spot for my sunglass that also holds a glasses cleaning microfiber cloth that came with the jacket. There is a tiny little pocket for headphones and one that holds earplugs that came with. In the hood is an inflatable neck pillow, and an eye mask you can pull down for when you want to take a nap. And the toggle on the zipper is actually a pen and a stylus! 

I will take a quick moment here to praise Baubax for their customer service. The day after I received my jacket and wore it for the first time, the stylus part of the pen fell off and disappeared. I emailed them as soon as I noticed it, and with no questions asked, within 1 day a replacement was on its way to me!

So what could I leave about it? There are some items that came with the jacket that, while nice, made it super bulky. In particular, a foldable water bottle, an inflatable footrest, and a blanket are all items I have pulled out of the jacket and relegated to my suitcase unless a time comes when I really need them. I will say that I did use the blanket once when I was freezing at one of our Air BnB stays and it was quite warm. Even without those items, the jacket is fairly bulky when packed with my everyday use items. It's not the most fashionable clothing accessory because of that, but it is the most useful! (Here you can see all the extra bulk it gives - especially in those top pockets.)

Overall I love the jacket because it makes it so darn easy to carry everything I need. I almost never carry my purse anymore! I'm not really looking forward to when it gets to warm to wear it and I'll have to start carrying a purse again. I am so glad I took the risk to make this purchase on Kickstarter, even with it's few flaws, I love it to pieces! (Here's me all decked out and heading to church with everything I need without a purse!)

Have you ever backed a Kickstarter project? What did you back? We once helped finance this movie by Zach Braff and got to go to a premiere in Chicago and actually meet him! 

XOXO, Bethany 

P.S. Here are all of my other favorite things! 
1. National Public Radio (I listen to a lot of it through their podcasts now!)
2. An awesome hot sauce (that I can't get any more, but if you're near a Fuzzy's Tacos you can)
3. Lipsense (My collection has quadrupled since this post)
4. Color Street (I brought my whole collection with me!)
5. Fun Mugs (I definitely kept this even when we got rid of 90% of what we own)