Yeah, I said it!

Lovie Smith, the Head coach of the Chicago Bears (they’re playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday,, American Football,,, never mind).

Anyway, he has been wearing a sideline jacket that everyone has been asking about and no one had a clue about. Well I finally sorted it. Thanks to Paul Lukas the proprietor of Uniwatch, a great blog (oh yeah, he writes for ESPN too) that’s all about what athletes are wearing (though I think he could write a bit more about the ridiculous new Mclaren race suits, but we aren’t talking about that now,, poor Fernando & Lewis).

This jacket he’s wearing is really cool, or better than that, it’s warm. As some of you know, Chicago Illinois is known for having cold winters,, very cold (it’s the freaking Windy City!) This jacket from Reebok has air pockets inside and pumps for inflating them in the pockets for inflating them.

The inflatable aspect to insulation is a great little innovation in a number of ways.

First of all, it’s likely that the air bladder/pockets are ultrasonically welded sheets of a lightweight airtight material. Thats cool because you can add stationary insulating air without adding weight to the garment.

Second, the Dune Heart-plug release valve is just plain cool (I hope Dungy doesn’t pull it off his chest mid game! (go Colts)). Also I love the detail where the material follows up and around the heart plug, it’s just a cool accent (why isn’t it over the heart?)

I can’t wait till their available. My bigger question of course is whether or not they’re really that much warmer. They likely do well in cold weather, he never looked cold while beating the snot out of the Saints a week ago.