The Good

I was pretty excited to test the FyrFly Athletics reflective vest. Though I generally don’t do much night running in the summer, I do in the winter, and also participate in a Ragnar-type relay in the spring, and my current reflective “vest” is pretty much the worst. You know the one. It’s a mesh thing that gets all Velcro-ed onto itself in a tangled mess, and then when you finally get it on, it’s falling off your shoulders the whole time you’re running because it’s friggin enormous.

Dudes, the FyrFly vest is legit. First of all, I’ve never been to space and have no plans to because space is stupid, but I’m pretty sure you can see this thing outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It has large reflective panels on the front and back. And this is an actual vest. With a zipper. It even has a roomy pocket in the back for your phone, snacks, whatever you want to stash in there. Sweet!

The sides of the vest are open, with wide elastic adjustable straps. It will fit a wide range of people, and much better than other reflective vest situations.

The Bad

While the non-reflective parts of the vest are made of a breathable mesh, it still gets pretty hot, which will be A-OK the rest of the year, but creates a bit of a sauna situation in current temps. The open sides help with venting, but since I have to wear it on the smallest setting, it isn’t as open.

Which brings me to my only other complaint about the FyrFly. Desire, rather. If they made this in a one-size-fits-all for men, and then another (smaller) one-size-fits-all for women, that would be amazing. Don’t get me wrong: this vest still fits a heck of a lot better than my sloppy Nathan mesh thingie. But it is a tad long and a tad wide.

FyrFly Conclusion

If you’re a bike commuter or do a lot of riding at night, do yourself a favor and get one of these vests. Seriously. Ditto if you’re a night/early morning runner. Maybe not if you’re a cat burglar. I will wear the heck out of this thing in the winter months and can’t wait till April so all my relay teammates can be envious of my sweet reflective vest. Just kidding, I’m gonna tell them to buy one of these bad boys ASAP. Be safe out there and make yourself obnoxiously visible.

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