Style + Tech = Stone Island mesh reflective down jacket

Behold the first-ever content series between Digital Trends and The Manual. The Bromance has begun. Since there are a plethora of brands out there melding style and technology, we thought we would take this opportunity to profile one item per week for the month of October, breaking them down and offering each of our unique takes on their tech and style components.

For the whole series, click here; for a jacket that will make you 150-percent less likely to be hit by cars, read on …

The Manual:

When the temperatures drop, we are big fans of the local bar crawl. And taking into consideration that we will be wobbling around dark and often snowy streets till the wee hours, it sure would be nice to not get hit by a car, bike, bear or anything else for that matter. That is why we are so stoked about this new mesh reflective down jacket from Stone Island.

This Italian company is known for taking fabric innovation to the next level but the “Mesh Reflective” really takes the cake. Created with highly reflective fiberglass, this sucker is like putting on a lighthouse – even the hood is made with 3M reflective material. Oh, it’s also warm as hell with its down stuffing, two waterproof zip close pockets and reverse entry hand warmer pockets. The reflective material also makes the piece water and wind resistant.

This way, when you line up that cartwheel across an ice patch, which you know you were born to do, and you fall flat on your face, everybody will see it happen.

Digital Trends:

We agree with everything The Manual said, but feel they didn’t give enough credit where it’s due to the science behind this thing. We mean, look at this video; we defy you to explain what is going on here and what it has to do with the jacket.

We get that the outer surface is comprised of “1000s of glass microspheres” that sit under a layer of mesh, and that these “1000s of glass microspheres” are bending and refracting light. And, yes, all this bending and refracting results in a jacket that appears to be shining, even in the dark.

But what the hell does the telescope have to do with anything?

We’re not criticizing – we’re just acknowledging that Stone Island is on to some next level stuff with the Mesh Reflective jacket, and we straight up can’t keep up. This isn’t simply a product that gloriously combines tech and style; this is a product that may be solving the problem of nuclear fusion while you’re wearing it and you wouldn’t even know! So, yeah.