jackets

As they say in "Game of Thrones," winter is coming. You could settle for a regular jacket, or you could get a jacket with adjustable insulation that can adapt to the weather on the fly.

Air chambers on the Klymit Ulaar Jacket can be inflated or deflated to change the amount of insulation. If it's colder, pump it up. If you're out hiking and working up a sweat, let some air out. An air pump tucks away into the left pocket, and you can control both the deflation and inflation from there.

The idea is that the air chambers capture your body heat and keep it in circulation around you. The jacket's also windproof and maintains its thermal abilities when wet.… Read more

Secretly, I want to carry a superhero costume with me at all times. I want to be able to step into a phone booth (if they exist anymore) and step out as the Masked Avenger. For $492, my fantasy could come true with the AI Riders on the Storm down jacket.

The jacket sounds pretty much like a regular coat with specs that include a two-way zipper and down stuffing. Look up, though, and things start to get weird. It has a detachable hood with built-in bug-eyed goggles that zip together right up the middle. Freaky, man. … Read more

We've seen some unusual fashion statements around here before. There's a Wampa-skin dress and a jacket that collects rain, for example, but neither is quite as unusual or strangely unsettling as the Hug Me Coat.

The Hug Me Coat comes from Si Leong Chan, a London College of Fashion student. It's a bright green puffer coat with a row of hands with intertwined fingers running down the front. It gives the illusion of many martian arms grasping the model's torso.… Read more

Seth Froom was the victim of a violent robbery last summer. His response was to create the Yellow Jacket, an iPhone case crossed with a Taser. The project is currently up on Ingiegogo for fundraising.

As far as stun guns go, the Yellow Jacket makes sense in that you are likely to have it with you at all times, in a convenient place where you can reach it when you need it.

However, you might be nervous about having 650,000 volts of electricity surging around your phone. Froom says that tests of the prototype have shown that calls stay connected during discharge. … Read more

Warning: If you don't like strangers touching you, you may not want to wear this jacket covered in keyboard keys. Because you just know everyone who sees you in this keyboard on a hanger will want to get up in your business and pretend to type all over your nerdy self. Ctrl+Alt+Del, people!

We don't have much more information on this coat of many keys, which was originally spotted on photo-sharing site Piccsy. And that's a shame, because we can think of a few geeks who would look darn dashing pairing it with, say, a Twitter T-shirt or Nintendo sweater. … Read more

This one ups the ante on all other sleeping bags with the ability to inflate. That's right, you get to float your coat, and it even rhymes. The Inflatable Sleeping Coat by designer Lin Tsui-Wei is one hardworking, multipurpose piece of survival gear--it's a raincoat, sleeping coat, sleeping bag, and even mattress rolled into one--that would have even Bear Grylls of "Man vs. Wild" heartily approving.

Quite amazingly, this looks lightweight and comfy enough to don all day as it stops just short of the knees, compared with the bulky Selky. Lin appears to have resolved … Read more

I don't care how many people get their music online, it'll never replace the joys of perusing CDs and LPs in brick-and-mortar record stores.

My Morning Jacket's Jim James apparently agrees with me. He said recently, "I think the thing that people forget about is the community and the memories that are created when you come to an independent and locally owned record store that you can only get in that town."

That's right. There are other humans there, looking at and buying music. The store, if it's any good, plays great stuff … Read more

This one's from a research team at Philips Electronics.

Designed to enhance the emotional experience of watching a movie, the emo jacket comprises 64 independent actuators, arranged in 16 groups of 4, across the arms and torso. Eight of these, spaced 6 inches apart and located on each sleeve, can create the illusion of being tapped in several spots.

A pair of AA-size cells is sufficient to keep the jacket juiced for an hour, though the team should be looking at extending this since most movies run for about two hours on average.

Lest you're worried, the garment … Read more

The Executive Jacket for Kindle 2 has a wraparound closure strap.

Somebody must have learned about Amazon's Kindle 2 long before the rest of us.

Practically at the same time Amazon launched the new digital reader, M-Edge Accessories, a maker of accessories for the original Kindle, announced its newest collection of jackets designed specifically for the device.

This is actually fitting, as unlike the first generation device, the Kindle 2 will not include an Amazon-supplied stock jacket with purchase.

M-Edge's products for the Kindle 2 include the Executive Jacket and Platform. Both jackets share a … Read more