Legendary Whitetails Men's Vest

Update 7Jan2025: Really enjoy the vest, however, once I started wearing it more regularly as an alternative to a bulky coat inside of the truck (it's a bench seat Ford farm truck) the stitching rapidly started to deteriorate. Thankfully I have equipment for leather upholstery and stitching and was able to reinforce the seams and stitching work myself, but it's about an hour's worth of my life I'll never get back and for the price point shouldn't have had to do. Now that the Nutmeg vest is 35% off with an additional coupon I'll snag one just to have it and say I paid $29, but won't buy another from this company. Unfortunately. As a cattle and goat farmer who spends a considerable amount of time outdoors working, hunting, and in rare instances lounging, I find it difficult to pin down solid outerwear offering a good fit, mobility, practicality, and robustness. I have other heavy duty vests but was looking for something a bit lighter that I could wear not just here but also on my recent honeymoon to Iceland, and for the price point (I snagged this when it dropped to $35 as it had been in my cart for 3mo) I felt it was a bargain. While it held up to a week long adventure in the Þórsmörk valley and venturing into/around/on top of Eyjafjallajökull (active volcano, glacier, and mountain) I had some concerns with the craftsmanship of this vest. There were several untrimmed threads hanging from seams, and some of the threadwork is inconsistent in spacing and crooked. It's reminiscent of working on older sewing machines like the '39 Singer heavy upholstery and leather machine I use in my shop. Nonetheless, purely cosmetic gripe which didn't impact functionality. It fits well, I'm 6'4" and 260lbs, and was so warm I was sweating. Pockets are great and easily accessible, not only while we were adventuring but when I did a test fit for hunting season my shoulder holster for my 1911 sidearm sat nicely underneath. It did a great job at deflecting water as we adventured under many waterfalls, but isn't waterproof. The 'puff' of the vest is great as well, my wife intentionally kept this in our carryon for the return flight and used it as a pillow. I will also add to this comfortability factor that I do a lot of road and trail running with a 30lb plate carrier, rucking with a 60lb pack, and recognize the value in textiles which reduce the pressure of straps from a pack on your shoulders. I carried ~45lbs of gear in my tac bag and never experienced discomfort in the shoulders or had any redness at the end of long days due to the natural padding of the upper torso and shoulders. Overall I give it a 4, as I haven't had the chance to put it through the rigors of farm work, but for the price if it holds up for 3yrs of toil then it's done a great job.