Elite Athletes Have Worn Cooling Vests for Years. Should You?

I found the vest unexpectedly comfortable to wear, but a snug fit is essential. The more free the ice packs are to move, the more exponentially uncomfortable they become, especially when fully frozen. Once your body has had a few minutes to start melting them down and they can mold to your body, things get more comfortable.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how subtle this particular vest is. While the silhouettes of cooling vests obviously vary by design, I found the Velotoze pretty easy to hide under a button-down shirt, especially if I removed the upper-back ice pack. I don’t live in New York City anymore, but if I did, I would absolutely try wearing a vest like this on a summer morning commute (and take it off once I got to the office).

Do You Need a Cooling Vest?

Probably not! At least, not yet. Professional athletes have no real choice but to perform in extreme conditions, but if you’re a desk jockey like I am, you almost certainly do. And you could probably do without the encouragement to try. But if you’re unlucky enough to have to labor in sweltering conditions where air conditioning is impossible, it might be worth a try, even if you opt for a smaller neck-type cooling implement before shelling out for a whole cooling vest and the logistical headaches that entails.

Looming in the distance, however, is the specter of climate change. As peak temperatures increase worldwide, cooling vests may become useful, if not essential, in certain parts of the world. There are combinations of temperature and humidity under which the human body becomes completely unable to regulate its temperature by natural means, even with unlimited shade and water, because sweat simply stops working. These conditions have historically been rare, but if they become more common, cooling vests may become an essential counterpart to air conditioning.