Scottevest's pocket-laden garments never cease to impress us. We were wowed by The Hoodie in the past for its excellent quality and loads of storage. The latest design takes that concept to a hilarious extreme, doubling the number of pockets and turning the hooded sweatshirt into something more like a full-fledged jacket. At $95 for cotton and $100 for microfleece it's pricey, but the new additions are worth it, even if we don't exactly think it needs a built-in sleep mask. It's a handy wardrobe staple for any gadget lover, and earns our Editors' Choice.

All the Pockets

We tested the cotton version of the Hoodie, which is available in black, light blue, dark blue, red, or gray (the microfleece version is only available in black). It's much more heavily and elaborately built than the previous version, and feels more like a full, dedicated jacket than simply a casually warm outer layer. The sweatshirt material of the shell is largely the same, but the entire inside of the front is lined with a separate layer of fabric to accomodate for a series of pockets. The sleeves and back of the Hoodie are just one layer, but across the chest you get the thermal protection and heft of both a sweatshirt and a t-shirt.

Like all Scottevest pieces, the Hoodie is full of pockets. It has a whopping 21 total, over twice as many as the previous design. On the outside, that includes two handwarmer pockets around the front, two zippered pockets running across the top of the handwarmer compartments, and two small zippered change/key pockets with elastic loops and hook-and-loop fasteners inside. That's already a bunch of pockets for a hoodie, and that's just the outside.

Unzip the Hoodie and you'll find an impressive number of interior pockets across the chest, arranged similarly to the OTG Jacket's inner pockets. The right side holds a vertically zippered pocket for your smartphone with a mesh window for using the touch screen, a large horizontally zippered pocket for a tablet below it, a smaller horizontally zippered pocket for glasses below that (complete with a microfiber cloth on a length of elastic for cleaning your lenses), and a small, unfastened pocket for a pen or pencil right near the Hoodie's zipper. The left side shares the same configuration of pockets, though the lower left pocket is designed for passports rather than glasses, and is slightly larger while lacking the lens cloth.

Like all Scottevest garments, the Hoodie is full of little holes, passages, and elastic loops to run your wires. This is very helpful if you use wired earphones, because it lets you keep your cables concealed and secured while still easily reaching whatever pocket you keep your phone in.

That said, just because you can carry a ton of things in a Scottevest garment doesn't necessarily mean you should. Filling every single pocket up will make The Hoodie bulge and weigh it down. While I can conceivably carry my Nintendo Switch, 9.7-inch iPad, smartphone, camera, passport, and glasses in The Hoodie at the same time, the result is a heavy, ugly mess. The value of The Hoodie's pockets is in the choice rather than sheer number. If you want to carry a few things, you have plenty of options for doing that with The Hoodie that you don't get with most sweatshirts.

Quirky Hood

The hood doesn't have a pocket, but it does include an extra little feature. A flap of fabric under the hood pulls in front of your face to serve as an eye mask, complete with the words "Do not disturb" printed across it. It's a cute touch, but I find it slightly more annoying than useful. The flap doesn't stay in place inside the hood, and it doesn't detach, so you need to move it out of the way whenever you pull the hood over your head. There's also no way to securely place it across your eyes, so it isn't much more effective for covering your eyes when napping than simply pulling the hood itself down toward your nose. It's the weakest aspect of the design, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Apart from the storage, as a sweatshirt, the Hoodie is comfortable and feels well made. It's survived many wearings and washings with ease, keeping its softness intact. The extra layer for the inside pockets on the front make it a bit warmer than the previous Hoodie, which is nice on chilly days, but can feel a bit too hot when the temperature is in the 70s.

Conclusions

Scottevest's new Hoodie is even more expensive than the $75 original, but it's beefier and has more pockets. Its $95 price tag might be steep for a hooded sweatshirt, but it's in line with other Scottevest products, and it has the storage and flexibility to put most jackets to shame. It isn't waterproof like the OTG Jacket, but it can still easily hold your phone, tablet, handheld game system, glasses, and documents all at once. If you want a casual, comfortable sweatshirt for brisk days with enough pockets to let you leave your bag at home, The Hoodie is one of your best bets.

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