TECH & TRAVEL TIP: One Outfit, Five Climates, One Travel Day
Modern travel is ridiculous.
You leave the hotel and it’s raining.
Your rideshare has the heat blasting.
The airport terminal feels like a refrigerator.
The jet bridge is somehow 87 degrees.
Then the airplane cabin turns into a dry-air icebox for the next five hours.
And somehow you’re supposed to dress for all of it.
That challenge (more than almost anything else) has shaped how we design SCOTTeVEST clothing.
Great travel clothing is not just about pockets anymore. It’s about adaptability.
A good travel garment should work across an entire travel day without forcing you to constantly change outfits, carry extra bags, or stuff jackets under your seat because now you’re too hot… until 20 minutes later when you’re freezing again.
That’s why so many of our products are specifically designed for temperature regulation and changing environments.
Our Tropiformer 3D Jacket, for example, includes quick release removable sleeves, ventilation features, water-resistant fabric, and enough storage to eliminate the need for carrying a separate bag for essentials. It adapts throughout the day instead of forcing you to adapt to it.
The Pack Windbreaker for Men and Women is lightweight enough to stash easily when temperatures rise, yet provides protection against wind, rain, aggressive air conditioning, and chilly flights.
Our performance shirts, hoodies, bottoms, and travel vests are all designed as part of a larger system: helping you stay comfortable without overpacking.
Because experienced travelers eventually realize something important: The best travel outfit is rarely the warmest outfit or the coolest outfit.
It’s the outfit that handles change well.
That’s especially true on long travel days where you may encounter multiple climates, elevations, weather conditions, and temperatures before you even reach your destination.
Of course, we still obsess over organization, hidden pockets, RFID protection, and our Pickpocket Guarantee. That DNA is part of every SCOTTeVEST product we make.
But comfort matters just as much.
Travel is stressful enough already. Your clothing should make the day easier, not more complicated.
One outfit. Five climates. One less thing to worry about.
SCOTTeVEST IN THE NEWS
Featured In: The Guardian
“This 26-pocket vest is my key to travel nirvana.”
This month, The Guardian took a closer look at one of SCOTTeVEST’s most iconic travel essentials and explored why so many travelers swear by carrying less, organizing smarter, and keeping everything within reach.
The review focused on how SCOTTeVEST gear helps simplify the modern travel experience, especially during long airport days, security checkpoints, and crowded flights. From passports and chargers to tablets, headphones, and snacks, the article highlighted how strategically designed pockets can replace the constant shuffle of bags, backpacks, and overloaded pants pockets.
For longtime customers, the review captured something we’ve believed since day one: travel feels better when your gear works with you instead of against you. Whether you're navigating TSA lines, exploring a new city, or simply trying to avoid overstuffed carry-ons, thoughtful organization makes a difference.
As travel continues evolving, we’re excited to see more writers and travelers discovering how SCOTTeVEST products fit into the way people move today.
MY TRAVELS WITH STRANGE MEN - Episode Seven: The Other Strange Man Tells His Side
Scott's Introduction
Before I write my own version of Patagonia with Andrew Wood, I thought it would be more interesting — and probably more dangerous — to let Andrew go first. This is his version of the trip: two men who barely knew each other, heading to the end of the world, sharing rooms, driving endless roads, hiking, arguing over music, dodging llama-like creatures, and talking about everything you are supposedly not supposed to discuss with a near-stranger. I have resisted the urge to correct every exaggeration, insult, and alleged fact. I have made only light edits for clarity, flow, and public readability, while preserving Andrew’s voice and the spirit of his piece. My version of the same trip, through my eyes, will follow next month.
Andrew Wood's Version
I first met Scott Jordan through his company SCOTTeVEST when I saw an ad on Facebook and bought a vest for my wife’s birthday. I was immediately impressed by the product's quality and versatility and bought my own SCOTTeVEST vest. It really is the perfect piece of kit for a frequent traveler like me.
Sometime later, after seeing more ads for the products, I decided to contact Scott and tell him that I thought his product would be ideal for the golf business, where I have a large reach. We got into an email conversation, and he sent me some product. I wrote some blog posts about my travels in Europe last year, and we started a dialogue. I read his book Pocket Man, which spurred me to write an article about him as a unique entrepreneur for my blog, www.LifeWellLived.expert.
Strange Man Trip
Finally, after going back and forth by email several times sharing ideas, Scott said, “You know, we ought to go on a trip together.”
I said, “Well, I’m going on a trip to Patagonia two weeks from now if you want to come.”
At first, I don’t think he took me seriously, but I assured him I was serious. I was going and had already put together a solid itinerary with a travel company in case he wanted to tag along. Scott had never heard of Patagonia, which, for the record, is a region located at the southern end of South America. It is split between Argentina and Chile and is one of the most remote and unexplored areas in the world.
Scott called the trip “The Strange Man Trip.” I was sure he must be referring to himself. Apparently, this was not the first trip he had been on under these circumstances, and so it became “Strange Man Trip,” version four.
Most people would probably think that two 60-year-old heterosexual guys, who had never met, from opposite ends of the country and very different backgrounds, deciding to go together on a $10,000, two-week trip to the end of the earth and share a room might indeed be quite strange. The fact that neither of us found this situation strange at all should tell you something.
First Meeting in Buenos Aires
And so, after a flurry of emails, texts, and Zoom calls because Scott is a serious over-planner, we met for the first time in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires was not without some incidents, but I’ll let him fill in the details on that.
Scott was about my height, although it was later proven that I was actually a full inch taller. He was about my weight, although he had just lost a significant amount, beating me by a few pounds on that score. Scott wore a straw hat, which looked good on him; I prefer golf visors. We were both, of course, dressed head to toe in SCOTTeVEST clothing, and I really loved the cargo pants, which I was wearing for the first time. Comfortable, stylish, and, most of all, wonderfully practical for travel.
Amazingly, I found Scott was even more outgoing than I am, which none of my friends believe. Scott says “Hello” to everyone he passes, which works quite well on a lonely hiking trail and not nearly so well on a crowded sidewalk in a city where no one speaks English. During our trip, he stalked at least two tourists wearing SCOTTeVEST clothing. One of them, a New Yorker recognizing him from Shark Tank, was eager to get a picture with him and chat for ages — obviously the first B-grade celebrity he had ever met in person. The other man talked to Scott in nervous chatter, continuing to walk briskly while anxiously looking around for a policeman. “Who is this guy?”
After a hot day in Buenos Aires, marching around town at my usual fast pace, we saw pretty much everything there was to see in a day. At night, we had a wonderful steak meal in the upscale Palermo district and got up early the next morning to fly down to El Calafate, where our real trip to Patagonia would kick off.
Off to Patagonia
When we got to El Calafate, we rented a car and headed off into the desolate yet beautiful landscape toward the town of El Chaltén. The road up there was filled with beautiful lakes, snowcapped mountains, rugged terrain, and llamas — or something that looked like llamas — everywhere. The wind was howling, but I stopped several times to take photographs of the stunning terrain, much to Scott’s chagrin.
Arrive Alive
As I said, Scott is a meticulous planner. He downloads Google Maps, then Apple Maps, takes a paper map from the rental counter, gets hand-drawn directions from the front desk at each hotel, and searches out the concierge to ask for additional options. I prefer to wing it, go with the flow, and head in the general direction of our next stop. After all, there was only one frigging road. Head out of town and take the first left turn. It wasn’t exactly rocket science, just a 200-mile journey straight down Hwy 40 with not a single option presented left or right to go wrong.
I did almost all the driving. This was the call I made early in the trip when, two or three times, I slammed the brakes on from high speed as Scott yelled, “What the fuck?” I pointed several times to a herd of llamas in the middle of the road a hundred yards ahead. The fact that Scott couldn’t see them even after I pointed them out was an early indicator of who should be driving. While I did most of the trip at double the speed limit, Scott was always eager for me to go faster. However, with giant potholes every few yards and llamas crossing the road from every angle, I felt that was fast enough. Half the roads were paved, half were not, and when we dropped off the car, the rental guy was surprised to learn we hadn’t had a single blowout or puncture, thank goodness.
Scott hogged the radio with a bunch of Laura’s playlists, which didn’t seem to make it out of the 70s. Now, to be fair, there’s a lot of good music from the 60s and 70s, but there was a lot of good music from the 80s and 90s, too — not that we ever heard any of it.
First Night Together
Our first night passed without incident despite my snoring and despite what Laura says — or, to put it correctly, what Scott says Laura says.
Laura Dear:
Scott waxed lyrical about what an amazing person you are the entire trip: how the business is built around you, how you keep yourself in great shape, how you are Mensa smart, and much more. All this seems irrefutable. However, Scott also tells me that you tell him he doesn’t snore.
This tells me one of four things:
A: Either you guys don’t sleep in the same building together.
B: Your love for him is so great you’re willing to lie to his face about his snoring problem, which after all is common in just about every middle-aged man.
C: You’re overdue for an appointment with your ear specialist. Since we haven’t met, I obviously don’t want to be rude, but trust me: he SNORES!
D: He is lying about you saying he doesn’t snore?
Anyway, I leave it with you. Just know I have iPhone footage of him THUNDERING out the ZZZ’s which, unlike his footage of me (which he posted), I thought inappropriate to post on Facebook without his permission.
Best,
AW
First Magical Hike
Our first hike was a great success. We did the Laguna Torre hike, a fourteen-mile hike — seven miles out, seven miles back — with absolutely stunning scenery. It was a relatively benign hike to a glacier lake with some of the best pictures I’ve ever taken in my life. When we got back to town, I was ready to do more, but instead Scott took me for a beer, never a hard sell for an Englishman, then went in search of a massage. Meanwhile, I did another smaller hike to get my step count a little higher. In short, I wore him out.
Bragging Rights
The next day, we embarked on a much more strenuous hike, and halfway up the final peak I called it a day and went back to the car for a nap, thus giving Scott bragging rights for the rest of the trip for making it to the top. This even though on every other hike we made, he lagged 300 to 400 yards behind me. Scott, who for the last two decades or more has lived in Sun Valley, Idaho, was like a mountain goat going uphill. Me, having lived in Florida for more than 20 years, was not so good at going uphill. However, on the flat, I took off like the hare while Scott more resembled a wounded snail than a tortoise. I was consistently several hundred yards ahead; however, many people have told me I have a good-looking backside. This is a view Scott got to enjoy for most of the trip. Just saying!
The hotel was a decent four-star but nothing special, but both nights we had excellent meals: one night in a little log cabin reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, another in a fine dining establishment you would not expect to find in a mountain village as small as this was. We ate and drank like Vikings the entire trip and, despite multiple 30,000-step days, did not lose an ounce.
Spot the Gas Station
The next day, the priority was to find a gas station since they are few and far between in Patagonia. We were told there was a gas station on the way out of town just over the bridge, and so we drove out of town, over the bridge, about three or four miles before we decided we must have missed it. We turned around and drove back into town, missing it again. We came out of town over the bridge again and there on the left was something that loosely resembled an abandoned boxcar. Sure enough, cut out from the middle of the boxcar was a single petrol pump, and we filled up.
El Calafate
El Calafate was a vibrant town with plenty of shops and restaurants located on a large bay. Our hotel had a fine view, and we took it easy that night and dined in the hotel after taking a walk along the seafront to get our step count up. The next day, we got up early and embarked on a boat trip to see the glaciers. The water was a sparkling blue in some places and a milky blue in others, but very different from anywhere else I’d ever seen. The glaciers were extremely impressive, and again we got a lot of brilliant photographs.
Chile
The next day, we gassed up and set out on another long journey, this time crossing into Chile. Once again, the scenery was rugged, desolate, and breathtaking all at once. Getting into Chile was a pain in the ass. They had a small wooden hut where you had to line up and show your passport, then go to a different window to show you had permission to take the car out of Argentina, then go to a third window to show your bags. It was a complete joke and wasted an hour of everybody’s time.
Long Drive Conversation
What did Scott and I talk about on these long, desolate journeys? We talked about politics, movies, cars, music, business, marketing, Israel, Laura, poodles, watches, technology, the war in Ukraine, and, inevitably, family. We talked generally about cable news, national politics, and Scott’s complicated relationship with his father and sisters. I have my own family complications, so it was not exactly unfamiliar territory. As I told Scott, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.
Torres del Paine
The next hotel was a rustic beauty at the foot of a giant mountain in the Glacier National Park. It was our base point for two magnificent days of hiking and a very memorable drive to Grey Lake. The scenery just seemed to keep getting better, and we really lucked out with the weather. For several days, the forecast was for 50 to 80% rain. We literally never saw anything more than one ten-minute shower on the way back from our first hike here. This was a pleasant surprise.
On the first day, we attempted to scale the most difficult trail, but after hiking for only about thirty minutes, the fog rolled in, the wind started blowing, and it briefly snowed. Fortunately, Scott threw in the white flag before I did, so I could blame him for that one. Instead, we went to lower ground and had a beautiful hike along a pristine lake that shimmered a milky blue. That night at dinner, we saw a puma walk past our window — pretty magnificent. The next day, Scott was determined to do the hard hike. I’d already decided I was going to push further down the lake trail. I have no problem walking, but you have to remember I live in Florida. Anything above 100 feet is higher than any point in Florida. Walking straight uphill is not for me. I prefer the mountain passes in Switzerland, where they go every bit as high and higher, but they zigzag up the mountain. Here, they just kind of went straight up. So I had a good time getting in a 14-mile hike around the lake. Scott went up the mountain again for bragging rights, and we met for dinner.
That afternoon, we took the car on a 120-kilometer odyssey on dirt roads to Grey Lake, picking up another entire book of amazing photographs of lakes, mountains, and rugged terrain. The food at the hotel was good, and it was served ranch-style, with only three options each night, which at least kept it simple.
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas is a city near the tip of Chile’s southernmost region, Patagonia, and was only an overnight stop. Located on the Strait of Magellan, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, we crossed on a car ferry, which at 58 was a first for Scott. He really must get out more.
Another Long Drive
We were up early for another long drive, this one five hours or so to Rio Grande. When we got there, it was a rather nondescript town. It was also Sunday, the wind was howling, and almost nothing was open. Our hotel was a casino hotel, deader than dead. We walked into the huge restaurant; none of the tables were set, and nobody was in there, but it was open. Scott and I sat down to fish and chips before he announced he didn’t want to stay there, and we should just go to the next town. This was another 200 miles, but it was hard to argue with his logic. There seemed little we would do there except hang out in the hotel room. So off we went, although this time I let Scott do a little bit of driving since I’d already driven for five or six hours. He did fine, just so long as I pointed out the llamas.
Competitive Nonsense and Long-Drive Philosophy
I think we both share the same sense of adventure — the same sense that we should be moving and active and doing things most of the time. I think we shared the same philosophy about entrepreneurism and business. In politics, I like to wind people up whether they’re left or right, because even though I’ve lived in America for 40 years as a resident alien, I’m not eligible to vote, and besides, it only encourages them. Still, despite Scott’s protests to the contrary, I do not feel that he really was a libertarian. We also managed to disagree about age, politics, leadership, and just about anything else two opinionated men can debate while crossing Patagonia. I don’t see why politics even comes into it, but of course it did.
Scott makes way more money than I do, but I’ve had way nicer cars than he’s ever owned. He’s an expert skier. I’m an expert in golf, martial arts, and a decent tennis player, which he tells me he is too. It would be nice to go on a racetrack with him, but I think I’ve got him there. Are we competitive? Hell yes. His watch is worth more, but mine is rarer. Does any of this really matter? No, of course not, but then again, there were a lot of five-hour drives on dirt roads at 120 kilometers an hour.
Did I mention Scott has father issues? Of course, by this point in the trip, I knew enough about him to understand that family, identity, and old wounds were not throwaway subjects. They were part of the long drive conversation, along with everything else. Scott can over-plan, overthink, and occasionally overreact — which, naturally, gave me plenty of material — but I suspect he would say the same about me in his own way.
The End of the World
Ushuaia was a vibrant town of 56,000 people set on the Beagle Channel, surrounded by snowcapped mountains. It was pretty windy and cold, but there were plenty of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. After wandering around for an hour or so, we picked a place for dinner. I, of course, would have looked at four or five places and picked one. Scott instead asked everyone we met what their favorite restaurant in town was, whether they were local or off the cruise ship from Seattle. We settled on a restaurant the concierge had recommended, and I guarantee you she had never bothered to spend her weekly salary to eat there. Still, in this case, both dinner recommendations he came up with proved to be excellent, if pricey.
This hotel was a proper five-star hotel perched halfway up a mountain overlooking the town with an amazing view and beautiful spa facilities.
Enchanting Final Hike
We took one of the most popular hiking trails in the park, the Coastal Trail. It follows the shoreline of the Beagle Channel and offers stunning views of the sea and the snowcapped mountains of Chile as you walk 5 km through an enchanted forest. It was so beautiful it was almost like a movie set, and I half expected a Hobbit to step out from behind a tree at any moment and offer me a cup of tea.
Most exciting of all, Scott pointed out a golf course on the way back that turned out to be the southernmost golf course in the world. Since I own a golf magazine, World’s Best Golf Destinations, they were happy to host me for free the following day, which was the perfect end to the trip for me.
Was the Strange Man Trip a Success?
Two guys from completely different continents, with totally different backgrounds, who had never met, spent two weeks together in the same hotel room. What could possibly go wrong? The truth is almost nothing. I would rate it as one of my top five trips of my life, and you’re talking to a guy who’s been on a lot of trips in 75 countries and who knows how many millions of miles. Thanks, Scott, for an amazing time, some great products, and a friendship that I am sure will grow.