A warm vest is just one important feature for a busy remodeler or DIYer. Find out what I learned while using the sherpa-lined Milwaukee Tool vest on job sites.
Top-Line Notes
- Survives nuclear winter
- Genuinely warm (unlike all other vests I’ve ever had)
- Legit pocket arrangement
- Way too long
- Collar permanently up
- Roomy, to say the least
- Un-break-in-able
Real Deal Review
We don’t like to give poor reviews. Companies, 99% of the time, are trying to put the best product out that they can to serve their customers’ needs along with their bottom lines. Sometimes the products just aren’t for us. Other times there is a cascade of “what were you thinking” features. So here we are.
Size Matters
Full disclosure, I’m not a big person. And while I requested a small Milwaukee Tool Sherpa-Lined Vest I can still fit another half of me in what arrived. I know there’s a longer conversation to have about the expanding waistline of Americans–obviously, Milwaukee looked into this, like everything else they design–but not here. And if the vest were just a little big, whatever. It’s ginormous.
Longer But Not Better
The Milwaukee Tool vest is also, like, way long. I get that we’re expanding, but are we getting taller, too? For a project manager or someone who doesn’t have to bend over a lot–or ever wear a tool pouch–I guess it’s OK. But for me, I have to fold it up almost 3-inches in order to buckle my tool belt, nevermind get anything out of it. That’s just in front. The back drapes a little further so it is folded up higher.
But even for the PMs and guys who don’t have to crouch or bend (whomever that is), this length gets me in the truck. When I sit down, it rides up.
Is that a huge deal? Not really. However, because Henry Ford personally built all my trucks, I tether a Jabra 65 ear head set (it’s awesome, by the way) to my phone to listen to podcasts or make calls. The vest riding up puts the collar–stiff as a board and un-fold-downable–half way up my cheek and it snags the Jabra mic.
Collared In
Also, #$%^&*() age-related, I have Clic Readers around my neck a lot. The Milwaukee vest (and to be fair, other things to this, too) makes it inescapable something is around my neck. Add hearing protection or sun/safety glasses and the collar + garment bulge is…AHHH.
Zipped Up
The zipper is rugged, the cotton duck exterior will survive nuclear winter, the sherpa-lining is a core super-insulator making this vest the only one I’d even consider as an outer layer–to me, vests are middle layers; they’re thick, zippered muscle shirts useless without something over them–and for a different body type and work needs, there is a lot to like with the sherpa-lined Milwaukee Tool vest.
Read Deal Rating
For my needs–if only optimized for tool pouch use–this vest version has smart features. It was good to use on what I call in-and-out jobs–projects where I’m working inside but I’m cutting &c outside. Nevertheless, I think it’s trying to do too much and not getting enough done.
