Scottevest Carry On Coat

I've been a huge fan of Scottevest products over the years. I own at least 8 pieces of their gear and have even given their stuff as gifts. Their products are high quality and don't disappoint. The idea of clothing with tons of pockets is a life saver when you spend as much time on planes as I do.

For all their amazing gear, click here.

Their newest product (available in November) is a trench coat design. I'll let the press release tell the story:

SeV Carry-On Coat:
The Jacket the Airlines Don't Want People to Know About, and the Man Behind It

Dear SeV Fans,
Every great story involves some twists and turns, and I wanted to update you on some interesting turns in the ongoing SCOTTEVEST vs. Delta Controversy, in which Delta Sky Magazine censored and rejected an advertisement from SCOTTEVEST Travel Clothing over the use of the phrases "Beat the System" and "Avoid Baggage Fees." Delta proved their willingness to censor an advertiser to protect their bottom line at the clear expense of their passengers (The New York Times recently noted the $769 million in baggage fees that airlines raked in during Q1 2010, all of it non-taxable).

So perhaps in light of the money at stake, the censorship isn't quite surprising, but the reactions have been nothing short of sensational. Scott Jordan, CEO & Founder of SCOTTEVEST, made a fairly innocuous video blog post and tweet about the situation, and the story exploded on the social web with over 284K websites referring to the story on Google and approximately 5 million people exposed to it via Twitter within several days. Major media immediately picked up on the first part of the story, including ABC News, WSJ online, AOL's Wallet Pop, CrunchGear, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Travel + Leisure online, The LA Times, Huffington Post and the travel blog Gadling. Scott's official statement on this matter can be found here.

Now, Scott is on a mission to tell the rest of the story. While the developments continue to make waves every day around the world via social media, Delta has tried to explain their way out of this PR fiasco by offering inaccurate - and changing - statements to the press via travel writer Chris Elliott and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about "why the ad was rejected." They've gone so far as to claim that the ad was misleading and that Scott's multi-pocketed travel clothing cannot save on baggage fees... despite Jordan's proof in the form of testimonials from thousands of customers and articles in the New York Times and USA Today, an appearance by Peter Greenberg on the Today Show, and a well-documented six-week around-the-world "No Baggage Challenge" performed using only SCOTTEVEST clothing and no baggage (see here for even more proof). GearDiary.com also published an article debunking some of Delta's claims.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad