When I first laid my hands on the Kenpo Jacket, very honestly I was a tad bit disappointed. When you write a review about a product, you are supposed to write about with an unbiased mind. And I am disappointed because I may not be able to give an honest review. I am so in love with this jacket that it’s become my second skin in these nippy winter days. So I may tend to ignore the minor flaws that it possesses. What makes this jacket super cool is its ability to manipulate the iPod controls from its sleeves. Like the rest of the world, I too have an iPod. Music is my passion and an extension of my personality. With this jacket I can hook up the iPod to the connector and place the two in a compartment specially designed for it. The earbud’s cable is fed through a flap just above the iPod compartment. To get started I need to keep the iPod on hold. To manipulate the buttons on the sleeves I need to press the track forward key for three seconds. In a jiffy I am set to use the five function keys that allow me to use the iPod, the way I want. Being a health freak, my Kenpo accompanies me for my daily walks too. No more frosty hands, while trying to hold the iPod or change tracks. Its double button inner flap with elastic ensures that no draft gets up my backside either! Like a big hug, the jacket envelops me in its warmth.

Getting down to minor details, Kenpo Jacket’s controls are ElekTex controls for iPod. ElekTex Smart fabrics respond to your touch to allow you to control the iPod from the jacket sleeve. The self-powered system requires no batteries and supports iPod Video (30GB, 60GB) Nano (1/2/4GB), iPod with Dock (3rd generation), iPod with click wheel (20/40GB and U2), iPod color and photo (20/30/40/60GB) and iPod mini. People having the classic iPod or Shuffle, my sympathies! The jacket is water and wind proof, moreover maintenance wise its pretty cool. Machine wash or dry-clean it, that’s up to you as long as you remember to take out the connector and iPod! While exploring (rather admiring) the jacket I noticed that it has three secret pockets that are very handy. Two are on the outside, just below the flaps of the regular pocket. And one is on the inside, near the chest. The hood is detachable and so is the inner elastic flap (near the hips). The only defect that I can come up is that I can’t use this jacket during the summer heat! All in all, if you were to get this jacket for yourself, I would give it the thumbs up.

The Kenpo iPod jacket is available for men and women starting from $ 100 onwards at select retailers.