French company G-Heat is primarily known for its heated clothes. Founded in 2017, the company's mission, as stated on its website, is to develop "technological heating and cooling clothes that provide incredible sensations of well-being." Now, that's clearly Gallic corpspeak filtered through Chrome's automated translate app, but the truth is that, in its short life, G-Heat has built a reputation for itself for good-quality heated clothes for all sorts of activities.
Recently, the company has branched out into what it calls "refreshing clothes"—various vests, hats, sleeves, bandanas, and other items designed to keep wearers comfortable on hot days via evaporative cooling. Think of it as kind of a low-tech swamp cooler for your body. G-Heat's latest refreshing garment is the EV05-GRE cooling vest and, while not specifically targeted at riders, it certainly looks promising.
Made from a mix of polyester and Polycool polymer fiber, the EV05-GRE is a simple, sleeveless garment with a front zipper closure and elastic side panels. It looks for all the world like a thicker, quilted version of those vests worn by employees at big box stores like Home Depot or the high-vis vests worn by road crews. To use it, a wearer simply soaks the vest in cold water for about a minute, wrings it out, then wipes it dry. As the water held inside the Polycool fibers evaporates, it draws heat from the body keeping the wearer—or, well, at least their torso—nice and cool.
The biggest downside I can see here, for riders at least, is that like any item that uses evaporative cooling, the EV05-GRE requires exposure to fresh air to work properly. That's fine if you're wearing it while walking around a hot swap meet or music festival, but it probably wouldn't work under a heavy leather jacket or riding suit. That said, I bet it would work quite well worn under an armored textile jacket that breathes really well.
G-Heat's EV05-GRE cooling vest comes in one color, gray, and is available in sizes from small to 3XL. It retails for €59.99, which is around $65 Yankee dollars. You can check out G-Heat's website for more info on the EV05-GRE and the rest of the company's lineup.
