Noxgear Tracer 360 lighted vest review

About six weeks ago, Simon over at Noxgear sent me one of their Noxgear Tracer 360 lighted vests for testing and review.  Here's what I received:

Noxgear Tracer 360

As most of you already know, I run in the dark.  Literally, four of my five weekly runs are done at 5am in the morning.  Most of the year this means that I run in the dark.  Because of this, it's very important to me to be seen by cars.  While I love running, I'm not willing to die for it.  Haha!

Over the years, I've run with various running accessories including reflective belts, headlamps, 

flashing lights, reflective vests and reflective clothing.  I'm always looking for something that makes me stand out because cars at that hour just do not pay attention.

This is where the Tracer 360 comes in!  The tracer 360 is a really unique lighted vest.  The vest is really a combination vest and reflective belt.  As you can see below, it's powered by three triple A batteries.  When you press the on button(red button below), the unit first gives you a battery status.  If the battery is good, it gives you two green pulses.  If it's ready soon for a batter, it gives two yellow pulses and has about an hour life left and two red pulses means you need to replace the batteries.  In order to turn the unit off, you just hold down the on button and the unit will respond with two green pulses and turn off.

3 AAA batteries to operate

The back of the unit has soft material and does not cause any chafing.  It's actually a very light unit that rests on your back.  You can see the quality of the product is quite good and I tried to give it a beating and it held up very well.

Comfortable on your back

The reflective vest goes around your chest area, is adjustable and easily clips in and out to remove it.

Reflective and bright yellow

There are two adjustable bands on the belt so that you can obtain the perfect fit.  I liked it a little snug but not so much that it bothered me.

Easily adjustable

As you can see below, the clip goes into the opposite side of the belt and it remains in place securely.  You need to push the two sides to get it out so it cannot easily come off by accident.

quality clip

The plastic piping goes around your shoulders and under your arms and wraps around to the unit on your back.  This confirms you will be see by cars from the front, side or the back.  While I always run against traffic, it's nice to know cars coming up on you from behind and the side of you will see you as well.

The belt remains in place with little black tabs(as shown below).  The tabs are adjustable as well so you can fit the belt exactly where you want it.  Just pull down on the cables and then adjust the tabs to the belt.  It instantly stays in place.  The design is actually very ingenious!

Since I've been using this during marathon training, I've run various distances from 3-10 miles in it.  The unit does NOT bounce around like some other reflective vests I've used.  The electronic unit on your back has just enough weight to keep the tubing in place and allows the unit to stay in place as well.

Here's a picture below of me in it in low light and how it fits when adjusted properly and another one in complete darkness.  As you can see, this has some superior lighting power to it from both the front, side and back.  That's some serious lighting!

low light - fits well on my mid chest

The lighting on this is extremely bright!

While I have it on a steady red color above, the unit actually can be set to any color just by a push of the on button again.  As you can see below, I took some pictures of it as it was moving through the cycle.  Even better, you can turn it on so that the colors change, fast or slow, so that you are seen even more.  While I think one color makes you safe, I really like the fact the colors can move consistently.  It's something that attracts drivers attention and that exactly what I want when I'm running in the dark.  The first day I wore it I noticed cars moving over for me much farther than they usually do.

While I do believe this alone is enough to stay safe while running, I also run with a headlamp as well.  Not only does the headlamp give me extra protection but it also helps me see where I'm running.

Numerous color options or all the colors at once.

I even took a video of the unit cycling through the colors so you could see, in the dark, what it looks like as you run.  Check it out:

This is a really unique running vest and is something that will save runners lives.  That's probably it's best quality!  Based on all my runs with it, it clear that cars see me much further away than they do with just reflective gear and/or a headlamp.  If you are a runner like me and run in the dark, check out the Noxgear Tracer 360 lighted vest.  It will be something that you will want to run with EVERY time you are running in the dark and just may save your life.  I highly recommend this!

Interested in learning more?

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Have a great day and....Keep Running!!!!

Note:  I received this product in exchange for a review.  All opinions of the product are my own and I was not required to give a particular opinion of it.