Gadgeteer Spotlight on Scott Jordan of SCOTTeVEST.com

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting
people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos
and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with Scott Jordan of SCOTTeVEST.com…

Scott and wife Laura, along with their 3 poodles

When was SCOTTeVEST first started?

In December 2000.

How did you come up with the idea for it?

As a lawyer for a now defunct dot.com company, I was commuting from Chicago to New Jersey every week. I found myself juggling all my devices all too often, and my wife, Laura, suggested that I should design a better looking photographer’s vest to hold my gear. She was sick of me asking her to hold my stuff too. Now, she is handing me her stuff to put in my SeV.
This page on our website summarized the inspiration behind our company:
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_company/our_story.shtml

What was the first product that you put on the market?

Version 1.0, eVEST. The one you reviewed below.

My first review of one of your products was the eVest:
https://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/scott_evest_review

Does that bring back any memories?

Oh yea! That was just after September 11th (9-11). Your review was awesome, and helped motivate me to continue with this business. After 9-11, like many others, our business came to a complete halt. As a result, we re-doubled our efforts, and started marketing our products to help you save time during the security process at airports.

Since that first version, we now have a
full line of
products, not just Vests. We sure have come a long way!

Where do you call home?

Ketchum, Idaho, also known as
Sun Valley, Idaho. It is home to a world class ski and mountain resort. It is truly awesome. It is so beautiful, that often it is hard to work. However, I can often times work while riding the ski lift, or hiking.

What mobile phone do you currently use?

After trying most PDA’s and phones, I am now using a old fashioned Blackberry hockey puck style. I have been frustrated with the other products out there that try to do everything, but do nothing well. Although my Blackberry is bulky, and doesn’t have a camera, the phone works fine, and the email rocks. I am waiting for Verizon to bring out the Blackberry 8800 with GPS.

What PDA (if you use one) do you currently use?

I use my Blackberry for my PDA and Phone.

What is your primary computer?

I used to use a Toshiba Tablet, but found that it was too slow, so now I have a Desktop Dell Dimension E521 with memory upgrades and 2 big LCD screens. I miss my Snippet features from my Tablet, but all things considered, the speed is much better.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

I have a real nice
Canon PowerShot
SD900.
It takes 10 Megapixel pics and is really small and fast.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

Tough to say; if the commercials are accurate, I crave an
iPhone, but I am going to wait until they work out the kinks.

What car do you drive?

I have 3 cars, 2 cars too many.

1. Our daily driver is a Jeep Unlimited 4 door. We just got this and we love it. You can remove the top, in sections, and it is fun off road.

2. Porsche 911 C2 Cabriolet: It is a 1990, and we bought it used. It only has 45K miles on it, and I love this car, especially in the summer here. I got it instead of having a kid. In sum, after 2 years of being married, I turned to my wife, Laura, and kept bugging her about having kids. One day she flippantly said, “what’s it going to take for you to stop bugging me about having kids?”, and I replied quickly: “Porsche 911 Cab White”. So the next day, we went shopping, and I haven’t bugged her about kids since. We now have 3 standard poodles instead, which look very funny crammed into the Porsche.

3. MINI Cooper S -2002. I love this car, but I don’t drive it much. I used to race it against BMW’s and Porsche’s and win! It has only 14K miles on it, and I don’t drive it much any more. I think I am going to sell it soon.

If you carry a gear bag, which one do you use and what is in it right now?

I don’t typically carry a gear bag, since most of my gear is in my SeV, but if I did it would be a
Roadwired.com product. They make the best bags on the market.

Thanks for taking time to answer my question Scott! Keep up the good work at SCOTTeVEST as I look forward to learning about and
reviewing your future products.