There are all kinds of reflective gear around - but DO choose something to help you stay alive! Drivers really can't see you at night, and if you run on side streets or cross busy intersections, making sure you are seen is critical. For safety, you need to be visible for about 1000 feet. That gives drivers time to see you, figure out there is something there and react. Orindary light colored clothing provides about 300 foot visibility. Scotchlite reflective trim provides about 1200 feet and all serious reflective gear should have some Scotchlite on it. Here's a brief run down of the various reflective products we stock.

Night gear is either passive (no actual emission of light) or active (the runner is the source of the light). In the case of passive items the most reflective parts are the Scotchlite portions of the item that have the ability to reflect a car's headlights back to the driver. Active systems come in various shapes and sizes, but runners like small, light things that won't bounce around.

Our most popular passive reflective item is the Jogalite Sashband. It's compact, easy to carry in a bag or purse and easy to put on. It has a small waist belt that keeps it from bouncing. We keep a box of these around for our fun runs.

It's 52" long and 1" wide and fits up to a 42" waist. The price is only $12.00

There are a number of reflective vests, from Jogalite, Nathan, Brooks and some unusual minimalist vests from Amphipod, called Xinglets.

There are also several new ACTIVE reflective gear products, incorporating flashing lights as well as Scotchlite materials. Brooks has a very nicely designed Nightlife Hat priced at $24.00 which has the optic yellow color, Scotchlite trim and a flashing red light in the rear. and in the vest catetory, the new ActiveLight Vest from Jogalite at $20 offers the best in active and passive visibility.

Two more unique products from Brooks are the Magnetic LED light and the LED Snapband which will snap around your wrist, arm or ankle, and has a series of flashing LED lights. The batteries will last about 100 hours. The magnetic light will hold through a light jacket without being pinned or clipped. It's held in place by a powerful magnet on the back.

The Brooks Nightlife Jacket is another great piece. The fabric is wind and water repellant, but soft and supple to run with. The optic yellow color is important for running at dawn or dusk, and the Scotchlight trim will wake those drivers up at night. The price is $80, which is about what you would pay for an ordinary not-so-reflective soft shell jacket. Their Nightlife Vest at $70 offers the same technology in vest format. The Brooks Podium Nightlife 1/2 Zip at $55 and the Podium Short Sleve T at $35 offer Scotchlite transfer logos and VERY good optical yellow in the popular Podium fabric - a great weight for our winters!

Minimalists will appreciate our ever popular Guardian Light - a tiny clip on $15.99 light that runs on two watch batteries for about 100 hours. The LED bulb will never burn out. If you reverse the polarity of the batteries (just screw off the lens) the light stays on solid rather than flashing. It comes in yellow, red, white, green and blue. It is so light you can simply clip it on your waistband or neckline. I use one on the rear of my bike helmet..

Another great lighting idea is the new Master Vision clip on visor light. This is another one I am now using on my helmet visor. It's a light weight, water resistant 3 bulb LED light that clips onto a hat's or helmet's visor. It has an on/off switch, flash or steady on mode, runs on 4 CR2016 batteries that will power the light for about 24 hours. The Master Vision Light is priced at $19.99 including a set of batteries. We sell sets of 4 replacement batteries for $5.99 (cheaper than buying them in the drug store at $2.50 each). It's also a great item for hiking, camping or emergency use.

There are also two new lights from Master Vision. The first is the 5 LED economy model of the Master Vision Light. It is priced at $10.00. The batteries don't last as long and the unit does not come with the warranty of the regular light, but as an emergency light or a spare to keep in the car, it's a great idea.

On the higher end of the spectrum is the new G3 Master Vision Light with 4 white LEDs and 2 red LEDs. Priced at $30 the light has 5 modes with flash/non-flash options. It uses rechargeable batteries and comes with a USB cable to recharge from any USB computer port. And, to make it even more useful - it has an ultrasonic insect repeller built in! Keep those West Nile virus bearing mosquitos away!