So what is the first thing you think of when you hear Scramble? Rainbow Spats? Or maybe Star Spangled Spats? How about the cool Rashguards? Even better, the newer Athlete Gi? Well if you thought of all that then you are well aware of the great gear line-up offered up by Scramble, and if you haven’t then you may need to re-evaluate your life. or at least visit their site right now. Seriously, I’ll wait.
Well this go round Scramble has put together a hoody for us to ogle, with a nice clean look and feel without being over the top and the fit and comfort you would expect from a company who has been around the block a time or two.
The Scramble “Vale Tudo Show” Hoody, gray with black lettering or slate blue with white lettering, is a premium-quality medium weight hoody. It’s made from a cotton/polyester blend for the body and a cotton/spandex blend around the rib area for a very nice fit. The sleeves are adequate in length with a nice tighter fit on the arms. This hoody is athletically cut without too much extra material. The jacket that I received was a Large and fit me snugly, I’m 5’10” & 185, so lankier or bulkier buyers may want to up a size. This jacket sports a pocket on each side that are not completely stitched to the inside of the hoody, but instead are connected at one location with a 2-1/2” long by 3/8”wide by 1/16” thick piece of cotton stitched at each end connecting the loose pocket to the jacket body. The pocket connector on the left hand pocket has detached from the pocket, the right side is still attached and shows no sign of wear. This design seems to lean towards eventual (or in my case quick) wear and tear on the attachment. The pockets are both still fully functional they’re just floating around. [Editors Note: I contacted Ben at Scramble and he told me that this will be fixed in future batches.]
The front of the jacket has multiple lines of lettering. Starting at the top and working my way down we have: Scramble Brand Goods / Vale Tudo Apparel / Here we have a two lightning bolts with a star in between / a very large Legal with three stars above and Japanese typography below / “Show” / and finally Japao – Brasil – USA – UK. The back has an upper back piece with Martial Arts / Scramble / a line of five stars / and Apparel & Equipment. All of that is surrounded on each side by a curving branch with leaves. The overall construction is great, very few small tags here or there, the lettering hasn’t faded or peeled, and it gets warm in a hurry.
The drawstring is a thick and very sturdy. The ends have been folded over and stitched together to prevent fraying. The hood feels comfortable when up, and conforms to your head instead of a large cone sticking off the back of your head. I would say my only nit picky item was the zipper. Firstly, being in the US, it was on the left side when it would usually be on the right but that’s not a big deal. Secondly, it becomes hard to zip up at a couple locations while bringing it up to the top (I mean hard as in you don’t want to just yank it up). Also, I have mis-zippered it a few times.
Bottom line is Scramble gave us another piece of gear that is in great fashion, fits comfortably, with solid construction overall with the exception of the pocket connector. The pocket connector and glitches with the zipper were a letdown but I’ll still be sporting this as many times as I can this fall/winter. With a price tag of $74.99 this jacket might be an item to ask for this upcoming holiday season. To keep up with Scramble check them out at their website, Facebook, blog and Twitter
