X-Vests are a Shoddy Rip-Off

Training Powerlifting
1

Now that I have your attention… Man I’m pissed off about this.

I bought one and it arrived on April 1, 2008. So what’s up at the 4 month mark? I have used it almost daily since then. Oh sure, it works well, seems to be well designed and I do love it, but

  • The stitching is coming apart all around the neck
  • The weights are wearing their way through the pouches (I can even see them peeking out)
  • The weights are rusting

At close to $300 for this, I am, to say the least, pissed. I give at max. life of around 6 month. FWIW I do lots of combat conditioning and a vest is a great training tool for me.

Now I have tried to get in contact with customer support. I even wrote the president of the company. Nada. zilch. zip. Seems they are not interested in talking to anyone. Their great sounding guarantee is pretty much a sham at this point. Sorry, but they could at least have the courtesy to write back to tell me they didn’t really mean it.

Here is what I think: The design for weight distribution is good. However, the materials are not designed to have it fully loaded for active use on a regular basis – the materials just can’t handle it. I wear it for everything in a workout while doing circuits, so I stress test it every day.

Anybody got a better suggestion for a vest than this? Oh, spread the word about the company. Maybe if some of their major customers start raising these issues something will get done.

– jj

2

We use the V-Max weight vests at our gym.

http://www.weightvest.com/index.html

We have had the 50lbs vest for over a year and a 30lbs vest for about six months.

Both have held up pretty well. We did manage to break the plastic fastener on the 30lbs vest pretty early, but that hasn’t really hurt anything.

They never get used for a whole hour- but they do get used daily, several times a day.

-chad

3

well at least on that site you posted the VP guerentees it to last a lifetime…

4

I haven’t had any problems with my 40lb X-Vest, and I’ve had it for a couple years. I don’t use it every day, but it gets used fairly often.

Did you purchase it directly through them or another vendor? If you used another vendor/supplier, then you should contact them.

5

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
I haven’t had any problems with my 40lb X-Vest, and I’ve had it for a couple years. I don’t use it every day, but it gets used fairly often.

Did you purchase it directly through them or another vendor? If you used another vendor/supplier, then you should contact them.[/quote]

Bought it straight from them.

Question: Do you have it maxed out? I suspect that this is the issue with mine. I also use it every day for roughly 1.25 - 1.5 hours straight and high intensity training.

Thanks for your comment.

– jj

6

I vary the weights used, and I have never used it more than about 45-55 minutes during an entire workout.

Usually, I only use it for certain movements or certain days with various weights.