Does Illuminite Really Work?
 

My wife has been commuting via bike after dark. She didn't have any high visibility clothing. I bought her an Illuminite jacket from Performance. We tried it out by having her go into a darkened room and I shined my flashlight on her. I didn't see any special reflection. It looked just like a non-reflective yellow jacket. We haven't had a chance to go out and try having her walk in the headlights yet.

I'm just wondering - does Illuminite really work?

I didn't have good vis with it and returned the stuff. YMMV

For what it's worth, some reflective stuff has a really narrow visibility angle. Try holding your flashlight next to your eyes.

My wife tells me she is giving me a Performance blue Illuminte vest for Christmas so I guess I'll get to find out. She has one and it didn't seem to do anything at close range. Then she walked 30 yds away & I shown the car headlights on it & it turned bright white. Perhaps not as flashy as the LED-flashing vest but it beats my dark Goretex jacket for visibility...

the girl I'm dating, from about 25 feet away, with the camera flash, in daylight. Yeah, I'd say it works....

http://static.flickr.com/128/321884586_2beb8ff240_o.jpg

(the white wavy lines on her jacket)

Performance's sure doesn't - i had 2 different illuminite jackets from them. The cream-colored painted sheet rock in my dark garage reflected far more light than the garment - the illuminite jackets were a dark spot against the wall.

I sent them back.

I have 3 different, other types of reflective material - they all are brighter than the illuminite i saw.

I tried shinging a light 30' and 75' from the stuff and got no nightime love...

Look at the reflective material on her pants, now that works. The jacket seems iffy at best.....

I just picked up a Performance Illuminite jacket (the same one in the picture above) for my wife. Last night was the first time she's worn it out after dark on a ride to the grocery store with me. I was trying to see just how reflective she was (trailing by 20 ft or so). I also recently put a lot of reflective tape and pinstriping on her bike too, as she's riding more at night now, so it was a good reflectivity "test drive."

We've only done this one test, and so far I'm not super impressed by the reflectivity of the illuminite. My generator light wasn't really making the illuminite shine, but all the other reflective bits on her wheels, cranks, rack and such did pick up the light. I was careful to try a pay attention to the reflectiveness as cars passed us with headlights on, and still really didn't see the illuminite pick up much light... Maybe my sight angle isn't good, and maybe it's more effective at a distance with brighter lights? We'll have to do some more trials.

BUT all this being said, the jacket is BRIGHT yellow, cut for cycling, and was only $55... she's happy with it, and she feels safer cycling after dark... For the money, I'd say it's still a bargain. Maybe sewing in some SOLAS tape would help?

The only other illuminite clothing I have is a waterproof helmet cover, and it appears to pick up light better than the jacket. I haven't "seen" it while riding, as I'm wearing it... so I'm basing this on the reflectivity I've noticed in my garage when headlights, or bike lights hit it.

Agreed on the helmet cover. I use it on wet commutes and it does a pretty fair job of picking up the light from what I am told by drivers and other riders.

I don't understand why there would be a difference between reflectivity on a helment cover vs. a vest. But Illuminite works as tiny mirrors so perhaps the curved surfaces of the helmet create more angles for the mirrors to reflect...?

Exactly. With camera FLASH. :rolleyes:

Illuminte...buyer beware

I've got one of those Performance jerseys. In flash pics it really stands out,but under regular lighting it's just so-so. No where near proper 3M stuff. At least it has bright orange sections.

http://www.bikexprt.com/witness/fabric/index.htm

strongly anti-Illuminite

you could have saved your sketch & bought some reflective tape at a hardware store & applied it to an existing jacket.

It's definitely better than nothing.

I have an Illuminite switch back jacket, Its does reflect light but very little light from the sides. I think for the Illuminite to work the driver would need the headlights mounted on both sides of his head. I give it a 5 on scale of 1 to 10. We have far better reflective tape for us on the market.

Youi do not need a great deal of reflective material to be noticed but it does have to be clean. This was not taken with flash- just a strong Light at a control on a ride.

I have an illuminite jacket bought on sale. For the sale price it's an ok product. The yellow is bright in daylight and it does provide a large (supplemental) surface area of reflective material. Besides normal bike reflectors I have several types of reflective tape on my commuter bike and helmet. The 3M types - silver and honeycombed are the brightest. The white is next. On my rims is black reflective tape (unobtrusive in daylight). All of the tape reflects best when light is pointed from eye level.
The illuminite jacket has bright daylight color, light weight, pockets, and is cycling specific. I've found recently that it does not breathe well and is not comfortable over a wide range of temperatures. I realized this when switching over to my Gill Morph (with pit zips).

It's not that it doesn't work per se. I simply find it ineffective. I own illuminite gloves, legwarmers, and have it on my booties.

Illuminite can give the outline of a cyclist. However, the reflection is dim and it is definitely no substitute for proper reflective gear. It is better than nothing, but I like stuff that's visible from much further away, particularly if it's dark and rainy.

stapfam, if I may ask, what reflective material is being used in that pic?

Actually, I got my first vest in 2007 and it was so effective that drivers would slow down (and hold up traffic) to look. The trick is the angle, but most importantly the amount of coverage: the more coverage, the better.

My entire vest was competitively covered in the reflective material. The con, is that was not at all breathable, so in the summer I would sweat bullets. I got some modicum of relief by adjusting the zipper.

I tried it for a while. I had a lot of coworkers say they could not see me very well at all with it. I use 5 blinky lights on back. I have had people see me from over a mile with them.

The problem with reflective materials is that they all function, one way or another, by having some sort of lens or bead that reflects light. The thick, stiff vinyl stuff has it molded into the back side of the material, with a white backing. The gray stuff that you see stripes, appliques, piping, etc, made with, is a sort of coating that is heat-applied to some substrate material. In all of those cases, the stuff that reflects has its own physical characteristics and doesn't breathe or flex the same way the rest of the fabric does. There are more types than those, but it's the same problem.

And what makes reflective material effective, more than anything else, is surface area. So in order to have a large, visible reflective surface area, you have to cover a large area of a garment with a material that's heavier, less flexible or packable, doesn't stretch, and doesn't breathe basically at all.

Illuminite gets around that problem by applying lots of tiny spots of reflective stuff all over the surface, instead of concentrating it like a strip of reflective tape. So it will never be as bright, because by definition there just isn't much of it in any one place. However, it is good for outlining the shape of a body and it certainly is better than nothing.

But basically, surface area is what counts. Small reflective logos are nice, but not much; same for reflective piping. There's no substitute for surface area. That's why the reflective stripes on the tights near the ankles in that photo show up so much more than the Illuminite stuff on the jersey.

FWIW, you can buy fabric that has a reflective surface applied to the whole entire surface of it. But using it for large areas of a garment would be like wearing a plastic bag.