What can I put in all those pockets?

By Dick Hirsch
I bought a new winter jacket and I spent the first two months discovering where all the pockets are located. With spring approaching, I can now report that I just found the twelfth pocket.

Don’t misunderstand: I like the jacket. It’s warm yet light in weight, and it isn’t puffy like so many jackets that make the wearer resemble the Pillsbury Doughboy. It also is a great color, a kind of coffee shade, not black coffee, but coffee with a touch of cream. And it has one of those hidden hoods. As I hope you can tell, I’m very enthusiastic about the jacket.

Oh, and one other important point: it was on the sale rack, along with others of the same model in every size. In the old days, winter jackets never went on sale as early as this. I actually bought it in late December, after Christmas. I am embarrassed to tell you what the price on the tag said and how far down it was marked for sale. Yes, I realize that many mainstream merchants rely on “On Sale” as a marketing strategy and that some ticket prices may be artificially inflated so they can be sharply reduced and still enable the manufacturer and the retailer to make a decent profit. With the troubled economy buyers needed encouragement and incentives to spend money. Since retailers were struggling to avoid red ink, there were some major opportunities for shoppers. Price-cutting prevailed.

When I bought the jacket, which is hip length, I was so delighted with the price I didn’t pay much attention to the number of pockets. During my youth, a jacket of this type would have two slash pockets, strategically located, so the wearer could easily warm his or her hands inside, or tuck gloves there when not in use. Two pockets must have been deemed sufficient, because that was the number the fashion designers were planning and the manufacturers were cutting.

After I arrived home with my purchase, I immediately noticed that the jacket, in addition to a pair of flap pockets on either side at waist level, the jacket had two smaller flap pockets, one on each side at chest level. The flaps and the snaps on all the pockets were attractive and appeared to be durable. I spent several days considering what possible use I could make out of the two smaller pockets. What were they designed for, I wondered.

I eventually concluded that they were designed for panache, to add some oomph, some zest, some style. They were not designed to hold anything, but to create what we fashionistas call “a look.” I accepted that finding with equanimity.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t until about three weeks later that I noticed that in addition to the four pockets already discussed, the jacket also had two slash pockets, in the usual position, one on each side. That brought the total number of exterior visible pockets to six and it meant the wearer had a variety of acceptable options for stowing and hand-warming.

It was at that point my attention shifted to China. My jacket, while designed in the USA, like many of its cousins and more distant relatives, was made in China. I have no problem with that. It is preferable to buy domestically made garments, but that has become exceedingly difficult.

I began to wonder what the workers in the Chinese factory where the jacket was made were thinking as they sewed. Were they at all curious about why Americans require so many pockets? Did they wonder what valuables Americans must have to store in so many places? We have bad reputations in so many places around the world, I wondered whether we were making things worse by designing and selling jackets with a profusion of pockets. I feel certain that the average Chinese, even those of great wealth, don’t have nearly as many.

That reverie transpired before I launched a really serious examination of the innards of the jacket. There I found six more pockets, secreted here and there, some with snaps and some with zippers, some inside the jacket, some inside the jacket’s inner lining. Those six brought the total number of pockets to twelve. Is it possible there are still others I haven’t yet discovered? I was amazed at the result, but chagrined to realize that I’ll never be able to fill them. Based on my history with jackets, I suppose I’m essentially a two pocket guy.

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