# Dog vests



## toomeymd (Sep 21, 2009)

So my wife has an idea...she wants to make dog vests for bird dogs. She has blaze orange ripstop cloth, and is planning to make a few styles of vests. The first will buckle under the belly and chest, so the back is covered with blaze orange cloth. The second will wrap completely around the body and zip on top so the chest has more protection. My question is this: Is anyone even interested in something like this, what should the cost be (materials alone are close to $10), and which vest would be more useful. Also, there is the option of insulation for late season cold days. Although I think the way most dogs work they will get too hot with insulation. The cloth she has is pretty thin, more like tough tent material. Also she could get camo in the same kind of cloth. Thanks for any info.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

The only thing I can find wrong with this idea is that companies that mass produce vests keep their costs down by buying material in bulk and using either high speed automated machines to manufacture them, or low paid, ummm, _immigrants_.

The plus side would be that with specific measurements, she could make custom fitted/sized vests that would be a better fit than the mass produced ones that are only marginally cut to fit.

She might very well find a market in the custom vest area. Maybe sell them on Ebay or something as well.
She will have to work up a number of patterns that she can alter for different measurements, and figure out which materials will be the most popular with dog owners. For example, most rip-stop cloth is VERY noisy when scratched, and this would be an automatic alarm to any game in the vicinity of a working dog, and might be enough to spook them prematurely.
Scratch it with your fingernails, if you can hear it clearly more than a few feet away, it isn't going to be popular with pointer owners. Brush and weeds is going to make a MUCH louder sound than your fingernails.
Might get away with it on flushers, as that is kind of the idea, but only if it doesn't spook them from 50 yards away or something.

There are already quite a few makes and models of vests that act as safety flags on the back or protection on the chest/belly, so she would need to find her gimmick to attract enough interest to make it worth her time.
I got my camo "armor" vest for my GSP for $15 off Ebay, and sold one that was the wrong size that I got for less than that.
I think I paid $25 at Sportsman's for the 5 mil neoprene vest my lab uses. It is the only one I paid full price for.
With basic materials costing $10 right from the get go, she is going to be hard pressed to stay competitive with the MP brands, unless she finds that gimmick I mentioned to make them worth more to certain groups or individual.

Good luck.


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