For Foundation Findings #50 we revisited perhaps the best-known piece of boating safety gear, the life jacket. With recent actions by both the Army Corps of Engineers and the US Coast Guard exploring mandatory life jacket wear, we wanted to examine the range of life jackets currently available and evaluate their performance and comfort. The Foundation last looked into life jackets back in 2003 with our test of inflatable life jackets. Since then inflatables have come a long way, but we have also seen diversification in the life jacket market with new designs targeting different types of boating and water activities.

Boaters can go to a store or online and see not only a wide array of life jacket styles, but also a wide array of performance options and related government approvals. This test aims to help you navigate the differences in performance, and also the differences in approvals—whether the approval is from the USCG, the ISO—or none at all.

At the end of the day, the main emphasis of our test was on the overall “wearability” of the life jackets - how comfortable is a particular life jacket and does it provide security and confidence both in an on the water? Since the best life jacket is the one you’ll wear, we set out to find the most comfortable and commonsense jackets in each category.