Just checking in, been a while, to share a little info . . .
I purchased the EVO neoprene jacket in the recent VXL promotion. Took a chance even though there have been a number of complaints here about the smell, but I haven't had an issue with that at all. Sure, if I put my nose right to it, there is a faint but not unpleasant (or unexpected) odor; when hitting it I don't detect the smell at all. The acid test was asking the wife to check it out, as she has a very acute sense of smell. And she had the same reaction. Didn't need to do any burn-off, either. Just left it on set at 3 for the evening. Maybe the material has been changed? In any event, for us odor is a total non-issue.
Functionally, it does the job. I've been using 3 wristbands and can grab the EVO at the right place almost blind-folded now. However, I've started using it more in the inverted position, which makes for a bit of wrist awkwardness lifting it off each hit for the clear. The jacket eliminates that. It's plenty comfortable to grab anywhere even close to the top, even on max heat.
Aesthetically, it has a nice colorful VXL logo. However, the cutouts are not perfectly precise in alignment with the switch, knob, and plug. Doesn't affect its usefulness, but I suppose it might annoy some of us with OCD.
So for $10, I think the value is there. But I don't think I'd pay anymore than that.
On a different note,
@Dr. Plutonious posted last week a pic of his Hydrafoot 2.0 coupled with the VXL mouthpiece, and noted how good the action was and the extra vapor cooling the mouthpiece adds. I like the perc action too, even though the piece delivers a soft chug and I'm not a chuggy person at all. But there are a lot of slits so filtration is great, and I like the modest size can on it. What I'm doing differently though - recent posts inquiring how to max reduce any harshness made me think to post this - is I'm setting my HydraLine w/ice on top of the HF. The combined chambers make for perfect volume for me (seems similar to that of my Mobius Ion), the filtration is perfect and the vapor is very soft. Of course it takes more pull than using either piece by itself (the HL is drag free, the HF has a little). But even for a guy who really doesn't like anything close to a hard pull, the pull is still comfortable and well worth the vapor result. This obviously is not an inexpensive setup, but I would think that a less expensive but equally performing alternative to the HL would do as good a job. YMMV.