Eddie Bauer Voyager

Remember when people dressed up to travel? I don’t either, but apparently, for the first half of the 20th century, men wore suits whenever venturing beyond their home zip code.

I like the sentiment, particularly in 2015, when America has become a T-shirt and board shorts kind of place. I’m as guilty as anyone. Most days, I’m dressed like a paperboy on his day off. When my kids were toddlers, they cried whenever they saw a man in a tie. It was just so foreign to them.

I’m all for casual Fridays (and Thursdays, and Wednesdays…) but every once in a while, it’s important to look like you have something to do besides check the swells on Surfline. Particularly when you’re traveling. I’m not saying you have to don a three-piece suit like your forefathers, but throwing on a blazer when you’re jetting to Europe wouldn’t hurt. It’s easier to convince foreign authorities you’re not a threat while wearing a blazer. It’s easier to hail a cab in a blazer. More importantly, it’s easier to convince the flight attendant to give you an extra tiny bottle of liquor when you’re wearing a blazer.

Enter Eddie Bauer’s Voyager ($149), a jacket built specifically for the road. It has an interior pocket that works like a Trapper Keeper to keep your passport and phone organized and zipped tight (another low-profile zipper pocket on the waist is good for cash).

There’s a mesh liner over the shoulders that helps keep you cool, and the whole thing is built from the super-stretchy Flexion fabric, which is way more breathable than your standard blazer. This jacket moves, giving you plenty of stretch in the shoulders and arms, which is key when you’re cramped into a crowded bar cart on the EuroRail.

The Voyager II even has a DWR coating that makes it water repellent. It looks like a well-tailored jacket, something your granddad would wear on a business trip, but it’s comfortable and practical enough for t-shirt and board shorts guys like me.