A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

Two successful KickStarters. Thousands of customers. 50 years of science. Stay cool anywhere. Burn calories anywhere.

Testimonial Photos from exitsing users

Here's what existing users are saying about The Cold Shoulder Calorie Burning Vest.

" Certainly a "cool" idea that's working for me. Since adding The Cold Shoulder to my overall fitness/diet plan for about 2 hrs daily, I've lost about 1.2% or 3.5 lbs. of body fat in the last 90 days! I'm very pleased, because it took me a little more than 365 days to drop the previous 5% body fat before I discovered The Cold Shoulder. At 63, I have some issues from manual labor and sports injuries that limit some physical activity, but this "cool tool" is enabling me to break through a bit of a "plateau" I'd reached in my progress. I just enter the extra 500 calorie deduction in my fitness/nutrition calculator daily and can not only monitor, but plan my success. The Cold Shoulder is a simple, safe, effective and easy to use quality made product!" - Bruce Higgins

Since adding The Cold Shoulder to my overall fitness/diet plan for about 2 hrs daily, I've lost about 1.2% or 3.5 lbs. of body fat in the last 90 days! I'm very pleased, because it took me a little more than 365 days to drop the previous 5% body fat before I discovered The Cold Shoulder. At 63, I have some issues from manual labor and sports injuries that limit some physical activity, but this "cool tool" is enabling me to break through a bit of a "plateau" I'd reached in my progress. I just enter the extra 500 calorie deduction in my fitness/nutrition calculator daily and can not only monitor, but plan my success. The Cold Shoulder is a simple, safe, effective and easy to use quality made product!" - Bruce Higgins " Easiest weight loss I've ever seen. Customer service was great. The product arrived quickly and was easy to adjust to my body. I have a chest style freezer and it's very easy to put the whole vest laying flat on one side. It's easy to wear and while I do feel the cold it's not unbearable.... All in all it's a great product and does what they say." Amazon customer



Customer service was great. The product arrived quickly and was easy to adjust to my body. I have a chest style freezer and it's very easy to put the whole vest laying flat on one side. It's easy to wear and while I do feel the cold it's not unbearable.... All in all it's a great product and does what they say." Amazon customer " Helped me get over my weight loss plateau. This is the first cold vest I've tried. I like the ice packs they use they retain cold for quite awhile. When I use this consistently two times during the day for an hour each time I've noticed weight loss of .5-1lbs per week.... I'd been at a plateau for several months and this helped me get over my weight-loss plateau." - Amazon customer

This is the first cold vest I've tried. I like the ice packs they use they retain cold for quite awhile. When I use this consistently two times during the day for an hour each time I've noticed weight loss of .5-1lbs per week.... I'd been at a plateau for several months and this helped me get over my weight-loss plateau." - Amazon customer " Cool solution. I live in a hot climate and I thought this would be perfect for those long hours spent outside in the heat... and this works really well. I haven't changed my eating habits but I have lost a couple pounds in the process as well so I think it helps there too. I highly recommend it." - TexasRed, Amazon Customer

I live in a hot climate and I thought this would be perfect for those long hours spent outside in the heat... and this works really well. I haven't changed my eating habits but I have lost a couple pounds in the process as well so I think it helps there too. I highly recommend it." - TexasRed, Amazon Customer " I wear it for 2 hours everyday and have had no issues with getting it on or in and out of the freezer. You can defiantly feel how ice chillingly cold it is while wearing it. But on the other hand it's not an uncomfortable cold. The product really works. I used the vest along with some minimal cardio and have seen significant improvement in my energy and fat loss goals. The vest literally stays cold for hours." - Amazon Customer Veteran_68w

and have had no issues with getting it on or in and out of the freezer. You can defiantly feel how ice chillingly cold it is while wearing it. But on the other hand it's not an uncomfortable cold. The product really works. I used the vest along with some minimal cardio and have seen significant improvement in my energy and fat loss goals. The vest literally stays cold for hours." - Amazon Customer Veteran_68w " The vest is really solid and well-made. It fits in with my weightloss process and works great. I highly recommend The Cold Shoulder!" - Amazon Customer Lee_Gunby

and well-made. It fits in with my weightloss process and works great. I highly recommend The Cold Shoulder!" - Amazon Customer Lee_Gunby " It is very comfortable. The design is easy to work with and after a minute or two feeling the initial cold of the packs, you can actually forget you are wearing it. Looking forward to using it many more times." - Amazon customer toonist.

The design is easy to work with and after a minute or two feeling the initial cold of the packs, you can actually forget you are wearing it. Looking forward to using it many more times." - Amazon customer toonist. " The vest is more comfortable than I thought. " - David Clark

" - David Clark " Excellent to assist with weight loss . I've been wearing the vest twice a day since it arrived and I've been losing approximately 1lb a week with no changes to my diet or exercise habits. The vest is very comfortable. On warmer days the cold is very refreshing and on the colder nights it's never cold enough to make you shiver or feel uncomfortable. Huge positive." Shawn S.

. I've been wearing the vest twice a day since it arrived and I've been losing approximately 1lb a week with no changes to my diet or exercise habits. The vest is very comfortable. On warmer days the cold is very refreshing and on the colder nights it's never cold enough to make you shiver or feel uncomfortable. Huge positive." Shawn S. " I've been using this vest daily since it arrived. I wear it twice a day for an hour to an hour and a half. I actually really enjoy the cold, and it has done a good job of accelerating my weight loss. A really worthwhile investment!" - Andrew Clinton

I wear it twice a day for an hour to an hour and a half. I actually really enjoy the cold, and it has done a good job of accelerating my weight loss. A really worthwhile investment!" - Andrew Clinton " I suffer from a medical condition that causes skin to feel hot no matter the environmental temperature. For this purpose, the cold shoulder vest is an absolute dream for me. I can wear it for hours, and it helps, it really helps." - Anonymous KickStarter user.

that causes skin to feel hot no matter the environmental temperature. For this purpose, the cold shoulder vest is an absolute dream for me. I can wear it for hours, and it helps, it really helps." - Anonymous KickStarter user. " I drank the Kool Aid. I was very skeptical when purchasing this product. It seemed too good to be true but the inventor, Wayne Hayes, makes it very clear that this system is not meant to be the "end all, be all" to weight loss. There's no magic solution, it's meant to help you burn calories and works effectively with regular exercise and proper diet (no brainer). The vest is comfortable, wearing it over my clothes for twice a day (morning and evening) makes the cold very tolerable and it doesn't impede my daily activities. Furthermore, the vest is stylish enough (I have the black version) to wear in public and not have people stare at you." -Amazon user MightyTiki

I was very skeptical when purchasing this product. It seemed too good to be true but the inventor, Wayne Hayes, makes it very clear that this system is not meant to be the "end all, be all" to weight loss. There's no magic solution, it's meant to help you burn calories and works effectively with regular exercise and proper diet (no brainer). The vest is comfortable, wearing it over my clothes for twice a day (morning and evening) makes the cold very tolerable and it doesn't impede my daily activities. Furthermore, the vest is stylish enough (I have the black version) to wear in public and not have people stare at you." -Amazon user MightyTiki " Love this thing. I recently competed in an 8 week body transformation challenge and came third out of over 1000, in a large part thanks to the additional fat burning from the Cold Shoulder. Really appreciate what you've done here Wayne. I usually wear it just before bed, the coolness helps me get to sleep -- another awesome benefit. In the summer when it's hot out, I find myself pulling it on during the day as well so that I'm less of sweaty." - Evan W



I recently competed in an 8 week body transformation challenge and came third out of over 1000, in a large part thanks to the additional fat burning from the Cold Shoulder. Really appreciate what you've done here Wayne. I usually wear it just before bed, the coolness helps me get to sleep -- another awesome benefit. In the summer when it's hot out, I find myself pulling it on during the day as well so that I'm less of sweaty." - Evan W " I've been using the cold shoulder for a little over a week and I'm shocked at how well this thing works. I can literally "feel" my metabolism spinning while wearing the vest. Additionally, as a side affect of it I feel better so I feel like I am making better eating choices. It's a win/win across the board." - Dan Skweres, KickStarter backer

for a little over a week and I'm shocked at how well this thing works. I can literally "feel" my metabolism spinning while wearing the vest. Additionally, as a side affect of it I feel better so I feel like I am making better eating choices. It's a win/win across the board." - Dan Skweres, KickStarter backer "I was 206lbs at the beginning of my experiment of the Cold Shoulder vest. I've been carb loading the last 3 days for the competition and today I weighed in at 200 lbs! I am very excited about my results and have pictures of me wearing the vest after the competition; I found it's also great for immediate muscle recovery." - Dan Weecks, The Talk Around Town Show

"I shrank out of it! Can I get a second vest one size smaller?" - Mariza Valdez, KickStarter backer.

Our Story

The Cold Shoulder is a time-saving, comfortable, scientifically-proven way to burn calories without exercise, sold directly to you at a wholesale price. We have thousands of users seeing great results. Our vest uses mild, comfortable cold exposure to extract calories directly from your body. You simply take it out fo the freezer, put it on, and go about your daily activities.

Just put it on and go about your business!

The idea has appeared in numerous places:

Cold Shoulder Media Exposure

The Cold Shoulder turns the idea into a convenient product.

Why You’ll Love The Cold Shoulder

1. Backed by 50 years of science. Scientists have studied how mild cold exposure can burn calories since the 1960s.

2. Burns calories without exercise. Whether you’re a gym rat or a couch potato, our ice vest will burn excess calories for you – the equivalent of up to 500 calories a day. This can more than double the calorie deficit you'd get from dieting alone.

3. Saves time. It takes about 30 seconds to get the vest out of the freezer and put it on. Compare that to the same calories burned in a gym workout, especially including travel, change, and shower time.

4. It’s comfortable. No shivering! After trying it a few times, you’ll hardly notice you’re wearing it.

5. It gets more effective the more you use it. Your body adapts to the idea of turning on your internal furnace to burn calories, making the vest more effective the more you use it.

6.We listened to our successful users and gave them what they wanted! The new Classic 2.0 combines the style of the original Classic vest (which was our first KickStarter campaign) with the longer-lasting CryoMAX(tm) ice of our PRO vest (which was our second KickStarter campaign).

Some background



I sell a vest full of ice that's designed to burn calories.

I'm a professor and former NASA scientist. What you're about to read is going to sound like science fiction, but it's not. Scientists have spent decades studying how mild cold exposure can enhance calorie burn. Quietly, and without fuss, the evidence for cold exposure induced calorie burn has been accumulating. It's time to bring the science to the public. That's what I'm here to do: to explain to you what is probably the most novel, evidence-based calorie-burning idea that's come out of the scientific community in many years, and to tell you how you can take advantage of it without pain, without discomfort, and without taking more than 2 minutes of time out of your busy day. With KickStarter's help, we'll be able to bring this vest to the masses at a reasonable price.

Radio Health Journal interview:

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Let's be blunt: there is no magic pill for weight loss, and The Cold Shoulder Calorie Burning Vest is no exception to that rule. The cold, hard truth is that the foundation of weight control is your diet. In order to maintain a healthy weight, do what grandma told you: eat your veggies, cut the fat off your steak, and avoid junk food, especially sweets. If you continue to eat junk, then no amount of exercise, cold exposure, or weirdly named supplements or powders will help you lose weight. The vest can burn up to 500 calories per day if used as directed, but you can easily nullify the effect by eating an extra 500 extra calories. So don't expect that you can continue to eat junk food, wear the vest, and lose weight. You can't. But if you are already eating well and getting moderate exercise and want to accelerate your calorie-burning efforts by burning excess calories while at rest, there's no simpler, easier, or more time-efficient way than wearing our vest.

Good Moring Dallas:

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KABC News Los Angeles:

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Australian National TV show Sunrise:

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Whether you're an athlete, an actor/model, or a couch potato, almost everybody today could benefit from burning a few more calories without expending time or effort. Note that The Cold Shoulder Calorie Burning Vest cannot claim to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease, illness or condition.

The Problem - Exercise is not the only way to burn calories

The first thing I always hear when I say I’m touting the fat loss benefits of a “cold vest” is, “I don’t like being cold.” But think of all the other crazy things people do in order to try to lose excess fat. Starving themselves? Eating zero-calorie clay just to feel full, which carries a risk of arsenic poising? Exhausting themselves in the gym? Ingesting questionable supplements that, if they work at all, have side effects like insomnia or over‐stimulation? How about wearing a corset just to appear thinner? Drug injections? Liposuction? Freezing fat cells? Gastro‐intestinal surgery? Considering these options, wearing a cool, calorie-burning vest is pretty tame in comparison. The Cold Shoulder has no known side effects. Users who start skeptical end up wearing it routinely, and even find they look forward to putting it on at the end of a long day.

There is an aspect of the calorie equation that has been largely neglected for too long. There is a huge hole in our collective knowledge. Although exercise is definitely good, most people think that exercise is the only way to burn excess calories. But it's not.

The Solution - Burn excess calories using mild cold exposure

In addition to exercise, there’s another, much less well-known but scientifically well-established way to burn calories. It’s called mild cold exposure. Basically, if you extract heat from your body, even if you’re sitting on your couch in front of the T.V., your body will need to burn calories to stay warm. This is a scientific fact – and I should know, since I worked at NASA with a group of scientists that study ice. The trick is to figure out how to harness mild cold exposure without being uncomfortable.

The idea of using mild cold exposure to burn calories has slowly started to percolate into the popular media. Articles on the subject have appeared in many places, including the venues mentioned at the top of this page. The problem is that they often recommend painful or impractical methods of cold exposure, like cold showers or ice baths. Very few people have the courage to try that.

I was studying the science of how cold exposure burns calories, when I had a light-bulb moment. I thought, "If cold exposure burns calories, there’s got to be a way I can harness its power to help ordinary people increase their calorie burn." That’s when I began the work that eventually led me to develop The Cold Shoulder. It's a vest that drapes ice over the shoulder and back, and extracts calories while you wear it.

Now Powered With CryoMAX 8-hour Gel!

We are proud to announce that The Cold Shoulder has entered into an exclusive partnership with CryoMAX in the calorie burning vest market. CryoMAX gel is a patented, food-grade glycerin (which basically means it's so safe you could drink it without any ill-effects). CryoMAX gel is flexible even when frozen and can stay cold up to 8 hours, as their own scientific tests have shown:

How does it work?

Considering all the crazy things that people do to burn excess fat, from starvation diets to liposuction, a vest that burns calories while you continue about your day seems pretty tame, don't you think?

You don't need to be a scientist to understand that too much cold exposure – such as, say, floating in the North Atlantic after the Titanic sank – can extract so many calories so quickly that it can kill you. On the other hand, mild cold exposure is perfectly healthy, and has been studied by scientists for decades as a way to burn calories.

For example, Olympic swimmers burn many more calories per day than other Olympic athletes, and it has nothing to do with the exercise. It’s the water. They spend their day in water that’s 20 degrees (F) below their body temperature, and this temperature difference makes them burn way more calories than the exercise alone.

Due to the temperature difference between the body and the water, heat flows from the body to the water, burning many more calories than the exercise alone.

Any mild cold exposure causes your body to burn extra calories, whether it’s a cold day outside, air conditioning set too high, or your skin being in contact with a cold object. Scientists have been studying the effects of mild cold exposure for decades, and it’s a well documented fact that mild cold exposure induces calorie burn.

Our vest, The Cold Shoulder, has ice draped over the shoulder and across the back:

Due to the temperature difference between the body and the ice vest, heat flows from the body to the vest, causing your body to burn calories.

These are the most comfortable places to put the ice because that's where your body has the fewest nerve endings. It's also the most scientifically valid place to put the ice because, just under the skin of the shoulders and back, there's a type of tissue called Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT). BAT burns calories when you encounter mild cold. Our clinical trials show that wearing our vest twice a day for about an hour burns up to 500 calories more per day than you'd burn without it.

How to maximize effectiveness of The Cold Shoulder

We'd like to emphasize exactly under what conditions The Cold Shoulder can induce the burning of excess calories. Basically, you need to be in an environment where you are otherwise at a comfortable temperature, and you are not exercising. If you are sitting down at rest in a room (or your car, or whatever) that is at a comfortable temperature, then wearing The Cold Shoulder directly from the freezer, and with a shirt underneath, will extract heat from your body and cause you to burn extra calories in order to stay warm.

If you are in a hot environment, the The Cold Shoulder will help you stay cool, but it won't burn excess calories, because you're not cold. If you are working out in the gym, then The Cold Shoulder can help you stay cool, and can even help you cool down after a workout, but will not enhance your calorie burn, because you're not cold in that environment. If the vest is not cold, or if the ice has all melted, it will not induce excess calorie burn. Remember that the goal of The Cold Shoulder is to force you to burn calories at a time when you otherwise would not: sitting down, at rest, in a comfortable environment at room temperature.

So, to burn excess calories, wear The Cold Shoulder sitting on the couch watching the game, or in front of your computer, or in your car during your commute. Any time you'd normally just be sitting around comfortable---that's the time to don The Cold Shoulder Calorie Burning Vest and enhance your calorie burn.

Example trial result - Nick Hamilton

Below is a graph of the body fat of Nick Hamilton over a 16-week period. Nick was one of our early testers of The Cold Shoulder. He was on a 16 week, tightly controlled diet and exercise regimen. The only change Nick made in the last 2 weeks was to start using The Cold Shoulder ice vest. You can see how much it accelerated his fat loss.

Nick Hamilton greatly accelerated his fat loss just by wearing The Cold Shoulder for an hour each morning and evening, for the last 2 weeks of his 16-week diet + exercise regimen.

Evidence from independent scientists

For more info on cold exposure and calorie burn, see this page. Note that some of it is rather technical---definitely not light reading. But if you want some of the cold, hard scientific facts from independent researchers, this is the place to start. Most of the research was done even before I conceived of The Cold Shoulder, so you know it's independent and objective.

Our Mission

We want to bring the most functional, comfortable, and stylish clothing-based calorie-burning aid to the global market. We want to spread the word that burning calories doesn’t have to require time-consuming gym visits, sweaty exercise, crazy calorie-restricted diet fads, or taking untested, questionable supplements with unknown side effects. Instead, we advocate that a healthy lifestyle must contain not only a healthy diet and moderate exercise, but also a regular dose of mild cold exposure.

Why We Need You!

We already have the vests made, but the CryoMAX ice is cheaper to buy in bulk, so we need to create a bulk order to CryoMAX so we can offer KickStarter folks a discount---and to have enough ice to continue selling them at a reasonable price.

Will It Fit Me?

We have tried The Cold Shoulder Classic 2.0 vest on people with chest sizes ranging from 36 inches up to 60 inches, and it fits no problem. It's a finely tailored vest with side straps that allow flexibility. We'll ask your exact size once the campaign funds.

Production Plan



We have 1,000 Classic 2.0 vests on hand right here in California, and another 5,000 waiting in the wings in our manufacturing facility in China. The vests are already made. What we still need to do is to order the CryoMAX ice; we'll know how much ice to order once the campaign finishes. The ice takes about 1-2 months to be delivered to our California warehouse, and then we'll start shipping. We also have a limited amount of ice available immediately; those willing to pay extra for immediate shipping will have their vest shipped, with ice, as soon as we get the funds from KickStarter.

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