For a while now, mustang survival has had two lines of PFDs for kids. They looked a lot alike. The Little Legends line started at infant size, while the Rev spanned from child to young adult. The idea was simply that young boaters would progress up in size through the years.
Then, in 2025, the Little Legends line got a makeover. It became the inspiration for this year’s updates to the Rev.
“I said, OK, let’s take that a step further with the Rev, and let’s make it a little bit more activity-based, a little bit more rugged,” says Jonathan Lieu, senior product manager at Mustang Survival. “We actually changed the enclosure system throughout the line to allow the vest to be towable or water-sports rated in North America.”
In the past, the Rev line had one big buckle and one zipper. The U.S. Coast Guard requires two encircling buckles for use with water sports and personal watercraft—so that if the child hits the water at speed, the jacket will more likely stay on.
“We kept all the things that people loved about the Rev: the segmented foam, the mesh backing, the soft fabrics that were next to skin,” Lieu says. “And then we added that extra closure system, went through approval, so that the approval label allowed parents to have the peace of mind.”
Mustang Survival also aimed for styling that growing kids would actually like. “The child size has a lot more color on the front, and then if you go up to the youth size, we mute the color on the front, but we keep the colorful pattern on the inside, and then the young adult gets rid of the pattern,” Lieu says. “As the child ages and grows older, maybe their affinity for fun water animals and colors probably dips down a little bit, right?”
The hope is that parents and kids alike will realize the Rev is a smart PFD choice: “I have seen, unfortunately, a lot of people ripping around and they’re not using the vest that they should be using,” Lieu says. “We’re trying to be the ones that advocate for these things as best as possible.”
Healthy Kids
Mustang Survival makes the Rev line of children’s PFDs with an eye toward eco-consciousness. The company has moved away from PVC foam and now uses EPE instead. There’s also been what Senior Product Manager John Lieu calls “a big, painstaking exercise” to make sure there’s no added PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”
Take the next step: mustangsurvival.com
