This year, we split the category between clothes (our usual nominees) and other products.  From Puma, we have a Project Pink WPS jersey.  Pele Sports gives us a track jacket with their namesake.  From Electronic Arts, the best soccer game of the year.  Finally, we have Windows Phone.  The best mobile gaming platform.

The lifestyle category is always about style and desirability.  We have compared these apples and oranges on a purely subjective level.  We let our testers rate each item on desirability within its category and overall "cool factor" across lifestyle.

Desirability:

• Pele Sports Track Jacket is a fairly basic.  The most interesting part is Pele playing across the back, tongue wagging.
• Puma's Project Pink Jersey supports Breast Cancer Research.  Other than color, it is a standard issue WPS jersey.
• Electronic Arts FIFA 2011 is the best soccer game we tested all year.
• Windows Phone is biggest change in mobile since the iPhone was released.  With XBOX integration and Zune music, it pushes the gaming and lifestyle aspects.

Cool Factor:

• FIFA 2011 - Great game, but it is still just a game.  All of our testers would rather be outside playing most of the time.
• Pele Track Jacket - As cool as Pele may be, this jacket is a light grey and not that exciting.  We would have loved to see the same jacket in the bright yellow signature color of this line.
• Windows Phone - A phone is still just a phones.  It does everything we want it to do, but we haven't published our new app yet.  That will put it over the top.
• Project Pink Jersey - Florescent Pink and professional quality.  Each of the WPS teams used these jerseys for one game last year.  That gives them credibility and rarity.

After much deliberation, we decided social conscience should carry the day.  Each of the items garnered much envy when it entered our labs. Each disappeared for "long-term testing" and some have yet to return for published reviews.

Our winner: The Puma WPS Project Pink Jersey.  A special thank you to Lindsey for additional testing and modeling our winner.