This disease-repelling jacket made from a copper textile could be the new future of clothing

Don’t worry, it’s still surprisingly comfortable though…

Metal may not really sound like an obvious candidate when it comes to textile options for clothing, but the guys at Vollebak make a pretty good point when they say that the next 100 years won’t quite be like the last. The climate’s changing, the ice caps are melting, and if Bill Gates is right, COVID-19 may just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t mean we’re going to completely surrender fabrics like cotton, wool, or denim entirely, but it just means we need to start looking into future-fabrics that do much more than clad us.

Behold the Full Metal Jacket… No really, this jacket from Vollebak is actually made from a germ-repelling metallic textile. Quite unlike those space-foil jackets that astronauts wear, the Full Metal Jacket actually uses a fabric with woven strands of copper, so it’s entirely breathable, flexible, and doesn’t make a crinkly sound when you move around. With as much as 11 kilometers of copper in each jacket, the apparel relies on copper’s innate ability to kill off any bacteria or viruses that it comes in contact with.

Making clothes from metal yarn is more complex than you’d think. Sourcing metal strands is expensive, has no real precedent in clothing beyond suits of armor, and there’s no established supply chain… but I honestly can’t think of a set of constraints that have ever stopped the guys at Vollebak from pushing boundaries. I mean they’ve literally made clothes from a grade of ceramic used on the International Space Station. The Full Metal Jacket comes with three separate layers, the first of which is made from a lacquered copper yarn which is woven on rapier weaving looms before being scoured, heat-set, dyed, and dried – a process that alone takes roughly a week. This process gives the jacket its grungy denim look, but as time passes, the lacquer wears away to reveal the true copper tones in certain places, giving the jacket a uniquely appealing patina that’s comparable to the aging on a leather jacket. The outer layer gives the jacket its germ-repelling properties while also allowing it to be wind and water-proof, while a middle layer made from a laminated copper fabric allows the jacket to respond uniquely to external temperature. This middle fabric, dubbed c_change®, has a weave-pattern that expands during the heat to allow your skin to breathe and release perspiration, and contract during the cold to trap body heat and keep you warm. An inner protective fleece lining makes the jacket comfortable to wear, giving your skin the familiar touch of a soft yarn.

The Full Metal Jacket comes with four large waterproof pockets on the outside and three chest pockets for your belongings. Designed to be your everyday jacket, it can be worn in any sort of weather outdoors, and remains as comfortable and soft to touch as any sort of synthetic outerwear would… in fact, you really can’t even see the copper strands unless under a microscope. However, unlike most outerwear, synthetic or not, it possesses the ability to completely obliterate any sort of microorganism that comes in contact with it, a feature that makes it a standout product in our uncertain future. This brand of standout innovation doesn’t come cheap though. Each jacket retails for $1095, but that can be attributed to the jacket’s revolutionary medical-grade fabric, and the fact that it’s assembled in Switzerland, Italy, and in Romania. Besides, you probably won’t need to wash it either, given its ability to resist water, stains, germs, and even odor particles. Just leave it out in the sun for a bit and it should be as good as new.

Designer: Vollebak

Xenex Robot Exterminates Germs, Not Humans

When I hear about robots exterminating stuff, I immediately think about our robot overlords, which we will all serve in a near future if we’re not careful enough. The Xenex robot isn’t designed to be the demise of humankind – though it will exterminate most every germ you can throw at it.

xenex germ busting robot

The Xenex robot was crated by Mark Stibich with a single mission in mind – to do in germs. It does look a bit like a droid from Star Wars, but this ‘bot won’t be able to pilot a starship. It runs on wheels and its spinning head emits intense pulses of ultraviolet light to disinfect hospital rooms. That’s a simple and highly-effective way of getting the job done.

xenex germ busting robot top

Xenex has been tested at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where it reduced bacterial contamination by a factor of 20, compared to conventional cleaning methods. It also killed 95% of the common and dangerous pathogen C. difficile.

The Xenex robot doesn’t come cheap, though. It costs $125,000(USD) or you can rent it for $3,700 a month. But to put that in perspective, the average cost of an infection for a cancer patient is around $30,000 – plus the untold risks to their lives. Seems like a good investment, doesn’t it?

[via Businessweek]