Tag Archives: Vollebak

This black algae dyed t-shirt is Vollebak’s latest creation designed to suck carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere!

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Vollebak grows black algae in giant ponds located in California, which is collected and heat-treated to concentrate it into a black powder to be used as a pigment for dye.

Every day, we wear clothes without knowing how they’re made. Unless you’re already buying clothes from sustainable brands, most of the clothing we wear is produced from material that isn’t harvested responsibly, let alone biodegradable. Take the color black–our favorite everyday black t-shirts are colored by a pigment derived from petroleum called carbon black. However, Vollebak, a clothing brand that uses technology to produce sustainable t-shirts and bottoms, aims to reinvent the way that the color black is made.

Carbon black is a color pigment that’s used to dye our clothing black. After large plots of land called tar sands are stripped of all pre-existing vegetation and animal life, carbon black is extracted from the petroleum stored underground. Noticing the unsustainable practices of producing black clothing, Vollebak discovered that you don’t have to dig up any earth to access black algae.

Known for growing in ponds, black algae only needs sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish. Having abundant access to a natural black pigment, Vollebak used material technology to collect and use black algae to dye their t-shirts black. The result? The Black Algae T-Shirt feels and looks just like a conventionally dyed t-shirt.

Each t-shirt from Vollebak is made from eucalyptus trees that are harvested from sustainably managed forests. Once the pulp from eucalyptus trees gets spun into a wearable fabric, each t-shirt is dyed with black algae ink, which continues to lock in the carbon dioxide it absorbed while still alive. In order to lock the carbon dioxide into the shirt for up to 100 years, Vollebak uses carbon capture technology to trap carbon dioxide at its emission source.

After harvesting black algae from their ponds, Vollebak puts the algae through a heat treatment that concentrates it into powder form. “The black algae ink has been engineered to be UV resistant so it will hold its color for years. But since this is a bio-based ink it won’t behave exactly like a petroleum-based ink. Over time the black color may brighten around the edges next to the seams. To make the algae last for as long as possible we recommend hand washing the t-shirt in cold water with as little detergent as possible.”

The T-shirts themselves are produced from eucalyptus trees that are harvested from sustainably managed forests. “The rest of the t-shirt is made from wood pulp from sustainably managed forests. Eucalyptus, beech, spruce are chipped and pulped, before being turned into fiber, then yarn, and finally fabric. All the wood is harvested from sustainable forestry plantations and certified by both the Forestry Sustainability Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Representing over 700 million acres of certified forests, the PEFC is the largest forest certification system in the world.” Instead of dyeing the shirt’s individual fibers black, Vollebak dyes the entire outer surface of their shirts in black algae ink, which is why the final color of each t-shirt is more of a very dark grey marl.

Since all the materials used to produce their Black Algae T-shirt, the shirt can biodegrade in about 12 weeks. Once the material has disappeared just the black algae ink will remain in an almost imperceptible, safe and non-toxic state. And while other organic materials release carbon dioxide when they decompose, this ink will continue storing its carbon for over 100 years.

Designer: Vollebak

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Engineered to be UV-resistant, the t-shirt will hold its color for years.

“The wood is turned into [the] fabric using an environmentally responsible and closed-loop production process. In practice, this means that over 99% of the water and solvent used to turn pulp into fiber is recycled and reused.”

Since its not petroleum-based ink, the black algae ink dye will brighten near the t-shirt’s seams and edges.

What happens to old bulletproof vests and firefighter suits? They become garbage, but Vollebak is recycling them into fireproof sweaters

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There isn’t much you can do with a bulletproof vest that already has bullet holes in it… or a firefighter suit that’s already beginning to show evidence of burns. They essentially become garbage – highly specialized garbage that’s difficult to recycle (because they weren’t built to be recycled) and impossible to incinerate too.

So what do you do with such garbage? Well, most countries just dump it in a landfill and it’s now the earth’s problem… but Vollebak seems to think those garments still have some life in them. The name Garbage Sweater may throw you off a bit, but it highlights something that Vollebak’s shown to be able to do time and again… make highly functional apparel out of practically any material. The Garbage Sweater is an olive green, loose-fitted sweater that’s made from a 70:30 composition of firefighter suits and bulletproof vests.

Vollebak chose this unique ‘category’ of garbage for two broad reasons. Firstly, firefighter suits and ballistic vests have a short lifespan. With regular use, when they’re exposed to heat, chemicals, and abrasion they gradually degrade. Once they’ve broken down to the point where they’re no longer safe to be worn as protective gear, they need to be discarded. That’s where reason 2 comes in – recycling garments made from meta-aramids and para-aramids is ridiculously hard. “While it might not be strong enough or safe enough to work as protective gear anymore, in reality, the clothes have only lost a fraction of their original properties”, say the folks at Vollebak. That fractional loss in functionality is enough to put a human’s life in danger… which makes discarding them justified, but it also results in a lot of waste over the years.

The process for making the sweater starts with sourcing the discarded vests and suits (as well as the leftover pieces of fabric you get from making them) and shredding them to extract the fibers out. Once the fibers are extracted, they’re cleaned, blended, and spun into the new sweater. While the Garbage Sweater is built with unconventional materials and experimental techniques, it’s still comfortable, warm, soft, with a texture quite similar to fleece. In fact, while the aramid fibers don’t remain bulletproof anymore, they still retain fire-resistant properties. Hold a flame to it and the fabric never catches or spreads the fire. It’s quite an unusual property to have in a sweater but works pretty well outdoors when you’re working the barbecue or trying to kindle a campfire.

The Garbage Sweater joins Vollebak’s unique catalog of cutting-edge fashion, including their greatest hits like their jacket made from ceramic, their carbon-fiber tee shirt, and their disease-repelling jacket made from copper textile. Available in 5 sizes, the Garbage Sweater can be snagged on Vollebak’s website for $495. It’s a little more than you’d pay for your average sweater… but then again think of the amount of bullet-absorbing and fire-fighting history woven into your sweater’s fabric!

Designer: Vollebak

Vollebak uses 55 laser cuts to reinvent the World War I trench coat design!

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Talk of creative high-performance clothing, and Vollebak is the first name that comes to mind. The London-based brand has surprised us in the past with its timeless creations that are made from cutting-edge material and techniques that are normally not used in the clothing industry. This time too it’s no different, as Vollebak has a trench coat to give you that killer classic look. Trench coat dates back almost 100 years, developed during World War One as an essential to keep warm while being comfy, to repel water, and providing a good amount of camouflaging from the enemy eyes. According to Vollebak, they’ve reinvented the classic trench coat almost a century on with cutting-edge technology that infuses it with a unique aesthetic.

Vollebak Laser Cut Trench Coat has to be one the most innovative of its kind as far as, cutting-edge material technology goes. As the name itself suggests, this trench coat is crafted with 55 cuts of the laser beam, before finally adopting the intended shape by bonding together the raw coat pieces. Interestingly, as the heat from the laser vaporizes, sealing off the edges gives the coat an unparalleled raw look. The material of the trench coat chosen by Vollebak is a high-performance 3-layer Swiss material that boasts a very supreme level of elasticity and abrasion resistance. On top of that, it is highly breathable and waterproof.

Apparel with that signature Vollebak touch is not complete, and for this trench coat, they added a reinforced collar and a detachable storm flap. Adding to the oomph factor, the coat is embellished with bonded vents and intricate metal detailing. The classic military green color of the trench coat is so timeless, and I’m already mustering up ideas as to what combination will go with this unique apparel.

Designer: Vollebak

Vollebak’s Indestructible Jacket is made from Dyneema – a material used to pull entire ships

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The Denim Jacket was born in 1880 to cater to the rough-n-tough needs of miners, cowboys, and laborers. More than 140 years later, Vollebak has reimagined the rugged everyday jacket with a material so hardcore, it was used to pull a capsule back into Earth from space, and to tug the Concordia shipwreck out of the sea. Dyneema has quite a rich history. 15 times stronger than steel, and thrice as strong as Kevlar, the material has been used in body armor, anti-ballistic vehicle armor, mooring systems for giant container ships, and ropes used to tie down oil rigs in violent, icy seas. Naturally, a wonder-material like Dyneema would appeal to the guys at Vollebak, who’ve literally crafted some of the world’s toughest garments from carbon-fiber, kevlar, and even ceramic.

Designed to be the toughest utility jacket the company’s ever made, Vollebak likes to refer to their Indestructible Jacket as the Indiana Jones of utility-wear. It features a Dyneema construction, making the jacket practically impossible to rip or tear, while still remaining lightweight (Dyneema floats on water). Designed for all kinds of weather, the jacket features an integrated hood and a collar that can be worn in multiple configurations. In fact, the Dyneema fabric has the ability to insulate you too, so it warms you up within minutes of wearing it… and strangely enough, the material actually gets stronger when temperatures drop, giving you clothes that become more rugged in extreme weathers!

The Indestructible Jacket is truly a marvel of engineering on Vollebak’s part. The materials start their journey in a laboratory in Belgium, while the buttons are crafted from impact-resistant corozo nuts in South America. Each jacket is assembled in one of the most advanced factories in the world with hundreds of separate construction processes, over 35,000 stitches, and more man-hours than almost anything else currently sitting in your wardrobe. In fact, the impact-resistant buttons aren’t simply sewn onto the jacket either. The buttons on the front are all threaded onto a heavy-duty woven tape that runs the jacket’s entire length. The tape is then stitched onto reinforced panels above and below each button. The construction allows the jacket to flex and withstand any tearing forces, as each button is free to slide 2 centimeters up and down its section of military tape, ensuring the stitching and construction are as indestructible as the jacket’s fabric itself. Two secret passport pockets are outfitted into the jacket too, with hidden zippered entrances large enough to hold your passport, money, maps, or documents without any danger of them falling out. Just like the rest of the jacket, the pockets boast of reinforced stitching to ensure they last as long as the garment does… and if you’re still not convinced of exactly how hardcore Dyneema is, the fabric has a melting point of 130° C… so short of falling into a volcano or opening the Ark of the Covenant, the Indiana Jones of utility jackets should definitely have you covered for life!

Designer: Vollebak

This Arctic puffer jacket stores sunlight and glows in the dark to keep you visible at night…

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Windproof, waterproof, and warm enough to see you down to -40°C (also coincidentally -40°F). These features alone would be a pretty impressive feat for a puffer jacket, but trust the guys at Vollebak to go above and beyond when it comes to textiles, material sciences, and fashion.

Say hello to the Solar Charged Puffer from Vollebak. Its name sort of gives the product away, but hey, it’s probably the jacket’s most defining feature. Crafted from a highly responsive phosphorescent material that can be instantly charged and made to glow in the dark, the Solar Charged Puffer is potent enough to respond even to flashlights, leave alone sunlight. When exposed to light, the jacket almost instantly begins giving off a kryptonite-esque glow, making it incredibly handy in low-visibility outdoor scenarios. The material is so locally responsive, you can actually write messages in the light too, just for kicks!

Its spotlight-feature aside (not my strongest pun, but I digress), the jacket was also built for sheer extremes. Like a lot of Vollebak’s gear, the Solar Charged Puffer is built to be wind-proof, waterproof, durable, and outfitted with more than enough pockets on the outside and the inside for you to stash your stuff. An insulating layer on the inside (built from recycled plastic) performs better than down, providing warmth in extremely cold conditions, but also giving you breathability so you don’t feel stuffy. Along with that, a detachable hoodie keeps your entire upper-half covered, from head to waist, when you’re out in the unforgiving outdoors.

Designer: Vollebak

Vollebak’s 100% biodegradable plant+pomegranate hoodie can be composted in your backyard!

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Vollebak continues to push the limits every time on how innovative, functional, and sustainable their designs can be while I push the limits on why I need more hoodies in my closet. I didn’t choose the hoodie life but Vollebak did and they are making the most of it in their latest hoodie made from compostable plants and pomegranate!

Inspired by our ancestors who made their clothes using grass, tree bark, animal skins, and plants, etc. the Plant and Pomegranate hoodie feels, looks, and lasts as long as a normal hoodie but it is far from normal. Think of it as the Clark Kent of hoodies – it looks ordinary and then when you take a closer look, you realize its superpower which in this case is helping our environment. Vollebak has been a leader in making sustainable apparel that is also super innovative like its solar power jacket, the indestructible hoodie, and the biodegradable algae t-shirt which is the closest product to the Plant and Pomegranate hoodie. “The thing that makes it different is simply the way it starts and ends its life. Each hoodie is made from eucalyptus trees from sustainably managed forests before being submerged in a giant vat of pomegranate dye to give it its color. As it’s made entirely from plants, the hoodie is fully biodegradable and compostable,” explains the team.

Once you feel your hoodie has completed its circle of life (it could be 3 years or 30!) then all you have to do is put it out with the compost or bury it in your garden. Vollebak’s hoodie was given birth from elements grown in nature and ends it’s life there too, you can quote Rafiki in the funeral if you decide to hold one in case you are as extra as me. Don’t hold back tears, they might just water a new pomegranate plant in your garden! Ending fast fashion and adopting a sustainable clothing style might seem like a small step but it is still an important step to reduce waste generation and help our planet. Your closet and the climate will both thank you for making eco-conscious decisions – so, let the hoodie life choose you!

Designer: Vollebak

Click Here to Buy Now!

This watch aims to repurpose the tonnes of electronic waste generated every year!

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Most of the 50 million tonnes of electronic waste that’s generated every year are treated like garbage even though it isn’t – this realization is what got Vollebak, one of our favorite innovative brands to focus their attention on the electronic waste gathering on our planet. The team at Vollebak, who have never shied away from using challenging materials to create everything from fireproof jackets, 100-year hoodie, solar-charged glowing jacket to a space-friendly cocoon jacket that helps you sleep in space, making them the perfect brand to tackle this challenge head-on. And yes, they have surely delivered!

Meet the Garbage Watch, a watch made by repurposing the electronic waste we throw out every year. Rapidly changing technology has given rise to a culture of disposable electronics – everything from phones to TV, gadgets are not designed to last long. This electronic waste contains many of the world’s precious metals like silver, platinum, copper, nickel, cobalt, aluminum, and zinc. You’ll find 7% of the world’s gold in e-waste! Vollebak changed their approach to the problem, they explained “So our Garbage Watch started with a very simple idea. What if garbage isn’t garbage? What if it’s simply pre-assembled raw materials that we can use to make new things. It’s why everything you can see on the Garbage Watch used to be something else – a motherboard from your computer, a microchip in your smartphone, or wiring from your TV.” The watch itself boasts a skeleton dial that shows off the colorful mash-up of components inside the watch. The wires seem to form the wristband while the mismatched screws and dials are sure to give each watch a unique ‘look’ to help it stand out.

Working in collaboration with the Wallpaper* Re-Made project, the Garbage Watch reframes an often invisible and hazardous end of the supply chain. This project is still in the prototyping phase, it is scheduled to launch in 2021, and their waiting list is open! While sustainability is the solution to the long-term health of the planet, we need more designs like the Garbage Watch to solve the massive waste we have already compiled to take us into the future!

Designer: Vollebak

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

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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

Vollebak’s new hoodie is fireproof, waterproof, and lasts a 100 years

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Is it safe to assume that something that lasts 100 years is better than something that lasts a lifetime? If you buy a jacket in your thirties, a lifetime would mean anywhere between 50 to 70 more years, right? But if something has a 100-year guarantee, chances are it’s much more suited to last longer than YOUR lifetime, no?

Vollebak‘s been on a relentless mission to make the hardiest, most withstanding apparel on the planet. Pay their website a visit and you’re less likely to see apparel made of cotton or wool. Instead, you’ll see words like carbon-fiber, ceramics, graphene, and Kevlar being floated around.

Currently in its third iteration, the 100 Year Hoodie is perhaps one of Vollebak’s most advanced pieces of clothing ever. Made of three layers sandwiched together into a warm, comfortable, and breathable jacket, the final product takes nearly 40 weeks to manufacture from start to finish… a timeline that pales in comparison to the fact that the hoodie was designed to practically endure an apocalypse.

The third generation of the Vollebak 100 Year Hoodie comes with an engineered fleece inner for comfort, and a flame-retardant outer fabric with a wind-proof, waterproof membrane in between. You’d expect a fire-fighting jacket to be stiff, but the engineered fabric from Polartec is light, breathable, temperature-regulating, and stretchy. Its borderline magical physical properties aside, it’s actually a pretty comfy jacket for regular wear. The hoodie covers you up nicely in inclement weather, and you’ve got four large zippered pockets for your belongings too. Plus, it’s quite literally the last hoodie you’ll ever need to own.

Designer: Vollebak

This damage-proof hoodie is made with the same ceramic technology used on the space station

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To put things in perspective… the only material tougher than the ceramic used in Vollebak’s latest jacket is literally diamond.

Making the world’s most indestructible clothing does require constant reiteration, and Vollebak’s constantly believed in pushing the boundaries of material science. Having made hoodies out of everything from Kevlar to carbon nanotubes, Vollebak now returns with a material so resistant to wear and tear, it’s used on the international space station. The ceramic hoodie comes with an aramid layer (Kevlar is an aramid) and is further coated with a layer comprising more than 60,000 matte-black ceramic particles that allow it to be theoretically destruction-proof, but still breathable and flexible. The hoodie builds on one of Vollebak’s most popular items, the Ceramic T-Shirt, which was developed in 2017 and has, since then, been taken into jungles, warzones, and live volcanoes.

The Ceramic Hoodie is designed to be protective yet comfortable. The fabric is tough but breathable and comes with an inner fleece lining and waterproof zippers. Each hoodie is equipped with a layer of ceramic coating that’s as thin as a human hair, and soft to the touch, but is abrasive-resistant enough to make it the toughest garment not just on earth, but arguably on the space station too!

Designer: Vollebak