Equator Shirt

Name: Equator Shirt. Light Blue edition
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: TPS009LBLXSM
Price: 295 GBP
Availability: InStock

The ultra lightweight technical shirt built for a planet that’s heating up.

£295

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Model is 6ft 2 / 189cm with a 40 inch / 101cm chest, and wears size Large.

Ultra-lightweight weighing 200 grams
Made with silk-like cotton from the Nile Delta
Advanced ventilation system with 18 concealed air vents

Home to some of the hottest and most humid places on the planet, the equator carves through dense tropical jungles, warm seas, and crowded cities. Instead of seasons or temperature changes you’re more likely to be hit by a wall of heat, sun, rain and humidity. But as global temperatures rise and climate zones shift, designing clothing for the equator is like designing for our future.

So the Equator Shirt is built to keep you comfortable in all 40,000km of one of the most extreme environments we currently inhabit. The shirt starts with one of the lightest and softest fabrics on the planet, a rare, silk-like cotton from the Nile Delta. We then turned this into a phenomenally lightweight technical shirt by adding stretch, strength, UV protection, and buttons carved from corozo nuts anchored on military tape.

And with every detail designed to keep you cool, we engineered the shirt with the most advanced ventilation system we’ve ever made – 18 concealed air vents built with laser cutting and super soft Italian mesh that work together like built-in air-con.

Technical Details

Material made in Italy: 72% cotton, 24% polyamide, 4% elastane

Shirt weighs 200 grams

Two way stretch throughout the shirt

18 concealed air vents

6 air vents over the shoulders reinforced with bartacks

8 air vents across the back reinforced with bartacks

2 underarm air vents constructed with a high-stretch Italian mesh fabric: 75% polyester, 25% elastane

2 perforated chest air vents concealed inside chest pockets

2 zipped chest pockets with lockable zippers

All seams are twin needle stitched with two lines of stitching to double the strength

12 shatterproof, heat resistant buttons made from corozo nuts

All buttons are anchored on their own heavy duty woven polyester military tape with reinforced stitching

Reinforced hanging loop at the back neck

Two-piece sleeves engineered for movement

A 20cm strap inside each sleeve with two buttonhole settings to hold rolled-up sleeves in place

Drop-tail back hem

Cool wash max temp 40°C

Tumble dry low

Constructed in Lithuania

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We start with the softest cotton from the Nile Delta

Life at the equator offers us a glimpse of our future – a world of non-stop sun, heat, humidity and rainstorms. So we’ve built the Equator Shirt to equip you for it. To build a shirt that can work in all 40,000km of the equator we started with a world-class base material – a rare cotton called Karnak Menoufi. One of the lightest, softest fabrics on the planet, Karnak Menoufi is a silk-like cotton that’s only found in the Nile Delta, and only grows in the years when the rain, soil and wind conditions are perfect.

We turn cotton into a high performance fabric

While Karnak Menoufi is already extremely soft and robust, we’ve added durability and stretch by combining the cotton with elastane and an ultrafine nylon in Italy. Together the combination is so soft and lightweight that it has to be spun and woven with the same techniques and on the same looms that are used for silk. The result is an advanced, abrasion resistant material which feels almost silk-like next to your skin.

Ultra lightweight at just 200 grams

As global temperatures rise and climate zones shift, clothes have to respond. Weighing just 200 grams, the Equator Shirt is the most technical lightweight shirt ever built, and exactly half the weight of our Planet Earth Shirt. Built for the heat, the Equator Shirt is highly breathable, ultra lightweight and packable – so it’s perfect for any adventure. Whether it’s on your back or in your backpack you’ll never notice it’s there.

18 concealed air vents work like in-built air-con

We’ve built 18 concealed air vents throughout the shirt to cool you down, with three different methods of engineering. Designed for hot, humid and arid environments, each vent opens and closes either with body movement or with zip closures. And we’ve put them in the places you’ll need them the most – over your shoulders, across your back, under your arms, and on your chest. Working down from the collar you’ll find the first six air vents that allow air to flow in over your shoulders. Each air vent is securely fixed with bartacks.

Two chest pockets with hidden vents

The two chest pockets are built with angled lockable zippers. Inside each of the pockets are hidden vents for when you need to cool down. Simply unzip each pocket to reveal perforated laser cut panels that will create multiple air streams. When you’re moving fast this will channel any air from the outside directly towards your chest to cool you faster.
Two mesh underarm vents

Underneath each arm you’ll find an open vent lined with a feather-soft, super elastic, lightweight Italian mesh fabric. It’s fast drying and incredibly breathable so sweat can escape easily and air can flow into your shirt to cool you quickly. The sleeves are engineered to move with you, so they’re cut like sports gear rather than an office shirt.
Air-con for your upper back

The last 8 air vents are positioned across your upper back. These are engineered to stay open and bring constant airflow. Two layers of fabric overlap and are securely fixed with bartacks. It means they won’t blow open and your skin will stay protected, but the air can flow in.

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The shirt’s invisible tech blocks invisible UV rays

Just like sunblock, fabric can be rated for its ability to reduce your exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light. The Ultraviolet Protection Factor, or UPF, shows how much more protection your skin would have while wearing that piece of clothing. A UPF rating of 15 for example would give your skin 15x more protection than it would have if it was unprotected. The shirt's material scores a UPF of 50+ which is the highest possible rating, giving you the highest possible protection, wherever you are.
Two way stretch and twin needle stitched for performance

The last thing you want when you’re pulling any extreme or repetitive move in the heat is resistance from your kit. The Equator Shirt has 2 way horizontal stretch, so whichever way you stretch, pull or turn, it will simply go with you. We’ve also used twin needle stitching on every seam, which is two lines of stitching instead of one to double the strength.
Impact-resistant buttons made from corozo nuts

Every button on the shirt starts life as a corozo nut buried inside the spiky fruit of the Tagua Palm trees found on the coastal mountain ranges of South America. Corozo is phenomenally strong so can be carved with stunning precision. It’s highly resistant to scratches, extreme temperatures and impact, so won’t crack or splinter. Made from 100% organic fibre, each button has a unique grain just like a fingerprint, so no two will ever be the same. And all buttons are sculpted with a highly polished 30 degree taper towards the edges to make them easy to slip into place.
Free-floating buttons anchored on military tapes

Even the way the shirt buttons up has been engineered to work with sweaty hands and hostile conditions. Rather than being sewn onto the shirt, the buttons on the front of the shirt have all been threaded onto a high-strength woven polyester tape that runs the shirt’s entire length. The tape is then stitched onto reinforced panels above and below each button. The construction allows the shirt to stretch and flex with you, as each button is free to slide 2 centimetres up and down its section of military tape.
Engineered sleeves that stay up in any condition

If you’re moving hard and fast and want your sleeves to stay rolled, you’ll find a 20cm long reinforced strap on the inside of each sleeve that you can pull out, up and over the rolled sleeve and fasten to a small slip button on the outside of the upper arm. The fastening is secured on its own reinforced patch of military tape. And each 20cm fabric strap has two buttonhole settings so you can choose how high you want them. If you’re wearing the sleeves down, the cuffs fasten with two corozo buttons.

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It’s fast drying from rain and humidity

Humidity and rainstorms are going to soak you one way or another at the equator, so the key is about drying really fast, rather than trying to avoid getting wet. The fabric is ultra lightweight and elastic so it dries quickly, making the shirt as at home in a rainforest as it is in a city. And the extra airflow from the ventilation will help your skin dry faster at the same time as the shirt.