Indestructible Puffer

The Indestructible Puffer is made from Dyneema® which is the single strongest fibre known to man today. If you’re into chemistry, it’s an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene that combines extreme strength with very low weight. On a weight for weight basis Dyneema® is up to 15x stronger than steel and 40% stronger than high-strength aramid fibres. While it’s often used as a composite – an ingredient added to other materials to make them exceptionally strong – the entire outside of this jacket is made from 100% Dyneema®.

The colder Dyneema® gets, the stronger it gets, which is why it’s used to make the mooring lines on giant ships and deep-water oil rigs that have to perform in freezing seas. A mooring line on a winch buried under heavy ice on a ship sailing in extreme conditions simply can’t fail. As the temperature drops down to -50°C the Dyneema® ropes gain 5-10% strength. Projections show that the rope would gain even more strength if it dropped to -150°C. And it doesn’t just get stronger, it also loses no strength in relation to abrasion resistance or cutting.

With winters getting a little crazier, the jacket is built to see you down to -30°C. And if the temperature starts dropping again, the jacket just gets stronger, making it unlike any other material ever created. The lowest temperature recorded at ground level on Earth was -89°C in the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica. It’s here that the Indestructible Puffer comes into its own. In the coldest temperature ever recorded, this would be the strongest jacket ever made, and still getting stronger.

To understand just how tough Dyneema® is you have to look at how it’s being deployed in the world today. It’s used to make bullet resistant vests, armour and helmets. It’s used in panels on tanks to protect against stronger ballistic threats like anti-tank projectiles. And you’ll find it in bulletproof cockpit doors in most commercial planes in the US. Unlike other high-strength materials it’s so light it floats on water, and it’s resistant to the long-term effects of moisture, UV light and chemicals, which is why it’s now also being used in artificial limbs.

Instead of using the lightest possible outer layer, we’ve built our jacket from the same material that was used to make the ropes that pulled up the Concordia cruise ship when it sank. It’s the same material used to create a 30km long tether designed to pull a capsule back down from space – despite reaching space it weighed just 5.5kg and only needed to be 0.5mm thick. And it’s the same material being used to create 1 centimetre thick tsunami barriers to stop 20 metre waves.

The reputations of materials are created over decades of exposure, heavy marketing spend, or moments in history like the Nylon riots in 1945 that created brand recognition overnight. Dyneema® has had none of these things. But there’s a difference between how well something performs and how well known it is, and sometimes the best things are secret. Whether it’s famous or not, this is currently the strongest fibre on Earth that you can build a piece of clothing out of.

The melting point of Dyneema® is a subject of discussion online as it’s lower than the polyester used in most clothing today, and also the aramid fibres used in military gear. But to put it in context we’d have to return to the Hadean period of Earth around 4.5 billion years ago to find air temperatures that would melt it. The melting point of Dyneema® is around 130°C, which is 73 degrees above the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth of 56.7°C in Death Valley, California.

Most puffer jackets are built to be as light as possible, so the outsides are typically made from super lightweight polyester and nylon. The trade-off for this weight saving is that they are incredibly easy to tear and snag. And once you have a rip, or the seams have started to go, or the tiny spines of down have poked their way through the lightweight outer layer, it’s simply an escape hatch for the feathers inside, and the jackets destroy themselves from the inside out.

The Indestructible Puffer is very different to a lightweight packable down jacket, in the same way that climbing into a tank is different from climbing into a car. It’s not going to rip apart after a year or two, or start leaking feathers, and you won’t want to try and pack it away into its own pocket because it will fight you. This is built for the hardest challenges in the toughest places, which is why it weighs 2,000 grams and is built to keep you warm at -30°C.

We’ve assembled the panels on the jacket to mimic the exoskeleton of a tardigrade. Microscopic yet absurdly tough, tardigrades can survive in the most extreme environments imaginable, from temperatures as low as absolute zero (−273°C), to the floor of the Mariana Trench and the vacuum of space. Their ability to switch into a dormant state of almost undetectable metabolic activity is what makes this possible. It’s called cryptobiosis. And while scientists are still trying to crack this for humans, the next best option might be wearing this jacket.

The Indestructible Puffer’s insulation is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. The ultrasoft microfibres are so light and puffy that they trap enough heat next to your body to recreate the warmth of down, without needing to pull feathers out of ducks or geese. And while down will clump and stop insulating if it gets wet, the synthetic fibres will continue keeping you warm even in damp conditions.

The outside of the jacket feels like denim on a cold day. It’s soft and smooth to the touch, but you can still feel a light grain under your fingers. If you’ve ever come across ultra-lightweight Dyneema® used in backpacks you’ll know it feels and sounds a bit like paper. But the material we use is simply a different species. It’s called Dyneema® Black which is far stronger and far thicker because it’s spun then woven, and it’s never been used for clothing before. The underside of the jacket next to your skin is soft and lined.

The front zipper is a heavy-duty, two-way zipper, so you can undo the jacket from the top and the bottom at the same time. A large storm flap and brass press studs with a matte black finish help secure the jacket in place. You’ll find adjusters on the inside hem to tighten the jacket at the waist. These are also built from metal, work with a double pincer action, and come with a cord adjuster built from Cordura.

At the side and back of the hood you’ll find extra-thick, elasticated drawcord adjusters with knotted, rubberised ends to tighten it up. The hood is lined on the inside just like the rest of the jacket so it’s soft against your face and skin. The jacket has a high collar to insulate you in the harshest conditions, and it’s double-lined with a soft, brushed fabric against your neck, nose and mouth.