MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY

See how we’re using material technology to build the future

Today we work with the most advanced materials in the world. Some started their life at NASA. Others started their life in nature.

GRAPHENE

Graphene is the lightest, strongest, most conductive material ever discovered... It also comes with a Nobel Prize. While the existence of graphene as a supermaterial was first theorised in the 1940s, it wasn’t until 2004 that two maverick scientists at the University of Manchester were able to isolate and test it. In 2010 their work won them the Nobel Prize. Thanks to their pioneering work we’ve been creating our own world-firsts with graphene since 2018.

Graphene

We used over 100 layers of pure graphene to create the Thermal Camouflage Jacket. It’s the first computer-programmable jacket. And a first step towards an invisibility cloak. Because in infrared you can program entire parts of it to simply disappear.

AEROGEL

If you’ve never heard of aerogel before, it’s an insulator, and an astonishingly effective one. Which is exactly why NASA use it to line their spacesuits. It’s almost impossible for cold air to pass through it as its individual nanopores are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. After 10 years of R&D, a durable aerogel insulation came into being, and that is what you will find lining our Martian Aerogel Jacket.

Metal

We're exploring metal as one of the future building blocks of bionic and intelligent clothing. Our Full Metal Jacket was hailed by WIRED as “the virus-killing coat of the future” and won TIME Best Inventions, while our Steel Blazer is made from 24% stainless steel, the same material as the first SpaceX starship.

SHIELDING

Long before the Curiosity Rover was sent to Mars to search for signs of life, it had to be tested here on Earth. So NASA created an electromagnetic shielding tent that was designed to completely block out external electromagnetic radiation during testing. We’ve now taken that technology and converted it into our first Shielding Suit that blocks electromagnetic radiation, shields you from infrared cameras, and comes with pockets that work like Faraday cages.

DNA

Sheep have been cloned. The human genome has been mapped. And now we're using DNA to make clothing.

When we first started making clothing, the idea of getting to work with DNA seemed as improbable as working with single layer graphene, or kryptonite. But thanks to two Cambridge scientists Orr Yarkoni and Jim Ajioka, we’re on the edge of a small revolution.

Thanks to their research, instead of using synthetic dyes, it’s now possible to genetically engineer colours, growing them from scratch in a lab.

In short, we now have an entire range of clothes made from genetically engineered microorganisms and DNA.

See our DNA range

Dyneema

Weight for weight, Dyneema is 15x stronger than steel. Which is why you’ll find it in body armour, anti-ballistic vehicle armour, and mooring systems for giant container ships. Today we also use it to build our Indestructible range which includes the world’s strongest jacket, puffer, and belt.

Eiderdown

Icelandic eiderdown isn’t just the only naturally hydrophobic down in the world… it’s also the lightest down in the world. And the warmest. And the rarest. Sourced from a sanctuary of 3,500 free-nesting eider ducks in the remote Fljót Valley in Iceland’s northernmost extremes, it’s hand-gathered by third-generation Icelandic eider duck caretakers.

Material Technology

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