The Tech Wool Jacket is built from high performance Merino wool, just not as you know it. We’ve transformed Merino into a high tech material that’s completely smooth, weather resistant and durable. The jacket retains and enhances all the high performance properties of Merino – so it’s lightweight and breathable while killing bacteria and regulating your temperature. But it’s now also highly wind resistant, water resistant, smooth and extremely densely woven so won’t scratch you or itch like wool can. It’s also cut into a clean, understated design to take you from a plane, to the boardroom, to the side of a mountain.

The jacket is built with Merino wool that’s been re-engineered using Optim™ spinning technology – a process which reinforces and enhances the Merino at the same time. The wool is woven into fabric with a small amount of nylon and polyester for strength, before a wet-finishing process is applied that makes the fibres contract and the whole weave structure tighten. The result is a super-dense and tightly woven fabric that’s resilient, 5x more wind resistant than normal Merino, and can last half an hour in the rain before soaking through, without using any chemical treatments.

The quality of Merino is judged on its ‘micron count.’ This refers to the diameter of an individual fibre measured in microns, or thousandths of a millimetre. The smaller the diameter, the finer the fibre. The finer the fibre, the softer the fabric. The micron count of Merino wool can be as low as 15 – which is the same as cashmere. The spinning process takes the micron count of our Merino even lower, which is why it feels so smooth and silk-like.

It’s not sweat that smells, or even the clothes themselves, it’s the build-up of bacteria on the surface of the clothes. Merino is naturally odour resistant – odour molecules are absorbed and locked into the centre of the fibre of the Merino so you simply can’t smell them. They’re then released when you wash the jacket.

Merino sheep are bred to survive scorching summers and freezing winters, so the fibres of their wool respond and adapt to the conditions you find yourself in – either trapping or releasing heat depending on the temperature and humidity of your skin. Merino wool has to keep sheep cool even when the temperature goes over 30°C, so the Merino fibre naturally absorbs the moisture from sweat and disperses it to start releasing heat.

Every jacket is built with a middle layer of super-compact synthetic insulation. Made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles, the insulation traps pockets of warm air around your body without adding bulk. To make the jacket as versatile as possible we’ve only added a super thin layer of it, so the jacket brings extra warmth when you need it while remaining breathable. The inside of the jacket is lined with a lightweight blend of cotton for softness and nylon for durability.