Nomad Sweater

Name: Nomad Sweater. Black cashmere edition
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: SWH030BLKXSM
Price: 495.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Grown on the grasslands of the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe.

$495.00

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XXL

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

Built with ultra-soft cashmere and lambswool
Cashmere from Inner Mongolia and lambswool from Kangaroo Island
Thermoregulating and naturally water repellent

We’ve spent more than 99% of our time on Earth as nomads. For over 2 million years we migrated across grasslands, deserts and arctic tundra, only carrying what we needed, only keeping what was necessary, and only using the things we had to hand.

Today the last remaining nomads roam the planet. Masters of surviving in harsh and fast-changing environments, they know what it takes to work with nature and leave no trace. So while the rest of the world remains underprepared for Earth’s increasingly volatile climate, nomads have always been ready.

Our Nomad Sweater is built for the times where all you have are the clothes on your back, and every piece of gear has to work across any climate and terrain. Created from a combination of cashmere grown on the grasslands of the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe, and superfine lambswool grown on Kangaroo Island, the sweater is designed to see you through freezing winters and scorching summers.

Technical Details

Material made in Italy: 70% lambswool, 30% cashmere

Lambswool is sourced from Australia and is mulesing free

Cashmere is sourced from Inner Mongolia, China

Our Italian sourcing and production partner is a member the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS)

Built with a 3 gauge knit

Fast drying

Naturally water repellent

Thermoregulating

High-wicking

Insulating

Breathable

Odour resistant

Weighs 750g

Hand wash or dry clean

Do not machine wash

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Nomads know what it takes to survive

From arctic tundra to arid deserts, nomadic communities have always lived in some of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. Guided by the seasons they make the most of scarce resources by simply packing up their homes and moving to new ground, only leaving a faded patch of earth behind them. But as our climate becomes more extreme and resources become scarce, their lifestyle gives us a glimpse of what our future might hold if the next century doesn’t turn out quite as planned.

Why nomads use wool

To build the Nomad Sweater we started with the most versatile and natural raw material in the world. For centuries nomads have used wool from their livestock to stay warm and dry. It’s soft, elastic, and superb at keeping your temperature stable. It’s also naturally water repellent and fast drying. While all wools are known for having incredible properties, we set out to source one of the most extraordinary varieties on the planet, produced on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.
How we source our wool responsibly

While cashmere and lambswool are amazing materials, they have to be made ethically and in the right way. To create the Nomad Sweater we work with Filati Biagioli Modesto, a family run mill based in Tuscany that’s been producing some of the world’s finest yarn for over 100 years. They’re a member of both the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS). These independent bodies are committed to protecting the welfare and livelihood of the animals and herders, as well as preserving and restoring the grasslands they graze and work on.

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The Nomad Sweater is made with ultra-soft cashmere

Known as ‘The Golden Fleece,’ cashmere is one of the world’s softest and rarest materials. It’s not only softer and more elastic than sheep’s wool, but it’s eight times warmer. Of course it’s also much harder to make. While a sheep will produce around 3kg of wool each year, a cashmere goat will only grow about 200 grams. And that’s because they only shed their fleece once a year, and the softest fibres are only combed from their underbellies. It takes all the cashmere grown by one goat in a year to make a third of the wool for each Nomad Sweater.

A harsh climate makes cashmere incredibly soft

We get our cashmere from the fleeces of the Hircus Laniger goats that graze on the vast grasslands of the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe. Stretching over 800,000 square kilometres, they experience some of the harshest winters on Earth – where temperatures can be -50°C for consecutive days, and recurring natural disasters like ‘the dzud’ even have their own name. While people developed yurts to survive, the goats developed an incredibly thick fleece. Today every cashmere goat has a thick and rugged outer layer that protects a warm and ultra-soft undercoat. And it’s this undercoat which produces the cashmere fibres that we use to create the Nomad Sweater.

We combine cashmere with lambswool

The other two-thirds of the Nomad Sweater is made with superfine lambswool. Just like cashmere it’s softer, more elastic, stronger and a better insulator than sheep’s wool. It’s almost as hard to get as well – as lambswool can only be collected once in each animal’s lifetime. By combining the lambswool with cashmere we’ve built a sweater which perfectly balances strength, stability, softness and comfort. And it’s the blending of the two fibres after the yarn has been dyed that creates the speckled texture of each sweater.

These are two of the world’s softest, finest wools

What makes the Nomad Sweater so soft is just how fine, or thin, the cashmere and lambswool fibres are. The diameter of a wool fibre is measured in microns. The lower the micron count, the finer and softer the wool. For context a human hair is about 70 microns. While superfine Merino wool measures about 18 microns, our lambswool is 17.5 microns in diameter, while our cashmere is just 15 microns.

You can wear it year-round

The exceptional natural properties of cashmere and lambswool mean you can wear the Nomad Sweater year-round no matter what the weather is doing. The wool is so soft on your skin that you can wear it on its own in warmer temperatures. When the weather turns colder you can layer under and over it just like a regular sweater. Or you can carry on wearing it on its own and the thermoregulating, naturally water-repellent wool will still insulate you from the cold, and keep out the rain and snow.
How the sweater keeps you warm in the cold

Staying warm is all about trapping as many pockets of air next to your body as possible and that’s what cashmere and lambswool are built for. Every fibre is hollow which means you have millions of air pockets trapped next to your skin. And as the natural curl of wool fibres traps more air than straight fibres, the microscopic texture of the fabric itself will also retain heat.
It keeps you cool in the heat too

The sweater will also stop you overheating in higher temperatures as it just releases its warmth if you’re getting too hot. Our lambswool is sourced from Kangaroo Island in Australia, where temperatures can rise to over 40°C in summer, so the fibres have evolved to naturally absorb the moisture from sweat and disperse it to start releasing heat.
Fast drying and insulating even when wet

Lambswool and cashmere are both water repellent – the outside of every lambswool fibre is covered in a natural wax coating. At the same time the wool acts like a sponge to soak up sweat and spread it over a massive surface area so that it evaporates at high speed. And as the fibres can absorb over a third of their own weight in water and still feel dry, you’ll stay warm and insulated.
It’s hard to make the Nomad Sweater smell

It’s not sweat that smells, or even the clothes themselves, it’s the build-up of bacteria on the surface of the clothes. Cashmere and lambswool are naturally odour resistant – odour molecules are absorbed and locked into the centre of their fibres so you simply can’t smell them. They’re then released when you wash the sweater. It’s perfect if the nearest shower or waterfall is a couple of months away.

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The softest sweater ever built

The cashmere edition of the Nomad Sweater is zero effort clothing. Once it’s on you simply forget it’s there. The natural softness and elasticity of the cashmere and lambswool mean you can stretch in any direction and never feel restricted. We’ve also designed every detail of the sweater to follow your body. The engineered panels and thermoregulating textures let the sweater quietly get on with its job while you get on with yours.