Future Nylon Coat

The Future Nylon Coat is a timeless but future-proof, minimalist outer layer celebrating one of the most influential material inventions of the 20th century. Built from a high-strength, high-stretch Cordura using precision laser cutting and ultrasonic welding, we’ve taken the nylon raincoat and upgraded it for the next century. Designed for commuting, walking into the boardroom or heading out to dinner, it’s a lightweight, strong, versatile and beautifully crafted coat.

There aren’t many materials which perform just as well at the Met Gala as they do on Mars. But since its invention in 1935 by a Harvard chemist, nylon has changed the world. In the 1940s it helped the Allies win WWII. In the 1980s Miuccia Prada used nylon bags to transform luxury fashion.

Nylon was later deployed in the parachutes and landing systems of the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars Rovers (nylon’s use inside spacecraft was cut short when a capacity for catastrophic electric discharge after exposure to solar winds was discovered). Today, notwithstanding its adverse reactions to solar winds, nylon’s resilience, versatility and minimalist functionality mean it’s found everywhere from performance outerwear, swimsuits and spacesuits, to carpets, car parts and fishing lines. Our everyday lives depend on it.

Rather than using regular nylon (known as nylon 6,6) to build the coat, we’ve made it out of a lightweight Cordura. You can think of Cordura as nylon on steroids, and you’ll already find it in lots of our hard-wearing gear such as the 100 Year T Shirt. You’ll also see it reinforcing other tough outdoor gear like backpacks and hiking boots. But you wouldn’t normally find it in a lightweight, everyday coat like this one.

We combine Cordura with 9% elastane to give each raincoat four-way stretch. This elasticity is designed to work with the tough, engineered nylon to create a coat that’s as comfortable as it is durable. It lets you reach, turn or pull in any direction without feeling restricted.

The last piece of tech added to the material is a water repellent coating on the outside. The coating allows water to roll off the surface of the coat, helping to keep you dry if you get caught in a light shower.

We turn Cordura into a coat with one of the most innovative and efficient construction processes we’ve ever used. It’s called ultrasonic welding, and instead of thread or glue, it uses high frequency sound waves to join thermoplastic materials together. The sound waves generate rapid vibrations which in turn create friction at a molecular level. The friction turns into heat, softening the nylon and creating new molecular bonds when pressure is applied. Ultrasonic welding requires no adhesives or stitching and creates amazingly precise, clean and strong seams.

We wanted to combine the understated simplicity of the mac with subtle but technical detailing. Under each arm there are four vent holes drilled by lasers. The majority of the fabric panels are also laser-cut before being welded together. There’s a lightweight, water repellent zipper running down the centre of the coat, and it’s protected by a Cordura storm flap which anchors down with metal snaps. The cuffs can also be tightened with a minimalist metal snap system attached to the sleeve by a reinforced laser-cut panel.

Each coat is fitted with three zipped pockets built for stealth and practicality. First there are two large, zipped side pockets on the outside. They open and close with invisible zippers that lock into place. And inside the coat there’s a zipped chest pocket on the left-hand side. It’s designed to store your valuables like phones, wallets or keys. The interior of the raincoat has been finished with the same attention to detail as the exterior, ensuring it is as clean and uncluttered on the inside as the outside.

The invention of nylon in 1935 paved the way for a material revolution that would fundamentally change life on Earth. But by 1938 when it was first released to the public, the new wonder material had got off to a strangely morbid start. In September of that year the Washington News ran a bizarre story claiming that nylon was made from cadaverine – a compound extracted from decaying human or animal tissue. A year earlier its inventor, Wallace Carothers, had tragically taken his own life by drinking a cyanide cocktail. Ninety years later we owe much of the comfort of modern life to the genius of Carothers’ invention. It’s also now universally accepted that nylon isn’t made from dead bodies, which helps.

Wallace Carothers was a renowned lecturer in organic chemistry at Harvard. Then in 1928 he was hired by DuPont as part of a drive by the US chemical giant to expand its research into artificial fibres. In the search for a versatile, commercially viable synthetic material Carothers focussed his work on polymerisation – the process of combining short molecules into long-chain polymers. His work would not only create one of the most influential and profitable materials ever invented, it revolutionised the chemical industry and the field of polymer science.

The myth goes that “nylon” is a portmanteau of “New York” and “London”, conceived by a pair of chemists on a flight between the two cities. But the less glamorous reality is that the name likely took form over time in the boardrooms of DuPont’s Chemical Department. In the years leading up to its public release in 1938 it had been referred to internally by a host of different names, like “Fibre 66”, “Duparon”, and “Nuron”. “Nuron” was chosen for its connotations of newness and science, but trademark issues prevented it from being used. “Nilon” was suggested as a replacement, with the “i” eventually making way for “y” to avoid confusion around its pronunciation.

Nylon was officially unveiled to the world in 1938. And after weathering the initial “it’s made from dead people” PR crisis, it began taking the world by storm. Unprecedented demand for nylon stockings led to the infamous “Nylon Riots” in the US. World War II forced a surge in production as virtually all nylon was diverted towards the military to make parachutes, flak jackets, fuel tanks and tyre cords. Only a few years after its invention, the fibre became integral to the war effort, proving itself as both an industrial and a fashion commodity. In the coming decades it quickly went on to become essential to modern life as we know it.