Off Grid Shirt

Name: Off Grid Shirt. Turnip edition
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: TPS021WHTXSM
Price: 311.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Made with fibres stripped from nettle stalks, and red turnips.

$445.00 $311.00

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XS

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XXL

Model is 5ft 11 / 180cm with a 38 inch / 97cm chest, and wears size Medium.

Dyed with red turnips
Japanese material made with nettles, cotton and Ōmi sarashi
Lightweight and breathable

Your great-great grandfather lived off grid. Your children’s children will live off grid. So the question is, could you? If you had to start from scratch, build a house, generate your own energy, plant crops, find your own water, and raise a chicken or two?

Like all our Off Grid gear, the Off Grid Shirt focuses on toughness, comfort and utility to help you survive off the land, and it’s built with materials and techniques that were around long before the grid existed.

We start with high-strength fibres stripped from nettle stalks that are resistant to bacteria and mildew, get stronger as they age, and even get stronger when they’re wet. We combine them with lightweight and cooling Pima cotton fibres, before finishing the material with a Japanese kneading technique called Ōmi sarashi that makes the fabric ultra-soft. Every shirt comes with two giant storage chest pockets, tough metal detailing, and is dyed with red turnips left over from the production of Japanese Sunki pickles.

Technical Details

Material made in Japan: 90% cotton, 10% ramie

Dyed with red turnips

Breathable

High-wicking

Fast drying

Shirt fastens with 6 heavy-duty metal snap buttons

2 large chest pockets with metal snap button closure

Patch pocket on the left chest

2 side vents at hem

Material weighs 115g/m2

Shirt weighs 240 grams

Shirt constructed in China

Machine wash at 30°C (if you still have a washing machine)

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Made from nettles used in ancient Egypt

Every Off Grid Shirt is constructed using materials and techniques that were around since long before the grid existed. To create the fabric we start with an ancient type of nettle that performs incredibly well in heat and humidity. Five thousand years ago the Egyptians were using the same stuff to wrap mummies. Today it’s known as ‘ramie’ and you’re more likely to find it in parachutes, or in the plant-based plastic components in a Prius.

It gets stronger as it ages or gets wet

The same properties which make ramie a great choice for bandaging up dead pharaohs make it a really practical material for life off grid. Its fibres are resistant to bacteria and mildew while being extremely low maintenance and easy to care for. Rather than deteriorating over time, ramie actually gets stronger as it gets older. It even gets stronger when it gets wet. And this type of nettle is different to the common nettle, so you won’t get stung when you touch it.
We combine ramie with soft Pima cotton

To harvest ramie you have to strip it from the core of the nettles’ woody stalks, so the fibres are quite stiff. This means that to get the best out of its properties you need to mix it with other materials. So we combine ramie with Pima cotton – one of the lightest and softest fabrics you can wear. It makes the shirt strong and lightweight at the same time, as well as high-wicking and fast drying.

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Dyed with leftover Japanese red turnips

Our Off Grid Shirts are dyed using colours from the kinds of natural resources that you’d find easily off grid. The Turnip edition is dyed using red turnips from the Japanese mountain town of Kiso. Despite their red outer skin, the turnips have white flesh which produces a light-coloured dye. The turnips we use are excess ones left over from the production of sunki pickles. Rather than let them go to waste we use them to make 90% of the dye for the shirt.

Finished with Ōmi sarashi, an ancient kneading technique

Once the fabric has been dyed it’s finished with an ancient Japanese technique called Ōmi sarashi. The fabric is slowly kneaded just like you’d knead dough, to create a soft, strong and rugged texture with natural wrinkles. The technique was invented in the region of Ōmi, near where we source the turnips used to dye the shirt.

2 giant chest storage pockets

The shirt comes fitted with two giant chest pockets. Each one is over 22 centimetres deep and 13 centimetres wide, so they’re big enough to act as storage pouches for maps, tools or any food that you’ve foraged. They open from the side making them easy to access, while the heavy-duty metal snap fasteners mean the pockets close securely. A third small patch pocket is layered over the left chest pocket.
Engineered with minimalist detailing

All the detailing on the shirt is engineered for practicality and simplicity. It fastens down the middle with six heavy-duty metal snap fasteners, and all critical seams are reinforced with twin needle stitching. The collar and cuffs are stripped out for a minimalist aesthetic, and there’s an external hanging loop for when you need to hang the shirt on a hook or a branch.

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The Off Grid range

As parts of our planet become increasingly difficult to live on, and we’re forced into new and unknown terrain, we’re going to need solutions to help us. So our Off Grid range is a system of clothing we’ve designed to help you live remotely. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going off grid for a weekend, a year, or you’re selling up and unplugging for good. With vests and jackets made from the same stuff as body armour, high-strength utility pants and shorts, and the strongest rain shell ever built, we’ve focused on toughness, comfort and utility to help you live remotely and survive off the land.