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Off Grid Vest

Name: Off Grid Vest
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: VST003BLKXSM
Price: 133.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

Built from the same material as body armour. But soft enough to collect your own lunch.

$133 $445 70% off

XS

S

M

L

XL

XXL

Model is 6ft 2 / 188cm with a 39 inch / 99cm chest, and wears size Large.

Outer shell made from the same material as body armour
Lined with super compact insulation
Six massive pockets to hold your life

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?

Today we are truly plugged into the matrix – with the electrical grid, running water, gas, and Amazon all on tap. But what if the grid is a blip? After all, we survived for two million years without it. With many predicting wars over natural resources in the not-too-distant future, being disconnected from the production of everything we rely on for survival doesn’t feel like a great idea.

So our Off Grid range is built for a future in which you have to rebuild your life with your bare hands. Built from the same stuff as body armour and military parachutes, the Off Grid Vest is both super tough and super versatile. It’s lined with compressed insulation to keep you warm. And it comes with massive detachable pockets on a high-strength Dyneema® belt tape so you can collect your own lunch.

Technical details

Outer material made in Italy: 78% polyamide, 22% aramid fibre

Synthetic insulation made in Italy: 50% recycled PET bottles, 50% polyester

Lining made in Japan: 70% cotton, 30% nylon

Outer material is water resistant to over 10,000mm

Highly abrasion and tear resistant

Zipped hidden chest pocket

2 zipped side pockets

Giant front pocket with snap button closure

2 rear detachable pouch pockets with snap button closure

Off-centre front zipper and two upper metal press studs

Heavy duty belt tape on spine with Dyneema® core and 6 hanging loops

Vest weighs 1000 grams with back pockets

Weighs 900 grams without back pockets

Machine wash 30°C

Outer material made in Italy: 78% polyamide, 22% aramid fibre

Synthetic insulation made in Italy: 50% recycled PET bottles, 50% polyester

Lining made in Japan: 70% cotton, 30% nylon

Outer material is water resistant to over 10,000mm

Highly abrasion and tear resistant

Zipped hidden chest pocket

2 zipped side pockets

Giant front pocket with snap button closure

2 rear detachable pouch pockets with snap button closure

Off-centre front zipper and two upper metal press studs

Heavy duty belt tape on spine with Dyneema® core and 6 hanging loops

Vest weighs 1000 grams with back pockets

Weighs 900 grams without back pockets

Machine wash 30°C

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Made with the same material as body armour

The outside of the Off Grid Vest is built from an incredibly strong blend of para-aramid fibres and Cordura. On a weight for weight basis para-aramid fibres are 5x stronger than steel, which is why they’re normally used to make body armour and bulletproof vests. We blend these fibres with Cordura, a high tenacity Nylon that you find in protective panels on motorcycle gear. It means that the material can stretch, while being highly abrasion resistant and seriously difficult to damage at the same time.

A 3D ripstop weave makes it even stronger

To make the vest even stronger, we weave the para-aramid and the Cordura into a ripstop fabric. It’s the same construction technique used in wingsuits, hovercraft skirts and military parachutes. What makes the type of ripstop we’ve used so strong is that we weave it into a three-dimensional structure, so that the fibres are layered on top of each other. You can literally feel it with your fingers. It makes the outside of the material super-resistant to tearing, and means that anything which comes into contact with the vest – whether it’s a rock, a branch, or the beak of an angry chicken – will hit the strongest part first.

Water resistant to over 10,000mm

You’re going to spend a lot of time outdoors when you’re living off grid, which means you’re going to experience more weather. And if you’re relying on your own crops for food, you’ll also spend half your life praying for rain. So as well as being highly resistant to rips and abrasion, we’ve bonded a hydrophilic membrane to the underside of the material making it water resistant to over 10,000mm. The membrane keeps water out while still remaining breathable, so you won’t overheat when you need to work hard.

Detachable pockets for gathering dinner

On the back of the vest you’ll find a heavy-duty belt tape with detachable pockets attached to it. If you’re off grid and fending for yourself, you can use them to gather wild food, plants, herbs and fruit, or some eggs. Or to put it another way, dinner. They’re 24cm x 23cm – the same kind of dimensions as a standard stockpot. The pockets close shut with a metal snap fastener and they’re completely removable, making it easy to take them off and fill with supplies, or leave them at home when you need to.

Four more pockets at the front

The pockets on our Off Grid Vest are built for versatility. So as well as two zipped side pockets to keep your hands warm, and a hidden chest pocket, you’ll find a massive front storage pocket that can handle maps, tools, flasks or spare kit. It’s 30cm deep and closes with two heavy-duty metal snap fasteners designed to last. The vest also comes with an off-centre front zipper and metal snap fasteners so you can quickly secure it in place.

Lined with super-compact insulation to keep you warm

Our Off Grid Vest is built from an advanced four-layer system. So underneath the super tough outer layer and the waterproof membrane, we’ve built the middle layer with compressed and lightweight insulation. Using the same technique we use in our Nomad Puffer, we compress the insulation to under a third of its original size before stitching it into the vest. So while it takes up 70% less space, it keeps 80% of its thermal properties. The inside of the vest is then finished with a soft, hard-wearing blend of cotton and Cordura.

Our insulation is made from recycled plastic

Instead of pulling feathers out of ducks, we pull plastic out of used plastic bottles and turn them into insulating synthetic fibres. Every Off Grid Vest uses 5 half-litre recycled plastic bottles. Staying warm is all about trapping as many pockets of air next to your body as possible, so these synthetic fibres are built to be hollow, which means you’ll automatically have millions of air pockets trapped next to your skin. And as the curl of the fibres traps more air than straight fibres, the microscopic texture of the fibre itself also retains heat.

How the insulation performs against down

While down traps heat well, it doesn’t breathe well. So it’s not the ideal option if you’re working hard. If you’re on the move our insulation will do a better job of regulating your body temperature, as it will breathe better and won’t hold onto sweat. It’s also made from a blend of different fibres each with their own ‘multi-shape’ structure. Some are designed for puffiness, others for resilience or thermal efficiency. By making each fibre a different shape, we stop them linking together and clumping like down does when it gets wet.

How plastic is turned into insulation

To turn recycled plastic bottles into insulation we work with pioneers in thermal insulation based in Milan. They’ve been working on recycled fibres and using plastic bottles in their technology since the 1980s, well before it was the cool or right thing to do. They use a process called mechanical recycling to blend the bottles, eliminating the need for hazardous chemicals and creating synthetic fibres that have the highest loft for the lowest weight, just like down.

Built to hold your life

A heavy-duty Dyneema® belt tape

We’ve run a strip of heavy-duty belt tape down the spine of the Off Grid Vest to help you carry even more gear. The belt tape is engineered with a Dyneema® core, so it’s strong enough for clipping on heavy items. And we’ve stitched in six different gadget loops for you to choose from. So you can carry anything from firelighters and paracord, to multitools or carrots.

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.