100 Year Vest

Name: 100 Year Vest. Granite edition
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: VST001GRAMED
Price: 88 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

The ultimate utility vest. Built to hold your life, for the rest of your life.

£295 £88

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Model is 6ft 1 / 185cm with a 40 inch / 102cm chest, and wears size Small.

It will take more than 100 years to break the fabric
The vest’s middle layer acts like an airbag in a fire
Eleven pockets built to hold your life

Built from a Swiss supermaterial originally created for the elite military, our 100 Year Vest repels fire, wind, rain and time. Flames can’t spread on the vest or even burn a hole through it, water rolls off it, wind doesn’t go through it, and almost nothing can tear it, yet it has the breathability and stretch to comfortably get you through any jungle, desert, city or airport on Earth.

With 2 giant zipped pockets running down the sides of the vest from your shoulders to your waist, another 9 pockets layered over and around them, and 3 heavy-duty military belt tapes designed for carabiners, the vest carries as much gear as your backpack. So whether you’re escaping the world or catching your next flight, this is the only utility vest you’ll ever need.

Technical Details

Material made in Switzerland by Schoeller

Fabric composition: 58% polyamide, 23% aramid, 18% polyurethane, 1% elastane

The fireproof fabric complies with EN ISO 11612

Highly abrasion resistant and tear resistant fabric

The vest is water repellent and breathable

Four way stretch throughout the vest

All seams are engineered for torsion and stretch

2 giant zipped side pockets with reinforced pocket lining

2 zipped back pockets with storm flaps

1 front flask pocket with Velcro fastening

2 diagonal chest pockets with invisible zippers

2 chest pockets with invisible zippers

1 shoulder pocket with invisible zipper

1 chest pockets with hidden zipper behind storm flaps

3 heavy duty elasticated belt tapes for clipping on extra gear

Lock down central zip

Elastic back vent

The fabric is bluesign® approved – a system for environmentally friendly production

Cool wash max temp 40° and tumble dry low

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Swiss-engineered material developed for the military

It wasn’t enough for us to build a vest that could simply last for 100 years. We wanted to build one comfortable and practical enough to spend the rest of your life in. So we worked with a military-grade fireproof fabric engineered in Switzerland that’s built to help soldiers handle the most extreme scenarios, but without having to dress like firefighters. The result is a crazily strong utility vest that you can wear in any terrain and emerge unscathed. Whether it’s branches, brambles, rocks or flames, very little can mess with a 100 Year Vest.

The material is made from three layers sandwiched together

If you looked at a cross section of the vest you’d think you’re just looking at one layer of fabric. But just as you’d find with any high-performance jacket, it’s actually three separate layers sandwiched together and performing three distinct roles. The outer layer is a stretchy, windproof soft shell. The middle layer is a fireproof coating. And the bottom layer next to your skin is a soft, knitted fireproof fibre that feels like cotton.

The outside of the vest is seriously hardcore

Even on its own the outer layer of the vest would make the toughest vest you’d ever worn. Highly durable and abrasion resistant, it’s also water repellent, stretchy and windproof. Yet despite this it’s still super soft and feels nothing like any fire-resistant fabric that’s ever been made before. And that’s because it’s the two layers beneath that turn it from a tough vest to one that can survive fire.

The middle layer acts like an airbag in a fire

Any contact with fire triggers the fireproof middle layer of the vest. This layer instantly expands to 1000x its size to create a protective barrier between you and the flames, writing off the vest but saving you. It might sound like an airbag, but it looks more like tiny plants growing at high speed as the protective layer increases in volume and expands to about 6mm in height. This video shows the expansion process. Even if you hold a flame on the vest it can’t catch on fire, and fire simply can’t spread on it.

Fireproofing the vest makes it more breathable

While it’s completely counter intuitive, having a protective layer in the middle of the fabric makes the vest more breathable. Because it’s created from a fireproof coating rather than material, it acts like a gap or fire break between the inner and outer layers of fabric, and it’s this invisible gap that lets air pass through the vest and makes it more breathable.

The vest feels like cotton next to your skin

It’s the inner layer of the vest that keeps it together in an emergency. Built from an aramid fibre that can’t burn or melt, it’s there to protect the structural integrity of the vest in a fire. These kind of fibres are typically built for practicality rather than comfort, but we’ve knitted them into a soft and ultra-thin layer that feels more like cotton on your skin. This makes it super comfortable whether you’re trekking, climbing, out in the woods, or making fire in camp.

All eleven pockets are external for speed

We’ve built every pocket on the outside of the 100 Year Vest so you can use them faster. You’ll never have to undo your vest or take it off to try and retrieve something when you’re on the move. It also increases the amount the vest can store as it’s not competing with your ribs for space. 6 of the zipper entrances are hidden behind storm flaps, and 4 are made with invisible waterproof zippers to keep your passport, or credit cards hidden.

Two giant front pockets

Down either side of the vest you’ll find the two largest zipped pockets. They sit underneath all the other pockets and extend up to your shoulders and down to your waist. It makes them tall and deep enough to hold 2x 1 litre flasks, iPad, hammer, machete, route maps, or spare kit. Leave them empty and they’re a perfect place to warm your hands just like a regular jacket.
Two large back pockets

Round the back of the vest you’ll find two deep pockets that start by your hip and end by your spine. They unzip from top to bottom just over your hip on each side, making them easy to open and close even on the move. We’ve tested them with large headphones, small pick axes, spare rain jackets, and skins for skiing.
Front flask pocket

The only non-zipped pocket is the front flask pocket. Built with a bellows opening and strong Velcro fastening, it does what the name suggests and works perfectly for a hip flask. Your phone works in there too. On the opposite side of the vest is one of the 4 invisible zipper pockets.
Two diagonal chest pockets

Two diagonal chest pockets are perfect for gear you don’t want jumping around inside the vest. The positioning and angle of the pockets make any object sit flat to your body, so they’re good places for your passport or sunglasses.
Invisible chest pockets

Above the diagonal pockets you’ll find two invisible pockets hidden behind storm flaps. Designing and building a vest that can last for 100 years is an exercise in no expense spared craftsmanship, and it’s as much about what you can’t see as what you can. As the two smallest and most discrete pockets, they’re perfect for anything you have on you that you don’t want seen.

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The shoulders are made for tools

The highest pocket sits just below the right-hand shoulder. It’s a good spot for things you want to hand like money or a multitool. On the opposite shoulder you’ll find the first of three hanging loops. Made from a heavy duty, elasticated military belt tape, it’s built to hang gear on that you might need in a nanosecond like torches, satellite phone, or radio comms.
Three military grade belt tapes

You’ll find the same military grade belt tape over each hip connecting the front and back of the vest. These are perfect for attaching extra gear with carabiners, like rope, paracord or bags of spare kit. We’ve put them on both sides so you can split any weight evenly like a human packhorse. And each belt tape is stitched back onto the vest at the centre point to create four separate hanging loops.

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It will take more than 100 years to break the fabric

The Martindale abrasion resistance test is the way clothing is normally tested to see how quickly it will break down. A mechanical thumb rubs the surface of the fabric repeatedly until the fibres start to break. The test goes up to 100,000 revolutions which is the equivalent of a lifetime of wear and tear. A normal polyester fabric can survive around 25,000 revolutions. This vest easily passed 100,000 cycles of wear, and even then the fabric had to be checked with a magnifying glass to see if any fibres had broken. None had.

A back vent opens up when you’re working hard

A back vent gives you extra airflow when you’re working at your hardest. The vent is lined with an ultra-lightweight high-performance Italian material made with a high-wicking, fast-drying mesh construction. There is also a reinforced back neck loop bonded onto the inside of the neck so you can hang the vest up.
Stretches in every direction

Despite being insanely tough, the vest stretches in every direction and there’s no move you can pull where it will restrict you. The entire vest is made from the same high-tech fabric with four way stretch. Whether you’re climbing a mountain, setting up camp, or descending into a volcano for fun, you’ll want this vest with you.
The vest is water repellent

The surface of the 100 Year Vest is water repellent and fast drying, so a rain shower will just roll off it. If you’re out in heavy rain for a prolonged time, the three-layered construction of the fabric means that water will take much longer to get through than your average vest.