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Knitted Algae Polo

Name: Knitted Algae Polo
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: TPS094OFWXSM
Price: 395 GBP
Availability: InStock

A classic long sleeve polo engineered with seaweed biopolymers

£395

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M

L

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XXL

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

Built with seaweed-derived Kelsun® fibre
Blended with long-staple Pima cotton for strength and softness
Dense 16-gauge interlock knit for structure and longevity
Undyed to preserve the fibre’s natural colour and character
Manufactured in the UK

The ocean grows enormous fields of seaweed that don’t need soil, irrigation, pesticides or fertiliser. All they need is sunlight, saltwater and dissolved nutrients and can grow up to 18 inches in a day. That mix of low maintenance and hyper growth might make seaweed the most important raw material on the planet.

For most of human history, everything we wore came from one of three places, plants, animals, and then oil. From animal pelts to cotton fields, sheep farms, and fossil fuels. Seaweed could be the next place we look.

Seaweed is marine algae and inside its cell walls are biopolymers that can be extracted, spun and knitted into textiles that feel and work like natural fibres. But they’re far less bother. We’re talking around 70 times less water consumption than cotton, zero microplastic pollution, and complete biodegradation within days.

So we blended a seaweed-derived fibre with Pima cotton, sent it to one of Britain’s best knitwear mills, and turned it into a classic long-sleeve polo.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

70% Pima cotton, 30% Kelsun® fibre (alginate)

16-gauge interlock knit

1x1 rib cuffs and hem

Fully fashioned construction

One-piece collar with French front placket and bioresin buttons

Undyed

Cool hand wash with similar colours

Do not tumble dry, do not dry clean, do not iron

Do not use fabric softeners

Made in the UK

70% Pima cotton, 30% Kelsun® fibre (alginate)

16-gauge interlock knit

1x1 rib cuffs and hem

Fully fashioned construction

One-piece collar with French front placket and bioresin buttons

Undyed

Cool hand wash with similar colours

Do not tumble dry, do not dry clean, do not iron

Do not use fabric softeners

Made in the UK

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Seaweed is the most underrated raw material on the planet

For the last few thousand years, pretty much everything we’ve worn has come from one of three places: plants, animals, or oil. Cotton fields, sheep farms, fossil fuels. But there’s a fourth option that’s been sitting in plain sight. Seaweed grows offshore in simple rope systems, soaking up sunlight and carbon while getting all the nutrients it needs from the ocean. Unlike cotton, it doesn’t take up farmland. Unlike synthetics, it doesn’t start life as oil. You can grow fibres at sea and spin them into pretty much anything you currently make with cotton or polyester. And we did.

Low maintenance and hyper growth make seaweed the raw material of the future

It grows like crazy and doesn’t ask for much

Seaweeds are packed with polysaccharides – complex sugar-chain molecules like alginate, carrageenan and cellulose. These are the building blocks you need to make biopolymers and fibres. The stuff you can make clothes from. Some species grow up to 18 inches a day, one of the fastest growth rates of any organism on the planet. And unlike above-water crops, seaweed farming doesn’t require arable land, irrigation, pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. That means no soil degradation, no fertiliser runoff and no biodiversity loss.

Seaweed-derived materials biodegrade once you’ve stopped loving them

Seaweed also absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows, acting as a coastal carbon sink, and can integrate with existing marine farming, improving water quality and providing habitat for other sea creatures. Because it’s entirely biological rather than petrochemical, seaweed-derived materials don’t shed microplastics. And once you’re done with them, they biodegrade in days rather than hang around for decades.

Seaweed can grow 18 inches a day with no chemical help

We worked with a biomaterials pioneer

Kelsun® fibre was developed by Keel Labs, a North Carolina-based biomaterials startup founded with a simple premise. The ocean can grow vast amounts of fast, renewable biomaterial and doesn’t need freshwater or chemicals. And it would solve a lot of problems if we used it to make clothes. The company spent years refining how to extract alginate from kelp and wet-spin it into fibres that behave like conventional yarns and be used by fibre mills immediately.

From kelp forests to fibre

The Kelsun® fibre we use starts as a seaweed-derived biopolymer. It’s dissolved into a viscous liquid and pushed through microscopic spinnerets, tiny nozzles that turn liquid into thousands of fine filaments. These filaments are set in a wet-spinning bath, then washed, dried and cut into staple fibres that look and behave just like conventional natural yarns. The end result is a spinnable fibre that works on standard knitting machinery.

A plug-and-play material

Most revolutionary textiles play havoc with manufacturing and supply chains. They require new chemistry, processes and looms. Kelsun® was designed differently. It’s what its makers call plug-and-play, a biomaterial that drops directly and easily into existing spinning and knitting systems. Mills can work with it like cotton or wool. That matters because to make lasting change, you need to invent something new and better that slots easily into existing ways of working and making.

It is now being used in biomaterials that could replace cotton and synthetics

Why we blend it with Pima cotton

Like any new technology, seaweed-derived fibres are still on a journey. And for now, they work best when combined with something tried and tested. We blend 30% Kelsun® fibre with 70% Pima, one of the finest and most durable cottons available. It’s prized for its extra-long staple fibres, which produce a smoother but stronger yarn than standard cotton. Together they spin into a yarn that is strong enough for fine-gauge knitting but with a more textured feel than Pima alone. And we’ve left the fabric undyed so you can appreciate all its natural goodness.

Soft where it matters

The blend feels smooth and cool, somewhere between fine cotton jersey and lightweight merino. The alginate-based fibre adds a silk-like softness, while Pima cotton adds resilience and breathability. Together they manage moisture well and stay comfortable all day. There’s no crispness or synthetic sheen, no weird feel to the fabric, just the familiarity of a well-made knit. If a material is actually going to upend old systems, it has to be better, and feel better, not stranger.

Engineered at 16-gauge

The Knitted Algae Polo is knitted at 16-gauge using a dense interlock structure that gives the fabric weight and stability. Interlock traps air between layers of yarn, helping the knit drape properly rather than just hang. It resists twisting, sagging and distortion over time. We wanted to make sure this polo was a keeper so we focused on structure and longevity.

Fully fashioned, not cut and sewn

Each panel of the polo is knitted to a precise shape and linked together, rather than cut from a larger roll of fabric. This fully fashioned construction reduces waste and creates cleaner transitions through the shoulders, sleeves and side seams. It also allows the knit to move more naturally with the body and the fit improves with wear.

People can use seaweed-derived fibres just like we use cotton and wool

The all-new classic long sleeve polo

The collar of our polo is one-piece and fully fashioned so it lies flat and clean. It has a French front placket with three bio-resin buttons. Rib cuffs and hem are knitted as part of the body, creating tension exactly where you need it to trap warmth and maintain structure. It’s the same design and construction used in traditional British fine-gauge knitwear, just applied to a different raw material.

Traditional fine-gauge knitwear but from the future

Long before performance synthetics or technical fleece, some of the most advanced clothing engineering was happening on the knitting floors of Derbyshire. Companies like John Smedley spent more than two centuries refining ultrafine knitwear that sits somewhere between shirt and sweater. The design of our polo is in that tradition, the yarn just happens to start life in the ocean.