01 | 17

Matte Black Bomber

Name: Matte Black Bomber
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: JKT173BLKXSM
Price: 895 GBP
Availability: InStock

The Matte Black Bomber’s shell is textured at a microscopic level so light scatters instead of bouncing back.

£895

Matte black 3-layer waterproof shell material made in Italy
Zip, snaps and seams hidden so nothing catches the light

Stealth aircraft are designed to give nothing away. Their surfaces are dark, flat and stripped of anything that might bounce a signal back to whoever’s looking. We applied the same thinking to the MA-1 flight jacket.

The Matte Black Bomber is built from a 3-layer material made by Olmetex, a family-owned mill outside Como that’s been developing technical materials since 1952. The material’s stretch nylon face is bonded to a waterproof, windproof membrane and finished completely matte, so there’s no sheen to catch the light.

Then we hid everything else. The zip sits behind a double welt, the snaps are invisible and the panel seams run without topstitching. What’s left is almost pure form and function.

Technical details

Shell material: Olmetex Hakuna 3-layer – 51% polyamide, 27% polyurethane, 12% polyester, 10% elastane

Waterproof shell material

PFC-free water-repellent finish

Lining: Cordura® 100% polyamide by Takisada-Nagoya, 92gsm

Fill: 100gsm 3M J100

2 hand pockets with welt entry under a bonded flap, closed with Riri invisible snaps

1 zipped welt pocket on the left sleeve

1 internal zipped welt chest pocket

Concealed two-way Riri front zip behind a double welt, with quilted internal zip guard

Grosgrain tape behind front zip

1x1 rib collar, cuffs and hem

2-piece raglan sleeves

Jacket weighs 800gms

Care: Gentle Dry Clean Only

Constructed in China

Shell material: Olmetex Hakuna 3-layer – 51% polyamide, 27% polyurethane, 12% polyester, 10% elastane

Waterproof shell material

PFC-free water-repellent finish

Lining: Cordura® 100% polyamide by Takisada-Nagoya, 92gsm

Fill: 100gsm 3M J100

2 hand pockets with welt entry under a bonded flap, closed with Riri invisible snaps

1 zipped welt pocket on the left sleeve

1 internal zipped welt chest pocket

Concealed two-way Riri front zip behind a double welt, with quilted internal zip guard

Grosgrain tape behind front zip

1x1 rib collar, cuffs and hem

2-piece raglan sleeves

Jacket weighs 800gms

Care: Gentle Dry Clean Only

Constructed in China

01 | 03

Stealth starts by getting rid of reflections

A stealth aircraft isn’t invisible. It’s just very hard to detect. Engineers get there by cutting back everything that gives it away – the radar it reflects, the heat it gives off, the noise it makes and the light that glints off its surface. The Matte Black Bomber applies that thinking to a jacket with a completely matte shell that sucks in light.

We took the principles of stealth aircraft and applied them to a flight jacket.

The plane that was kept secret for 7 years

In 1988, the Pentagon released a single grainy photograph of an aircraft it had been flying in secret since 1981. The F-117 Nighthawk was the world’s first operational stealth combat aircraft. Instead of smooth curves, its body was built from flat, angled panels that deflected radar away from whoever sent it. It was coated in black radar-absorbent material and flew its missions at night. Our jacket can’t hide from radar. But it borrows the idea that the less a surface gives back, the less there is to see.

A shell material made in Como

The shell is made by Olmetex, a family-owned textile mill based outside Como that’s been developing technical materials since 1952. Its range runs from waxed, coated and laminated waterproofs to materials built with steel, carbon, Kevlar® and Dyneema®, to finishes with pigments that react to heat, water and UV light or glow in the dark. Now run by the 3rd generation of the family, it handles almost every production stage in-house, from warping and weaving to dyeing, laminating and laboratory testing.

A matte black shell made in Como by a mill that's been engineering technical materials since 1952.

How the 3-layer shell works

For the Matte Black Bomber we used Olmetex’s 3-layer Hakuna material. On the outside is a nylon face blended with 13% elastane, so the shell moves with you instead of pulling across your shoulders when you reach. In the middle is a membrane that blocks wind and water while letting sweat vapour escape. And on the inside is a polyester backing that protects the membrane from wear.

A waterproof material with a water-repellent finish

The shell material is waterproof but breathable. The surface is also treated with a PFC-free water-repellent finish, so rain beads and rolls off rather than soaking in. That matters because the membrane and the finish do different jobs. The membrane stops rain getting through to you, but it can’t stop the outer face soaking up water. When that happens – known as wetting out – a jacket feels heavier, colder and clammy, even though it isn’t leaking. A soaked face also makes it harder for sweat vapour to escape. Keeping the surface dry keeps the jacket breathing.

Black is a colour. Matte is engineering.

A black material can still shine. It looks black because it absorbs almost all the visible light that hits it. But a small amount bounces off the surface before it can be absorbed. If that light bounces back in one direction, like a mirror, you see a glint. If it scatters in every direction, the glint disappears and the surface looks matte. Which one happens depends on the microscopic texture of the surface. So making matte black means controlling 2 things. Absorption gives you the colour. Surface texture kills the shine.

No shine, no visible hardware, no topstitching, just a light-sucking black silhouette.

Matte from the yarn up

There's no single trick that makes the Hakuna shell matte. Olmetex builds it in stages. It starts with the yarn and the weave, which set how much natural lustre the nylon face has and how its surface is textured. Bonding that face to the membrane and backing changes it again. Then the material is washed and calendered, which means it's passed between heavy rollers that compress and set the surface. Each stage changes how light hits the face. It's the combination of all of them that gives the shell its dense, completely matte finish.

A jacket built for jet engines and tight cockpits

The MA-1 flight jacket was born in the jet age – when cockpits got tighter, planes got faster and pilots needed gear that could handle G-force without getting in the way. Out went thick leather and fur and in came high-tenacity nylon, polyester insulation, a cropped cut and minimal knit collars and cuffs. The MA-1 started to appear in surplus stores in the 60s and has been a streetwear staple ever since.

What we kept

We’ve kept the details that make an MA-1 an MA-1. The knit collar stays. It first appeared in the early 1950s, when the US Air Force swapped the fur collars on its flight jackets for knitted wool rib because they got in the way of the new hard helmets. So do the ribbed cuffs and hem, the cropped length and the zipped pocket on the left sleeve, in the same place pilots kept their pens on the original.

And what we made better

The MA-1 was never a fixed design. The US military rewrote its specification 7 times between the early 1950s and 1988 as aircraft and equipment changed. So we’ve made a few revisions of our own. The sleeves are cut as two-piece raglans, running in one line from collar to cuff for a cleaner shoulder and more freedom of movement. The hand pockets sit behind flaps built into the side panels and bonded to hold their shape. And there’s a zipped internal chest pocket for your phone and cards.

The MA-1 was built for the jet age. We've rebuilt it for the stealth age.

Nothing on the surface to give it away

On a stealth aircraft, anything that sticks out can give it away. So engineers hide it – weapons go in internal bays, and even the edges of the doors are cut in a sawtooth pattern to stop them bouncing a signal back. We’ve done the same with the details that normally catch the light on a jacket. The two-way Riri front zip sits behind a double welt cut from the shell material. The pocket flaps close with a matte black metal snap concealed beneath the material. And the sleeve, armhole and panel seams run without topstitching, so the only lines on the jacket are the panels themselves.

An engineered knit at the collar, cuffs and hem

The collar, cuffs and hem are built from a 1x1 ribbed knit by the Italian textile workshop Maglificio Turcato, engineered with just enough elastane to grip comfortably at your wrists and waist. A raised pattern adds stretch and structure while keeping the finish soft. The hem is angled where it meets the front zip, and the zips themselves are stitched into grosgrain tape to stop the teeth snagging on the lining.

A Cordura® lining quilted with embroidered dots

The body and sleeves are fully lined and quilted with Cordura®, a nylon known for its resistance to abrasion, woven by Takisada-Nagoya, a Japanese textile house that’s been developing materials since 1864. It means the inside of the jacket is built to take the same wear as the outside. Behind it sits 100gsm insulation from 3M. To hold it in place we’ve used embroidered dots instead of the long lines of stitching found in most jackets. With fewer stitch lines compressing the fill, there are fewer cold spots where heat can escape.