The question is no longer if or how we will live in space, but when. So we’ve designed a sculptural, 3D-knitted weighted hoodie that’ll make you feel at home on any planet. Welcome to loungewear for Mars.
Vollebak’s new Mars Hoodie is a sculptural 3D-knitted hoodie that’s designed to provide physical and psychological comfort for future inhabitants of the Red Planet. With a weighted feel and a multi-dimensional padded texture built with technology more conventionally used to make mattresses, this is the most comfortable hoodie ever created. Putting it on feels like climbing into bed.
“Life on any early Martian base will be intense, as we’ll have to rebuild everything we take for granted here on Earth. It means downtime will be key,” says Vollebak co-founder Steve Tidball. “That’s why we started working on a hoodie that’s designed to feel like you’ve stayed in bed. The Mars Hoodie is what you’ll wear when you’re watching your favourite TV show from Earth on another planet.”
To build the Mars Hoodie we worked with Byborre – an experimental textile studio that operates at the frontiers of material innovation and complex 3D-knitted fabrics. The hoodie’s unique sculptural texture is produced on a giant circular knitting machine that incorporates 8 yarn feeders, each of which can be individually programmed down to the smallest detail. This means the textile can be engineered from the yarn up and allows complete control over the whole process. The machine is able to blend and ‘puff up’ layers of yarn – a technology that’s used to make some of the world’s most comfortable mattresses.
“As well as being insanely comfortable, the pattern we designed on the surface of the Mars Hoodie is based on the cratered surface of Mars itself, the liquid cooling systems you find in spacesuits, and the pressurised inflatable buildings that are likely to become home on our second planet,” explains Vollebak co-founder Nick Tidball. “It’s why the hoodie is covered in cratered sections and others that look like they’ve had air pumped into them.”
With a weight of 1150g, the Mars Hoodie feels nothing like a standard sports hoodie – it feels more like a super-soft protective outer layer. It’s also embedded with antibacterial silver microparticles which kill germs, bacteria, and odours, and help prolong the life of your hoodie. Because you don’t really want bacteria floating about in space. That never ends well in the movies.
Everything about the Mars Hoodie has been built to maximise comfort. At either side of the hood, you’ll find elasticated drawcord adjusters to tighten it up. The hood is lined just like the rest of the hoodie, so it’s soft against your face and skin. The cuffs and hem are bound and elasticated. The sleeves are shaped and darted, for added articulation. The front zipper is heavy-duty and two-way so you can undo the hoodie from the top and the bottom at the same time. And the center hood seam is taped internally with grosgrain and topstitched.
While we’ve created our Mars Hoodie to be loungewear for the Red Planet, we still need to do everything we can to help out the planet we currently inhabit. So we built the hoodie to have as low an environmental impact as possible – it was produced using almost 40 percent fewer greenhouse gases, 40 percent less water, and 15 percent less power per kilogram than a conventional textile.
The Mars Hoodie is the latest in Vollebak’s line-up of products that explore the realities of life in space, and how clothing can start to solve some of the challenges we’ll face. The Deep Sleep Cocoon is designed to help you sleep during the 16 sunrises and sunsets a day you get in low orbit, and the Mars Jacket and Mars Pants feature anti-gravity pockets and 3D printed vomit pockets to tackle space adaptation syndrome, otherwise known as puking in space. The Mars Hoodie is our response to the question ‘how do you feel at home on another planet?’”
Product Features
- double-layered 3D knit
- breathable, high-wicking, and insulating
- weight 1150g
- embedded with anti-bacterial silver microparticles which kill germs, bacteria, and odours
- heavy-duty, two-way front zipper
- the hood features low profile elasticated cord, adjusters
- centre hood seam is taped internally with grosgrain and topstitched.
- 2 giant zipped pockets on the outside and 4 open pockets on the inside
- all pockets are lined for maximum comfort
- sleeves are shaped and darted, for added articulation
- cuffs are bound and elasticated
- made from 50 percent recycled nylon and 50 percent virgin nylon sourced from Italy
- fill made in Italy from 100% polyester
- hoodie constructed in Portugal.
More informationwww.vollebak.com/product/mars-hoodie-white
Price: £495 / €575 / $645
