Don’t worry, it’s still surprisingly comfortable though…

Metal may not really sound like an obvious candidate when it comes to textile options for clothing, but the guys at Vollebak make a pretty good point when they say that the next 100 years won’t quite be like the last. The climate’s changing, the ice caps are melting, and if Bill Gates is right, COVID-19 may just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t mean we’re going to completely surrender fabrics like cotton, wool, or denim entirely, but it just means we need to start looking into future-fabrics that do much more than clad us.

Behold the Full Metal Jacket… No really, this jacket from Vollebak is actually made from a germ-repelling metallic textile. Quite unlike those space-foil jackets that astronauts wear, the Full Metal Jacket actually uses a fabric with woven strands of copper, so it’s entirely breathable, flexible, and doesn’t make a crinkly sound when you move around. With as much as 11 kilometers of copper in each jacket, the apparel relies on copper’s innate ability to kill off any bacteria or viruses that it comes in contact with.

Making clothes from metal yarn is more complex than you’d think. Sourcing metal strands is expensive, has no real precedent in clothing beyond suits of armor, and there’s no established supply chain… but I honestly can’t think of a set of constraints that have ever stopped the guys at Vollebak from pushing boundaries. I mean they’ve literally made clothes from a grade of ceramic used on the International Space Station. The Full Metal Jacket comes with three separate layers, the first of which is made from a lacquered copper yarn which is woven on rapier weaving looms before being scoured, heat-set, dyed, and dried – a process that alone takes roughly a week. This process gives the jacket its grungy denim look, but as time passes, the lacquer wears away to reveal the true copper tones in certain places, giving the jacket a uniquely appealing patina that’s comparable to the aging on a leather jacket. The outer layer gives the jacket its germ-repelling properties while also allowing it to be wind and water-proof, while a middle layer made from a laminated copper fabric allows the jacket to respond uniquely to external temperature. This middle fabric, dubbed c_change®, has a weave-pattern that expands during the heat to allow your skin to breathe and release perspiration, and contract during the cold to trap body heat and keep you warm. An inner protective fleece lining makes the jacket comfortable to wear, giving your skin the familiar touch of a soft yarn.

The Full Metal Jacket comes with four large waterproof pockets on the outside and three chest pockets for your belongings. Designed to be your everyday jacket, it can be worn in any sort of weather outdoors, and remains as comfortable and soft to touch as any sort of synthetic outerwear would… in fact, you really can’t even see the copper strands unless under a microscope. However, unlike most outerwear, synthetic or not, it possesses the ability to completely obliterate any sort of microorganism that comes in contact with it, a feature that makes it a standout product in our uncertain future. This brand of standout innovation doesn’t come cheap though. Each jacket retails for $1095, but that can be attributed to the jacket’s revolutionary medical-grade fabric, and the fact that it’s assembled in Switzerland, Italy, and in Romania. Besides, you probably won’t need to wash it either, given its ability to resist water, stains, germs, and even odor particles. Just leave it out in the sun for a bit and it should be as good as new.

Designer: Vollebak