You can now wear a jacket made of the only material to win a Nobel prize

Date
19 June 2019
Above

(Via Vollebak)

Ever wanted to wear a Nobel prize? Of course you have, and, handily, now you can.

Adventure gear specialists Vollebak has worked on a lightweight jacket made from Graphene, the 100 times stronger than steel substance which grabbed the Nobel Prize for Physics back in 2010.

The outdoorsy brand describes it as “the first step towards bionic clothing that’s bulletproof and intelligent,” – and there you were thinking it was just a jacket that might get a few admiring nods from lads next time you go fell walking.

We’re told that the double-sided nature (there’s a graphene side and a… non-graphene one) of the Graphene Jacket means that it’ll harness the power of the material in question, giving the wearer a garment which will “conduct electricity, repell bacteria, and dissipate your body’s excess humidity,” depending on how it’s worn.

Completely invisible and just a single atom thick, graphene is the thinnest application possible of the graphite that we’ve all been drawing with ever since we decided to put our opposable thumbs to good use and invented the pencil.

The idea that we might be able to harness it for human use has been floating about since the 1940s, but it took until 2004 when a pair of scientists – Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov – spent a lot of time putzing about with a roll of Scotch tape and a block of graphite eventually managed to shave off that all-important atom thick specimen.

Evidently very, very jazzed on the stuff, Vollebak claims that the material is “so strong and so stretchy that the fibres of a spider web coated in graphene could catch a falling plane,” and given that the jacket is set to retail at a hefty £525 you might expect it to perform minor miracles.

Above

(Via Vollebak)

Above

(Via Vollebak)

Above

(Via Vollebak)

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Josh Baines

Josh Baines joined It's Nice That from July 2018 to July 2019 as News Editor, covering new high-profile projects, awards announcements, and everything else in between.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.