Dezeen Magazine

Vollebak sportswear collection includes a ceramic-skinned jacket that protects wearers from falls

Sportswear brand Vollebak has launched a pink hoodie that relaxes the wearer before sport and a jacket with ceramic panels that helps prevent injuries from steep falls (+ slideshow).

Sportswear by Vollebak

The Baker Miller Pink hoodie has been designed to help athletes relax and conserve energy before sport or exercise. The garment zips up fully to cover the face, and has a mesh visor that allows the wearer to see out.

Sportswear by Vollebak

The hoodie is named after a shade of pink researched in the 1970s for its supposedly relaxing effect on the central nervous system, causing it to be used in prison cells in an attempt to reduce violent behaviour.

Sportswear by Vollebak

Vollebak claims that being enveloped in the colour reduces the wearer's pulse rate and slows their breathing. Oxygen consumption is further conserved by pockets positioned in the middle of the torso, which allow arms to be rested to reduce movement.

An inbuilt soundtrack, constructed from elements of pink noise, has been designed to further slow the heart rate and relax the wearer.

"With its ability to transform your performance and recovery by helping you conserve energy, the parasympathetic nervous system is one of the most powerful performance enhancers you have access to," said the designers.

Sportswear by Vollebak

"So the hoodie focuses on a part of the body few athletes have ever trained, and one that possibly has the largest potential performance gains of all," they added.

The Condition Black jacket – named for the military term for the physical and mental state during life and death situations – is designed for more extreme sports and activity, and has a durable outer skin.

Sportswear by Vollebak

According to the company, the garment can survive falls of up to 120 kilometres per hour across any surface, and has been designed to help athletes survive in mountain conditions.

A visor attached to the Condition Black jacket allows the wearer to immerse themselves in a training programme that uses light and sound. According to the designers this sends brainwaves into a similar state to that created during near-death experiences. The brand hopes that this will help climbers train their responses for emergency situations.

Sportswear by Vollebak

Each of the black jackets features 19 articulated panels, laser cut by a robotic arm in the Petratex clothing factory in Portugal –  the same place that invented the technology for Michel Phelps' stitch-less LZR swimsuit for the Beijing Olympics.

Vollebak was established in 2014 by brothers and designers Steve and Nick Tidball.

Sportswear by Vollebak

"As athletes and designers we've focused on launch concepts that enhance the incredible technology that already exists inside the human mind and body." said Nick Tidball.

"We treat athletes like NASA treats its astronauts. Our job is to help them push their physical and cognitive limits in new and unimagined ways."

A more extreme apocalypse survival jacket was designed by Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Marie-Elsa Batteux Flahault, which included eye protection and a built-in flotation device.