Vollebak creates prototype Wooden Jacket from 250,000 pieces of American walnut

Experimental clothing brand Vollebak has made a prototype jacket from 250,000 pieces of laser-cut American walnut.

Vollebak created the Wooden Jacket to show that wood could be a viable material for making clothes.

“As an ex-architect, I have a fascination for all materials and how they can be used,” said Vollebak co-founder Nick Tidball.

“Wood is one of the most abundant building materials on the planet and it has been since the beginning of mankind,” he continued. “Thirty per cent of all the buildings in the world are made from wood, so for me it is a material worth exploring for the clothing industry.”

The boxy-looking jacket was made from 0.5-millimetre-thick sheets of American walnut that were laser cut into approximately 250,000 blocks.

These blocks were adhered to a woven cotton twill, and the pieces were connected with 60 bonded seams.

“We love taking exploratory steps into new materials and ideas,” said Nick Tidball.

“I believe it will eventually become a highly viable material and we are interested in exploring how we can do this at Vollebak.”

Made in a factory in Italy, the jacket is a prototype, with Vollebak aiming to commercially launch the jacket in around two years time.

“We need to do a lot more experimenting on it first,” added Nick Tidball.

The jacket is the latest clothing piece made from experimental materials by Vollebak, which Nick Tidball established in 2015 with his twin brother Steve.

The brand previously made a near-indestructible jacket from Dyneema – a fibre that is 15 times stronger than steel, a virus-killing jacket weaved seven miles of copper and a coat from graphene that acts as a radiator.

The photography is by Sun Lee, courtesy of Vollebak.

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