Can An All-Kevlar Hoodie Hold Up Enough To Last A Century? Vollebak Thinks So

STYLE

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A hoodie that lasts a hundred years sounds like a senseless marketing gimmick. And it very well may be. Vollebak’s 100 Year Hoodie, though, sounds like it may really be up to the task.

Billed as a hoodie designed to outlive its owner, the garment boasts a build that relies on the same materials frequently used in “space suits, body armor, and aircraft carriers.” Yes, aircraft carriers. No, they didn’t make a hooded sweatshirt cut in the finest medieval armor. Instead, the darn thing is fashioned out of DuPont Kevlar, an aramid fiber which, we guess, does pass off as having been used in the construction of all three categories of products listed above.

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Yes, that’s the same aramid fiber best known for its ballistic applications, having been widely used in helmets and body armor for military and law enforcement. For the Vollebak 100 Year Hoodie, however, they’ve taken that same material and spun it into a super soft knit that should feel as comfortable as any sweatshirt you regularly rely on during the chillier months of the year.

While most Kevlar-based garments has it blended with other technical materials, this one doesn’t. Instead, it’s 100 percent Kevlar fleece at the body and Kevlar rib at the cuffs, hem, and underarm paneling, so it bears the full characteristics of the extraordinarily strong fabric. According to Vollebak, the darn thing should be strong enough, bare minimum, to survive 2,000 washes, 4,000 wears, and 100 accidents, along with surviving even the extreme temperatures on Mars’ poles (because if it survives a 100 years, there’s a slim chance we’ll have colonized Mars by then). By the way, if you manage to survive 100 accidents with your whole body still intact, make sure to write a book about it because that’s absolutely insane.

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Instead of being dyed to color like most clothes, the Vollebak 100 Year Hoodie has been left in the fabric’s raw pale yellow state. This gives the garment a really well-worn and lived-in look, especially once exposed to sunlight. Suffice to say, if you want your sweatshirt to look like it’s been through its fair share of adventures, this achieves that without having to actually rough it up whatsoever.

This comes with a fully-lined hood, by the way, so the darn thing should wear comfortably, complete with a heavy-duty drawcord that will probably hold up as well as the rest of the garment. As with all hoodies, it gets a generously-sized kangaroo front pocket for stashing your daily supply of gear.

Will this thing last a 100 years? We don’t know. Unless you can live a full century after purchasing this item, of course, you’ll never know either. And if it ever does survive your lifetime and it gets handed down to your next generation, you’ll probably be so old by the time you give it away that you’ve forgotten about the 100-year guarantee and, to be honest, won’t really give a hoot either way.

A part of Vollebak’s 100Y range, the 100 Year Hoodie is priced at $295.

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5 Responses

  1. If the Vollebak Kevlar hoodie actually last 100 years, then I think thee $295 price tag is well-worth it. I have doubts it will last 100 years, but even if you could get 20 years of usage out of it, then it would still be a good value. 20 years of use would equal out to about $15 per year.

    Will they be making Kevlar socks and underwear?

    The Kevlar fabric hoodie looks much more comfortable than the Kevlar vests worn by the military.

    I like that the natural color will vary once it is exposed to sunlight. I think the hoodie looks good, but the ages hoodie on the Volle website looks even better.

    I think the weakest point of the Vollebak hoodie may be the rubberized zipper and the draw cord. The draw cords are supposed to be much more durable than on a regular hoodie, but it still can’t compare to the strength of Kevlar fabric.

    As much as I like the Vollebak Kevlar Hoodie, I/m not excited at buying one. The reason? Yet another clothing item with only small sizes. XL is the largest size they sell. If they rocked some big and tall Kevlar hoodies, I would honestly buy one because I love hoodies and I get sad when they wear out. If Vollebak made these in some baggy sizes up to 6 XL, they could be the next urban must have style. Air Jordans are the iconic fashion statement that even poor people will splurge for. I think the Vollebak could have the same market, if they would only make larger sizes and get a new ad agency that understood this.

  2. This is a trend I want to see continue! I am not a fan of high-priced clothing or fashion accessories. The exception is when the item is truly useful. The Kevlar hoodie is definitely worth the money. If I could just get 5 years of heavy use out of it, then it would be well-worth the price. A lot of high-priced clothing is simply low-quality stuff that is marketed to be high-end, but in reality is generic crap with a fancy label in it. I want clothes to last much longer. Levi’s is a classic example. Their jeans, especially the 501’s, would last much longer in the when they were first created up to at least the 50’s and 60’s. Levi’s have used thinner lighter weight denim then they used to. The result is the jeans do not last near as long.

    1. Part of the reason that Levi’s started using lighter-weight fabric is because in the late 1980’s into the 90’s, and still today I guess, Levi’s had a lot of lower-priced jeans from other brands that were being made in China, and they couldn’t compete. Levi’s had to cut some costs, and unfortunately it affected the durability and quality of their jeans. I grew up wearing Levi 501’s. I continued to wear them as an adult. The pants were comfortable and worked well for me. I no longer wear them because there are other brands that are not only much cheaper, but also more durable. Although they are cheaper and more durable, they are still just as comfortable.

    2. Many of the Levi’s of the past were of a similar denim weight as is used today. Part of the problem is that they used to use ring spun cotton, and today the procedure is the open-end cotton. The manufacturing process that used ring spun denim in the past by Levi’s led to denim that was much more durable then the open-end cotton that they use today. There are companies that still make ring spun denim jeans today. They tend to be priced slightly higher than the open end cotton denim jeans from Levi’s, but they last a lot longer too.

      1. Lands End makes some ring spun jeans. MSRP of $60, but they are often on sale for much less. Even at full price, the cotton denim is of higher quality than the modern Levi’s and are comparably priced too. The L.L.Bean 1912 Jeans are made of ring spun cotton too, but I am not a fan of them.

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