Staying safe while exercising or doing sport at night can be difficult. For one, high-vis clothing is, for the most part, not exactly fashionable, and can also be much stiffer than breathable or wicking fabrics.
Also, the fluorescent parts of your chosen outfit may well not be on every layer. So, if you get too hot or cold during a run, you could end up having to take off or cover up the very item that's keeping you visible in the dark.
Innovative adventure gear brand Vollebak reckons it has fixed these problems with the launch of its new Black Light range, which it describes as "the world's first all-black high-vis sports gear".
“We feel that high vis sports gear has always been a compromise - it’s either heavy, crinkly, noisy, sweaty or ugly," says Steve Tidball, Vollebak co-founder. "But sport at night is fun and you shouldn’t be punished for being safe. When it comes to sport, the idea that you become more or less safe as you take off or add layers is backwards. You shouldn’t have to make a choice between over-heating and being seen.”
The Black Light range includes four different layers, all with the high-vis technology, meaning that the wearer always remains visible no matter which layers they are wearing.
This high-vis tech on the garments comes in the form of discs covered in more than 60,000 microscopic glass beads. These discs are a discreet matt black under normal conditions, but glow bright white when lit up at night.
Once the high-vis solution was perfected, Vollebak then had to decide on a pattern of placement of the discs that would not confuse oncoming motorists.
“We’ve positioned them on the parts of your body that move the most – like your elbows, wrists, shoulders and hips. They create a pattern that’s instantly recognisable as a person from any angle," explains Nick Tidball, the company's other co-founder. "Your brain’s pattern recognition system kicks in to simply join the dots."
Vollebak specialises in making unusual and innovative clothing, such as one hoodie with ceramic armour plating, and another made in a special shade of pink and featuring a face-covering hood designed to relax the wearer.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
