Technical details
Open Accordion
- Material made by Loro Piana in Italy
- The hoodie is 100% virgin Merino wool, known as Pecora Nera
- All wool is sourced from New Zealand and is mulesing free
- The hoodie is completely dye free
- Built with a 5 gauge knit
- Fast drying
- Naturally water repellent
- Thermoregulating
- High-wicking
- Insulating
- Breathable
- Odour resistant
- Weighs 650g
- Hand wash or dry clean
- Do not machine wash
- Tumble dry on a low heat
- Iron on a low heat
Size + fit
Open Accordion
Fit guide: The Nomad Hoodie has a regular fit. If you prefer a looser fit, you can go a size up like we’ve done in the photos here.
Model wears: Runner Tyler Maher is 6ft 4 / 193cm with a 38 inch / 97cm chest. Tyler has an athletic build and is wearing the Nomad Hoodie in size XL to get a more relaxed fit.
Personalised advice: See our size guide for more advice on sizing, or you can ask us for personalised sizing advice here.
Returns and exchanges: Don’t worry if you order something and it doesn’t fit – we have a free, no hassle 30 day return and exchange period.
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits chest | 83-90 | 91-98 | 99-106 | 107-114 | 115-122 | 123-130 |
| Fits waist | 71-76 | 76-81 | 81-86 | 86-91 | 91-96 | 96-101 |
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits chest | 33-36 | 36-39 | 39-42 | 42-45 | 45-48 | 48-51 |
| Fits waist | 28-30 | 30-32 | 32-34 | 34-36 | 36-38 | 38-40 |
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Nomads know what it takes to survive
From arctic tundra to arid deserts, nomadic communities have always lived in some of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth. Guided by the seasons they make the most of scarce resources by simply packing up their homes and moving to new ground, only leaving a faded patch of earth behind them. But as our climate becomes more extreme and resources become scarce, their lifestyle gives us a glimpse of what our future might hold if the next century doesn’t turn out quite as planned.
The art of travelling light
On a two million year timeline, the material comforts of cities, towns and villages remain a modern-day luxury. They represent less than 1% of our time on Earth. People who still roam the planet know the true challenges of survival. Because you have to travel light when your life is spent on the move. If you need to be able to pack your entire home up on your shoulders, there’s no use having a lighter closet. Everything you wear, pack, and carry has to count. And when the seasons turn hostile, and your nearest neighbour is 100km across the local tundra, you need gear you can rely on.
Why nomads use wool
To build the Nomad Hoodie we started with the most versatile and natural raw material in the world. For centuries nomads have used wool from their sheep to stay warm and dry. It’s soft, elastic, and superb at keeping your temperature stable. It can also absorb a third of its weight in water and still feel dry. While Merino wool is known for having incredible properties, we set out to source the most extraordinary Merino, produced in a remote corner of the planet.
The entire hoodie is made with a rare black Merino
In our first 5 years we’ve turned a series of cutting-edge materials into high performance clothing – from graphene and copper, to carbon fibre and ceramics. This time we’ve done it with one of the rarest and most sought after materials in the world. The entire Nomad Hoodie is made from a wool known as Pecora Nera. It’s from a single flock of black Merino sheep, bred in New Zealand by one dedicated farmer with the help of Italian wool artisans Loro Piana.
Why black Merino sheep are so rare
Head back in time a couple of thousand years and you’ll find most sheep had dark coats. It was only when people discovered that white wool could be easily dyed that selective breeding became the norm and black sheep came close to being wiped out. While some white sheep retained the dark gene – which is why a single black sheep is sometimes born into an otherwise white flock – black wool is not what society wanted. It was either considered bad luck or commercially useless, so it was always thrown away.
The softest, strongest, lightest wool on Earth
It turns out that wool from black Merino sheep has properties which white wool just can’t match. And this was recognised by a breeder in New Zealand who then worked with Loro Piana for two decades to successfully restore the breed that had been overlooked for hundreds of years. The result is a thriving flock with distinctive dark fleeces which produce a wool even stronger, even lighter and even softer than regular Merino. So we made our entire Nomad Hoodie out of it.
Made using zero dyes
Although black Merino sheep look black from a distance, close up their fleeces are made from a spectrum of natural shades and colours. To make the Light edition and Dark edition of the Nomad Hoodie we simply pick out the lightest strands for one, and the darkest strands for the other. It means that once the wool is brought over from New Zealand and the yarn is spun in Italy, there’s no need to dye it like you would with white wool. So the colour you see is completely natural. Left in its raw and undyed state, it will work with almost any colour you want to wear it with.
The softest hoodie ever built
The Nomad Hoodie is zero effort clothing. Once it’s on you simply forget it’s there. Not only have we used the softest wool in the world, but we’ve also designed every detail of the hoodie to follow your body so that you never feel restricted. The engineered panels, thermoregulating textures, and crossover collar and hood, let the hoodie quietly get on with its job while you get on with yours.
You can wear it year-round
The exceptional natural properties of Merino mean you can wear the Nomad Hoodie year-round no matter what the weather is doing. The wool is so soft on your skin that you can wear it on its own in warmer temperatures. When the weather turns colder you can layer under and over it just like a regular hoodie. Or you can carry on wearing it on its own and the thermoregulating, naturally water-repellent wool will still insulate you from the cold, and keep out the rain and snow.
How Merino keeps you warm in the cold
Staying warm is all about trapping as many pockets of air next to your body as possible and that’s what Merino is built for. Every Merino fibre is hollow which means you have millions of air pockets trapped next to your skin. And as the natural curl of wool fibres traps more air than straight fibres, the microscopic texture of the fabric itself will also retain heat.
It keeps you cool in the heat too
Merino will also stop you overheating in higher temperatures as it just releases its warmth if you’re getting too hot. Merino wool has to keep sheep cool even when the temperature goes over 30°C, so its fibres naturally absorb the moisture from sweat and disperse it to start releasing heat.
Fast drying and insulating even when wet
The outside of every Merino fibre is covered in a natural wax coating which makes it water repellent. At the same time the Merino acts like a sponge to soak up sweat and spread it over a massive surface area so that it evaporates at high speed. And as Merino can absorb over a third of its own weight in water and still feel dry, you’ll stay warm and insulated.
It’s hard to make the Nomad Hoodie smell
It’s not sweat that smells, or even the clothes themselves, it’s the build-up of bacteria on the surface of the clothes. Merino is naturally odour resistant – odour molecules are absorbed and locked into the centre of the fibre of the Merino so you simply can’t smell them. They’re then released when you wash the hoodie. It’s perfect if the nearest shower or waterfall is a couple of months away.
Vollebak aims to do for outdoor clothing what Tesla did for cars and El Bulli did for food, using science, wit and imagination to create products no-one thought possible.
