Every high-strength material comes with a catch. The stronger something is, the heavier it usually gets. And the tougher it is, the less it tends to stretch.
This is a problem if you want to make a pair of everyday shorts that are strong enough to resist rips and abrasion, light enough to forget you're wearing them and elastic enough to move in any direction.
Our Ultra High Molecular Weight Shorts solve that problem by using a fibre that's stronger than steel and so light it floats on water.
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene is one of the toughest materials ever engineered.
Its molecular chains are up to 10 times longer than standard polyethylene, so they align and pack tightly, spreading force instead of letting it concentrate in one spot.
That’s why UHMWPE turns up where failure isn’t an option, in ballistic armour, space tethers and deep-sea cables.
The catch is that it’s hard to weave, almost impossible to dye and doesn't stretch. Which is where our real work started.
There’s a lab in the countryside south of Lake Como, where some of the most advanced performance materials on the planet are developed. Their clients include Tour de France teams. And their work centres on ultrathin materials that can protect a rider when they wipe out at high speed.
We worked with them to bring that technology to the kind of shorts elite cyclists wear on their days off.
We combined two different types of UHWMPE into a single, denser yarn, then wove that yarn directly into a base of nylon and elastane.
The result is a grid running through our shorts that works like an advanced ripstop. In tear-resistance tests it comes out 200% to 300% tougher than the same material without the grid. In abrasion tests it clears 100,000 revolutions.
Then we needed to add stretch. So these shorts are over 30% elastane – the same amount you'd find in high-performance compression gear – which gives them four-way stretch in every direction at once.
We also added a water repellent treatment that’s completely free of toxic chemicals and 4x more durable than other similar treatments.
Rather than coat the surface, we fully immerse the material so the treatment soaks deep into the fibres. That means water rolls straight off but the shorts still breathe.
UHMWPE is also famously difficult to dye, which is why it almost always comes in white. So we dyed the raw feedstock before the fibre was even spun. The material, ripstop and all, comes out a deep stealth black.
And despite all this technology, the Ultra High Molecular Weight Shorts weigh just 200 grams. They have 3 zipped pockets, a high-speed bungee adjuster and a loose, easy fit.
They're the strongest, lightest and most elastic shorts we've ever built.
If you want a help with sizing, get in touch with us here.
