Although known for their tongue-in-cheek humor, Vollebak doesn’t skimp on the details. The Apocalypse Jacket comes equipped with 23 pockets and a rugged material that the London-based brand states can endure everything from black lava to flash fires and chemical erosion. Vollebak achieves this by using a fiber called polybenzimidazole (PBI). First developed by an American scientist during the Cold War, the fiber has exceptional thermal and chemical stability, by retaining its integrity after it is exposed to high heat, chemicals and abrasion.
Additionally, PBI is incredibly sturdy — in fact, the material is said to be five times the strength found in firefighter uniforms, but still has a soft and breathable touch that is chemical splash resistant. Whether there ever is a zombie apocalypse or if you use the jacket in intense conditions, the Apocalypse Jacket is designed to last.
From Noah’s Ark to Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, via HG Wells, Shaun of the Dead and World War Z, we’ve been telling stories about a post-apocalyptic future for a long time. Now scientists are getting involved too. Oxford University has founded its Future of Humanity Institute to explore worldwide catastrophic risk. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has started work on how to reduce the consequences of a global cataclysm. And in 2021 the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) published ‘Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.’
The CDC’s 40-page Zombie Apocalypse report contains lots of useful information on escape routes, tools and supplies and how to keep your birth certificate and passport safe, once the undead start to rise from the ground. And they were only 500 years behind Nostradamus. The French philosopher had his zombie apocalypse pencilled in for 2021 too, when the “half-dead” would bring “great evils”.
These reports provide plenty of food for thought – and not just for the zombies. Some future catastrophes will be beyond our control, like an asteroid strike, super-volcano, or the heat death of the universe. Others include extreme climate change, a Malthusian crisis – where our population outpaces agricultural production – or the kind of ecological collapse that we’re dealing with right now. Interplanetary contamination, the rise of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and bioterrorism will all need contingency plans too.
In simpler times it was merely the threat of nuclear war between Russia and America that gripped the global community. But that one hasn’t gone away, either. Nine countries own a total of 13,860 nuclear weapons that could plunge us into a nuclear winter tomorrow – Russia and America own 92 per cent of them. Or so they say.
Whether you believe The End of Days will have us fighting off zombies, roaming the Earth for somewhere hospitable, or dealing with the mother of all blackouts, when it comes to survival, it’s our clothes that might just make the difference between life and death. What you’re wearing when catastrophe strikes could be your entire wardrobe for the next few weeks, seasons or even decades. You might need to run. You may have to ditch the backpack. And you know those beaten-up, hole-ridden sweaters survivors wear in movies like The Children of Men, The Road and A Quiet Place Part II? They’ll be no use at all.
In the late 1960s NASA needed something insanely fireproof. As the Cold War and the Apollo program gripped the world, the Department of Defence called up a scientist named Dr Marvel – we’re not making this up – and gave him an apparently impossible brief. Invent a fibre with no melting point. Marvel’s response was polybenzimidazole (PBI), a fibre of exceptional thermal and chemical stability. PBI retains its integrity after it is exposed to high heat, chemicals and abrasion – it won’t stiffen and crack, unlike other fire-retardant materials.
PBI was so revolutionary it wasn’t just used to replace cotton in the Apollo cabin crew’s clothing and sleeping bags. It was used to coat its spacecraft too. When Skylab fell to Earth in 1979 the part that survived re-entry was the part coated in PBI. That’s because it can withstand at least 2,370°F, the same temperature as black lava. NASA still uses PBI today. As does the US Army, the aerospace industry and firefighting crews in America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the South Pacific. It’s what enables them to walk through burning buildings. It’s just never been used in civilian clothing before. Until now.
All fabrics have a tensile strength, which is the force required to snap their fibres. Firefighter uniforms are required to have a tensile strength of 450 Newtons/55mm. PBI has 5x that. Plus 10x the required tear-strength. We knew our Apocalypse Jacket needed to be annihilation-proof. So we worked with a cutting-edge lab on the south coast of England – where its team of technicians and engineers helped us create the jacket’s outer-shell using a combination of PBI and para-aramid, the stuff used to make ballistic-rated body armour. Our Apocalypse Jacket offers incredible protection against heat, flash fire and arc flash, while retaining its flexibility and strength.
The Apocalypse Jacket is a soft, breathable shield that thrives in hostile environments. It's chemical splash resistant, so will repel oil, petrol, sulphuric acid, nitric acid and caustic soda. It's also antimicrobial, UV resistant and high wicking. In short, it provides you with the highest level of protection you’ll find anywhere on Earth. That’s true whether you’re wandering a scorched version of it in 2047, or its current iteration in 2022. Zombies will hate it.
You can never be too prepared for the unexpected, and it’s easier to keep track of your gear if it’s attached to you. Clothes, maps, spare batteries, a compass, duct tape, a sleeping bag, first-aid kit, crossbow, mosquito shelter, matches, a hatchet, soap, rope, a shovel, toothpaste, four litres of water and a signal mirror are just some of the items recommended by official apocalypse guidelines. You might also want to carry “gift” items for any unfriendly faces you meet along the way, plus your birth certificate, passport and a good book. That’s why every part of the inside of the jacket is lined with pockets.
If you turn the jacket inside out, you’ll find it’s not like any jacket you’ve ever seen before. The entire inside of the jacket is lined with pockets. There are 23 pockets in total taking up almost every square centimetre of space. The back is made up of 5 giant pockets. The neck has another 2. Even the sleeves have 6. Yet all the pockets are built with concealed zippers hidden in the seams, so no-one apart from you would know they’re even there.
Starting inside the back of the jacket you’ll find 5 giant pockets that run from one side of the jacket to the other across your back. Each one is around 60cm long and 15cm deep. If you’re leaving your house at high speed, this is where you pack your stuff. On the inside right of the jacket you’ll find one giant two-way zipper that runs from the top of your jacket down to the waist. This opens up 3 separate pockets that you access from the side. The two-way zipper lets you open and close different pockets at the same time. You’ll find the same set up on the left. Below them you’ll find 4 more pockets, 2 on either side that open from the top.
The reasoning is simple. More pockets give you more options. So if your main problem is keeping warm, you can stuff all the pockets with extra insulation. What you use depends on how much of the world has been reduced to rubble. If you’re still in your house, the cladding around the boiler is the best bet. Cushions, bedding, sofas, and your bed itself can all be cut open to rip out the insulation. If you’re already on the run, old newspapers work to trap multiple layers of air. Out in nature you’ll find straw and moss are both good insulators.
If it’s sleep you’re struggling with, you can use the pockets to convert the jacket into a sleeping bag. All of the inner pockets on the back of the jacket are tubular – just like the sections on an airbed. Which means you can stuff them with anything soft, like insulation you’ve stolen from your house, clothing, or the feathers from the pillows. The hood is large enough to keep a cushion inside it. And the double pocket on the inside of the neck opens to the left and right so you can stuff a layer of wadding in there too.
The safest place to hide anything in the Apocalypse Jacket is in the pockets inside the sleeves. When you turn the jacket inside out, you’ll find that both arms contain three extra pockets, so six in total. These pockets open and close with a massive two-way concealed zipper that runs almost the entire length of your arm. If you need to hide things like passports or money, this is the place to do it.
The problem with most protective clothing is that it naturally retains water, even if it feels dry. Once water heats up it vaporises. That’s why one of the most common and nastiest injuries for firefighters is steam burns. Unlike other protective clothing the ‘moisture regain ability’ of the Apocalypse Jacket is extremely low. That makes it incredibly comfortable to wear. And its pocket-laden inner-shell is made from stretchy Cordura. Walk down the street wearing the Apocalypse Jacket and you might look like you’re on your way to take on an army of the undead, but you’ll feel like you’re wearing a regular soft, comfortable jacket. Because you are.
The mix of PBI and para-aramid gives the Apocalypse Jacket its colour. Neutral colours like this are great for blending in with a devastated landscape, making it easier for you to stay out of sight. It also works well with dirt. Some things look awful after living in the elements. The Apocalypse Jacket won’t. Because even if everything else around you has gone to shit, there’s no need to let your standards drop.
The three-quarter length, fully hooded jacket was designed for the US Air Force in the 1950s, for aircraft carrier deck crews facing temperatures as low as –60°F. The hood was its finishing touch, allowing the wearer to seal off their entire face apart from an air hole for breathing, hence “snorkel”. The Apocalypse Jacket modifies this. Pull on the drawcord and it’ll cover your face enough to offer protection and anonymity. But you can also fold the hold back on itself so you can see everything around you while still shielding yourself from the elements. If it reminds you of Kenny from South Park, that’s ok. Because the one thing we know about Kenny was that he was incredibly hard to kill.
Inside the edge of the hood you’ll find a flexible, concealed wire that you can use to get your hood into almost any position you want. It can be curved, folded, or scrunched endlessly, depending on whether you’re trying to keep out the weather or retain anonymity. The hood can also be pulled tight with fireproof drawcords. The ends of the drawcords have been finished by being dipped in rubber so they can’t come undone.
It’s never sunny in the apocalypse, so the jacket is designed to protect you from the worst of the weather. The front zipper is concealed beneath a 6cm wide storm flap. The entire zipper, from the tape to the teeth are all made from nylon. Lightweight and biodegradable, they are recycled and recyclable. Two storm flap front pockets are sealed with metal snap fasteners. The cuffs are fastened using metal snap fasteners. The two-piece sleeves come with double pleats for added articulation. And you’ll find drawcords at the bottom of the jacket to pull it tight against the elements. These are made out of the same fabric as the entire jacket.
The apocalypse is unlikely to be pretty, so no-one will be judging if you need to adjust your clothing on the run. If the arms are too long, we suggest using an axe or Gerber knife to cut them to the length. To stop them fraying you can roll them up, or sew up the edges with a needle and thread. There’s about a 6cm gap between the end of the sleeve and the end of the giant sleeve pocket. So you should turn the jacket inside out before you cut it if you want to keep these pockets functional. The hood can also be chopped off to leave a reinforced collar. And if we’ve made it through the apocalypse with you, we’ll be handing out prizes for the best modified jacket.
Depending on the size of the jacket you get you’ll find approximately 34 hanging loops on the chest. You never know what you’re going to need to carry with you or have to hand. So these are designed to hang anything from flashlights, flares, roadkill, rope, fishing wire, knives, tools, arrows, or amulets. If you like to stay clean your toothbrush and toothpaste could go here. If you’re already thinking about hand-to-hand combat, the wiring from your lights and silver coil piping from your shower hose are good options to keep on you.
In the event that there is no zombie apocalypse, this is still one of the strongest and most fireproof jackets ever built. We don’t know of any other commercial pieces of clothing where the main material can survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and black lava. So you can either keep it in perfect condition in your bunker or under your bed while you wait for the end of the world to arrive, or you can break it in pre-apocalypse.