vollebak unveils new color-shifting 'firefly' jacket

vollebak is back with new glow-in-the-dark ‘firefly’ jacket

Vollebak and its Solar Charged range of glow-in-the-dark apparel are back with another color-changing addition, the Firefly Jacket. As soon as the wearer puts it on, they become the firefly themselves: the jacket changes its hue, from copper orange during the day or indoors to yellow-green at night or when hit by a beam in the dark. Vollebak’s new Firefly Jacket is made up of a single fabric with five ultra-thin, alternating layers.

The first, third, and fifth layers are the outer, middle, and inner layers, respectively. They are made of translucent polyamide mesh. Sandwiched between them, the second and fourth layers, is where the magic and science happen as the two color-shifting membranes are embedded into the clothing. One is the phosphorescent membrane, which lets the jacket glow in the dark at night, while the other is the fluorescent membrane, which reacts to both visible and invisible light, enabling Vollebak’s Firefly Jacket to change its color 24/7, regardless of the lighting conditions.

images courtesy of Vollebak

Glowing in the dark with yellow-green hue at night

The wearer can write or draw pictures on Vollebak’s new glow-in-the-dark jacket with any light, too. When the night falls, they switch on their smartphone’s torchlight and start scribbling on the Firefly Jacket as if they were writing or sketching with a pen. The glow-in-the-dark clothing will start to glow and leave a trail of light. Since the phosphorescent membrane embedded in the fabric is reactive, the glow strikes as soon as the light hits. Vollebak says that the wider the beam, the thicker the line, ‘so a high-powered torch will create the coolest effects,’ they say.

Vollebak is back with new glow-in-the-dark-and-by-day ‘Firefly’ Jacket

Fiery orange firefly jacket during the day

During the day and while the wearer is indoors, Vollebak’s Firefly Jacket stays in its flat copper-orange color. When they step out of the property and into well-lit conditions, the copper-orange shade begins to unravel a subtle orange glow. This is because the fluorescent and phosphorescent membranes both absorb and re-emit UV light from the sun, so when the wearer is exposed to sunlight, say sunny springtime, the jacket gets brighter, resembling a fiery orange. ‘The brighter the sunlight, the brighter the orange,’ says Vollebak.

two color-shifting membranes are embedded into Vollebak’s Firefly Jacket

Vollebak’s Firefly Jacket can be worn in any condition, night or day, thanks to its fully seam-sealed construction, where all the zips are waterproof and the Velcro straps on both the cuffs can be fastened tight in heavy rain. There’s also an elasticated drawcord at the waist and a hidden elasticated drawcord in the hood, both of which can be tightened if the wearer wants. The two large side pockets are protected by storm flaps that curve down at the bottom, helping the rain droplets roll away. The new glow-in-the-dark jacket is waterproof and windproof and weighs around 400 grams even with its five-layered, thin-fabric material.

the wearer can write or draw pictures on Vollebak’s new glow-in-the-dark jacket with any light

Vollebak took on a new challenge when they developed the Firefly Jacket. They admitted that building a jacket with just one color-shifting membrane was already complex, but they still managed to pull it off in the Solar Charged Jacket, the first glow-in-the-dark clothing in the series. They engineered it with an ultra-thin membrane infused with a phosphorescent compound that absorbed light and glowed green like kryptonite. ‘You have to sandwich the ultra-thin membrane between two equally thin layers of mesh. Make the mesh too thick, and the membrane won’t be able to absorb or re-emit light,’ says Vollebak. ‘Make them too thin and the jacket will fall apart.’

during the day and while the wearer is indoors, Vollebak’s Firefly Jacket stays in its flat copper-orange color

Creating the Firefly Jacket wasn’t a snap of a finger. It’s the product of years of research and development, trying out and testing different fabrics. Luck mixed with persistence was in Vollebak’s favor as they began to understand how to fill the ultra-thin layers of polyamide fabric with phosphorescent and fluorescent membranes. These two make the Firefly Jacket glow both during the day and night, giving fashion technology a run for their money once they see the light at the end of the tunnel (or, in this case, wherever the light may be). As of publishing the story, Vollebak’s glow-in-the-dark Firefly Jacket starts at 795 EUR per piece.

the reactive jacket turns yellow-green at night or when hit by a beam in the dark