Bolt Threads, a California-based materials manufacturer has come up with a way to make your coat feel like, well silk sheets, while still keeping you warm and dry. And you won’t even have to dry clean it. Bolt and Patagonia recently announced a partnership to create new materials for the Ventura, Calif.-based outdoor brand that has long influenced the outdoor world with its clothing designs.
Bolt was created by three PHD students looking for breakthroughs on the materials front. They wanted to use the protein fibers in webs created by spiders to develop a tougher material (the silk from spiders is known to be five times stronger than steel and even tougher than Kevlar.
Bolt scientists studied the DNA of spiders and essentially created silk using sugar, water, salts and yeast. These ingredients form a liquid protein, which is then spun into fiber, a process known as wet spinning. If the first part sounds similar to brewing beer, it is.
There aren’t much details about the specific jackets or designs the material will be featured in. But Patagonia isn’t the only company playing with webs. In fact, the move may be reactionary to a similar one made by The North Face, which already has a parka on the market in Japan called the “Moon Parka,” made from spider silk (above). The North Face worked with the Japanese company Spiber on its material.
