A London clothing company, founded by twin brothers Nick and Steve Tidball, that makes experimental clothes from new and space-grade materials.
Vollebak describes itself as a clothing company, not a fashion label. Its own line is "clothes from the future", and co-founder Nick Tidball says the aim is to clothe people for present and future conditions using materials invented in recent years. Examples from its profile on Built In London include a Solar Charged Jacket that stores and re-emits light, a Garbage Sweater made from old bulletproof vests and firefighter suits, and a Black Algae T Shirt grown in forests and bioreactors. A trade interview adds fireproof fabrics, space-grade materials and biology-based textiles to the list. It sells online, though it ran a three-day pop-up in London and was testing wholesale at Paris Fashion Week.
Twin brothers Steve and Nick Tidball founded the company in 2016. Both came from advertising careers: Steve leads strategy and Nick oversees creative direction. Nick has cited chef Ferran Adria, the ultramarathons the brothers ran in their early thirties and his architecture background, with its focus on materials, as influences. The guiding idea is that experimentation is essential to progress. Most products take twelve to eighteen months from idea to sale, and in 2026 the company was running eight experimental projects, three of them wearable technology, including a Sonic Jacket in development. Customer feedback has shaped it: Nick said early pieces proved hard to wear, so wearability became a priority.
Vollebak is based in London. Built In London lists its office at 356-364 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8BH, and gives a team of 36 people, a figure that is dated and may have changed. Its customers are spread around the world, and it describes a highly educated following in robotics, AI, physics, design, engineering, the arts and finance. The company says it has won innovation awards from TIME, WIRED and Fast Company, which is the company's own claim.
On culture, the brand has grown mostly through word of mouth and a personal, transparent identity. Its stunts include a touring Spaceshop, a wardrobe of free clothes left in the New Mexico desert and a billboard outside SpaceX. The founders test products themselves, for instance by holding a lighter to a fireproof fabric, and Nick says its Mars parachute fabric was field-tested by NASA's Mars rover landing, which is his claim. Built In London lists the office as a physical workplace but gives conflicting information about time on site, so working patterns are unclear.
A small design-led company still needs a mix of people: product designers and materials specialists, pattern and prototype makers, storytellers and content creators, online shop and customer teams, operations and supply-chain staff, and people who work with the suppliers who make the unusual materials. If you are curious about science, design and how everyday things could be different, Vollebak is a good company to follow.
Website: www.vollebak.com
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