For the last 30 years, Arktis’ has supplied outerwear to military units and special forces. With motto “the quality of endurance” at its core, the British manufacturer is generally in the business of keeping soldiers protected from the elements. Now, through a new ArkAir project, the brand is working with Palace to ensure the skate company’s street soldiers are nicely wrapped up like action men.
ArkAir has seen Arktis declassify its special forces camouflage and military grade textiles from under lock and key, and re-imagine these materials through a number of commercial projects. It’s the first Palace project to adopt military styles and camo patterns and the skaters have certainly gone commando, diving straight in.
The capsule features combat trousers, bucket hats, tactical vests, and the iconic Arktis smock jacket. It is an entire boots on the ground, out in the field collection for city civvies. The smock jacket design was born in the 80s, is combat ready and includes so many pockets you will never be able to find a lighter ever again. It even comes complete with a selection of velcro Palace patches in a number of colorways (so to make everyone aware you’re not actually as hard as a Royal Marine).
“I guess camo pants have always been a big part of skating, and all my favorites skated in them at some point. Camouflage and surplus kinda gear in general basically,” Palace founder Lev Tanju explains of the ArkAir collaboration’s origins. “We were just in the middle of looking into making stuff ourselves and then we meet the ArkAir guys. We love producing stuff in the UK where we can, and then we saw the quality and functionality of the fabric. It just seemed silly for us to try and mimic that kinda stuff when we where lucky enough to get the connection with the real deal,” says Tanju.
The entire collection features the pioneering Arktis variant on the battle-proven 50/50 ripstop fabric. The textile — which besides being extremely breathable and water repellent — does precisely as expected: it stops rips (which is very good for skating or when it’s slippery or if you’re just very clumsy).
The ArkAir collaboration arrives straight off the back of the launch of Palace’s successful Los Angeles pop-up and the Palace Internationale range. Talking about the recent trip to California, Lev elaborates laughing, that it’s been, “Mental, I’m still in California now eating everything.”
So if you’re wanting to get in beast mode for a zooted Gears of War session or simply want to win a game of hide and seek with your pals in Victoria Park, you should probably invest in some fresh Palace camo combat gear. Draw the line at all-out war though. Give peace a chance.
Credits
Text Jeremy Abbott
Images courtesy Palace