In this review I paid for this item and I do not get a commission for sales from the link in the blog. I never endorse products I don’t use as my credibility is more important. Thankyou for helping to support my blog and adventures so I can keep buying gear to review. 

The latest range of ‘Sartorial Hacking’ from cult clothing brand Vollebak offers something rather new. As someone that hates high visibility yellow clothing I was curious to find out if the new Vollebak Black Light Baselayer could make me visible at night but not make me look like a lollipop crossing lady by day.

The surprising thing is I use this a lot during the day as well because the fabric it is made from is superbly cool in the summer and the perfect air trapping baselayer in the winter when I’m layering up.

Vollebaks Black Light System tackles a rather unique ‘safety versus cool’ problem.  In this review I look at their Black Light Baselayer top and find out just how reflective black can really be, and realize that this top is actually more useful for a much larger range of outdoor activities than I first thought. 

First thing to notice ‘out of the box’ is the weight. Having had a few of the bombproof items from Vollebak before I’m used to a certain ‘heft’ when it comes to their hard wearing gear. The lack of weight of this baselayer took me by surprise. Its just too light. You actually panic a bit when you get it out, even more so when you see how see through the rear and arm sections are.  Bizarrely the moment you put it on its entirely opaque, no nipples on show, no chest hair poking out.

Absolute Witchcraft.

Viking Chainmail

The original concept for the material  dates back to the Vikings who had a lightweight well ventilated chainmail called Brynje (pro-nounced brun- ya ). Co-Founder Steve Tidball explains that it is based on a scandi military string vest concept that combines extreme temperature control and crazy moisture wicking, but with the added bonus of not looking like a fish in a net. The Brynje mesh concept is well proven and was even used by Sir Edmund Hilary when climbing Everest back in the 1950s, The British Royal Air Force in world War 2 and of course…. those Vikings.

Vollebak Black Light Baselayer

The main chest front area has a slightly thicker material which is thick enough to keep my chest hair from poking out. Its also much more ‘grey’ than the rest of the black light range but this simply may be due to the lack of density of the T-shirt itself.

Size wise it fits great and is consistent in its sizing with all their other tops in their range. 

This baselayer is super wicking. Ultra light wicking. This top is perfect for heavy sweaters like me that get soaked doing exercise in no time at all. Its so light and wicking that if you ordered this one size up to be more billowy I’d say this would be perfect for hot desert races (I wont get into why black is better than white in the desert here).

The Italian material used is so lightweight the top weighs less than 3oz. When you take into account the ceramic spheres on it you realize just how light it is. The mesh wicks moisture away lightning fast and keeps you dry and cooled. This is because a large amount of what you are wearing is basically just trapped air pockets rather than the material which seems to be quite hydrophobic and so doesn’t ‘soak up ‘ any sweat either. This means the top dries very very fast and so you don’t get damp and sweaty and cold easily. There is a decent amount of stretch as well so it feels comfortable when doing outside activities all the way up to running hard. 

Vollebak Black Light Baselayer

The top has 18 discreet matt black dots embedded in key places on it. They are there to mimic the kind of ‘motion capture’  suits you see movies using against green screens. The positions of the dots correspond with key parts of your body to create the ‘trick’ of a human shape to anyone just seeing the dots reflected back at night.  You only actually need to ‘see’ a few at a time for anyone looking to recognize the ‘pattern’ of someone and react. 

All the spots are at different angles on your body so what happens when you are outside is various spots flash on and off in phases as you run past streetlamps, car headlamps and other runners with head torches.  To a car driving past they will see various spots phase in and out like a slow pulsing LED strobe . It certainly grabs attention for drivers of cars to your presence.

The dots are made of 60,000 black glass spheres and reflect back extraordinarily well when hit with any tight light source.  By day you simply wont notice the glass spheres as they are flush with the material and rubberised.  

Vollebak Black Light Baselayer

The Black Light Layering System

The Black Light system comes in 4 tops from T shirt and Baselayer through to Midlayer and Outer Jacket giving you up to 14 combinations of warmth/cool and high vizbility when you need at and stealth when you don’t. I’ve washed it carefully as instructed on the label and it was fine, but given the material I would probably recommend washing this in a mesh bag to keep it perfect and definitely not throwing it in the wash with anything with velcro on it. 

I bought this top for the novelty of the black light system but will probably use it more because of its superb wicking material.  Some of Vollebaks gear seems to take on cult status and sells out fast so I wanted a bit of the action when these came out.

Vollebak Black Light Baselayer

Although this is the perfect top to wear as a baselayer beneath any combo of mid or outerwear when doing exercise I would say its main ‘party piece’ is actually its temperature control and wicking qualities that  would also  make a superb standalone top for desert running or very hot conditions provided you bought it one size larger than normal (billowy is best in the desert).  It would provide all the UV protection you need but still keep you cool.

 I have used this a lot on summer runs when its hot and humid as I like to be able to have sleeves as the sun goes down and although its a shame to not let the world see the reflective dots I’ll also use it regularly now as my base layer as I have nothing that comes close to this level of temperature control and moisture wicking. 

Verdict

This top combines some cool safety features , a high tec wicking fabric like nothing I’ve ever run in before and the usual Vollebak verve that makes lots of their clothing range instant design classics.  Buy it for the Dark Light Feature…but you’ll love it for its amazing thermal and wicking quality.

The baselayer is now sold out but you can still get the T Shirt version at time of writing.

You can find out more at the Vollebak Website here