BMW Designworks collaborates with North Face on lightweight material

(January 13, 2019) The BMW Group subsidiary Designworks has unveiled a new camper concept and virtual reality experience, in partnership with The North Face, to imagine the future of protection from the elements. The lightweight camper concept and virtual experience were designed by Designworks to showcase a new fabric innovation from The North Face called FUTURELIGHT, which uses Nanospinning technology to create the world’s most advanced, breathable, waterproof material.

“We combined both physical and digital worlds to showcase this material, ensuring the holistic vision of the brand was clearly communicated, while giving people a real ‘hands-on’ experience,” said Laura Robin, Designworks LA Studio director.

“Thinking about extreme performance in new and unexpected ways from our experience of working across multiple industries, helped us to provide consumers with a unique and never before seen insight into the very heart of the material and its key attributes.”

The FUTURELIGHT camper was inspired by the 2008 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car. Like the GINA Concept, the FUTURELIGHT Camper is made of a fabric outer shell, consisting of a flexible material stretched over an iconic geodesic dome to demonstrate the potential uses of FUTURELIGHT fabric beyond just apparel.

The revolutionary Nanospinning process used to create FUTURELIGHT, has allowed the The North Face designers to add air permeability into the membrane of a fabric for the first time. The process creates nano-sized holes, allowing for incredible porosity while still maintaining total waterproofness, letting air move through the material and provide more venting than ever before.

FUTURELIGHT will first become available to consumers in The North Face Fall 2019 product line and will be featured across the brand’s pinnacle performance collections.