When you think of products with room to innovate, vests probably aren’t the first which come to mind. After all, we all know what a vest looks like. We all, roughly speaking and with room to manoeuvre on the quality of a product, know what a vest is – or can be – made of. In short, a vest is a vest, right?

Well, not necessarily.

Thanks to a new collaboration between North Carolina-based material innovation outfit Keel Labs and London-anchored CONCEPTKICKS founder Mr. Bailey, it seems that line of thinking may have solely been for people lacking in the requisite imagination. (Something, it’s fair to say, Bailey has never been accused of.)

Inspired by the concept of biomimicry, the “Starboard Vest” riffs on aesthetic and structural similarities between nautical vessels and the human body – similar the ways in which animals in the wild might disguise themselves to either lure prey or avoid predators. And, in this case, it’s a little of both; the visual spectacle of the one-of-a-kind design has been crafted to pique the interest of consumers, while its material make-up is specifically intended to push those same consumers away from the dangers of high-impact, environmentally-destructive products.

Read the full story here.