Chris Kolbe, Co-Founder of HyperNatural / Eco-Luxury Menswear

In this episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, host Peter Brooker speaks to Chris Kolbe, co-founder of HyperNatural, an innovative new menswear brand combining natural materials, modern luxury, performance and sustainability. With more than 30 years of experience across fashion, retail and product development, Chris has worked with major names including Ralph Lauren and Urban Outfitters, as well as founding Original Penguin. He brings that experience to HyperNatural with a mission to rethink what sustainable performance clothing can be. At the heart of HyperNatural is a proprietary high-performance fabric developed over several years of research and development. Combining premium Supima cotton with innovative materials derived from nature and waste streams, the fabric incorporates jade stone recovered from mining waste in Taiwan and chitin derived from discarded crab shells. Chris explains how these unusual ingredients can be used to create functional benefits within the fabric, including a naturally cooling sensation and anti-odour properties, while avoiding polyester and conventional petrochemical-based performance materials. The conversation explores the emerging world of bio-materials and why Chris believes nature can provide many of the solutions that the fashion industry has traditionally attempted to create through synthetic chemicals and plastics. We also discuss the development process behind HyperNatural's fabric, including experimentation, working with sp