There really is no other brand out there like Byborre, a brand built around a deep integration of product and the fabric production process. At the heart of their studio is a custom developed “pixel knit” software that allows them to control high end Santoni circular knitting machines with remarkable precision in three dimensions. At the center of their workspace in Amsterdam is a full production version of one these machines, allowing them to both rapidly prototype knits and produce the actual production fabric, right there in house. It’s a setup that allows them to made fabrics unlike any others in the world and being the fabric geeks we are we knew we needed to work with them.
The Outlier Byborre Snap Bandana takes three newly developed iterations on Byborre’s signature three layer, three dimensional insulated knit, and combines them with an updated version of our Snap Bandana form (also available: the Alphacharge Snap Bandana and the Strongwool Snap Bandana). The results highlight the deep beauty of Byborre’s pixel knit process, with different colored yarns combining to create pattern, texture, color depth and three dimensional structure. Lava Flow combines cracks of bright orange on a field of dark navy, green and purple yarns that combine to look like deep shadow with lines of lava between. Galaxy is the most discrete black, dark green, purple and amber yarns combine like an impressionist painting to create a navy blue like field that appears almost solid from most distances but quite distinct up close. Nightdrive flows in-between the two, streaks of white and amber flash like headlamp trails on a dark highway across a ground of darkness.
The hidden secret of the Byborre fabrics though is the special polyester insulation yarn that lies sandwiched between two layers of cotton. This yarn is mapped carefully throughout the fabric creating subtle variations of depth, these are truly three dimensional textiles. More than that the yarn, which was originally developed for carpets is designed to slowly soften and expand over time so the textiles age with grace, taking on new character as its worn, used and abused.
