Speaking of fabrics did you see the story on Dyneema in today's SMH?
4:02pm: It's a combination that's enough to scare anyone – bikies and technology used in long-range missiles.
In the dim light of a bar that adjoins a motorcycle workshop in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, Mike Lelliott – tall, tattooed and hairy – reveals how he is the third generation of his family to enter this kind of work.
"My nana worked on Flinders Lane [in Melbourne] designing lingerie," he says quietly. "Dad was a managing director at Hickory … so lingerie flowed through."
Mr Lelliott has continued his family's association with textiles, but he says he won't be rushing to make underwear.
Instead he has partnered with Aidan Clarke – one of the founders of sportswear brand 2XU – and Xavier Unkovich to make protective motorcycle clothing, and in the process developed a world-first manufacturing method, which has taken inspiration from the military.
The trio have woven Dyneema – one of the world's strongest fabrics and typically used in the nose cones of long-range missiles and to coat Apache and Black Hawk helicopters – into denim.
The result is a protective clothing that looks like regular denim wear but can skid for 3.67 seconds, or 50 metres, without tearing. It is close to gaining full protective certification from the EU, which requires a skidding-without-tearing time of at least four seconds.
