NIKE fights off Summer season’s unpredictable weather with the 2014 Nike Tech Pack. Through a methodology of subtraction, excess elements that add bulk and weight to the design are laid aside in favor a crisp streamlined functionality that amplifies the experience of athletes and laypersons alike.

This is the same hyperfuse technology NIKE began using back in 2010 to lend durability and breathability to athletic shoes while maintaining their physical integrity over extended periods of time. On the Tech Pack, chords provide for the adjustability ever important in athletic equipment, when buying a size up can mean a more comfortable workout, but translate into an awkward, bulky look when braving the urban frontier. Its lightweight composition equates to tremendous variance and functionality, but the tech suit can supports most postures as well, evidence of which might arise in a swaggered hands-in-pockets look, and in a lunging tennis player. An ad exec might wear the same tech pack to the office that a high school boy might wear to impress his girlfriend; that a boxer might take off just as he enters the ring; that a university student might throw on before rushing out the door to her lecture. Not to mention, of course, the athletes themselves, who might eschew the idea of “layering” entirely and don it over their bare skin; in which case style is merely the icing on the larger cake of comfort and durability: no sweaty gym shirt sticking to the skin, the tech pack is a smooth ride in all senses.

. . . Including the look: Nike really taps into the modern with their tech pack, in a design that accommodates a variety of weather circumstances via a variety of styles. The glistening exterior of a standard track suit is etherealized with a lightweight sheen (in multiple colors, a Nike hallmark) of fabric, while other traditional exercise paraphernalia are incorporated. The same micro-fibrous chemical makeup that allows star athletes, in the tech pack’s advert video, to sharpie their autograph onto the exterior, also ensures its impermeability to the elements. Wind glides and rain falls right off the tech pack. Sleeveless is an appropriate look for the blaring sun, while the tightly compact jacket component is appropriate for early morning runs or long commutes to work. And then there’s the poncho to round out the wide array of uses the tech suit can be applied to.

The hood is particularly noteworthy: a firmer band of fabric encircles the opening and adds a huge amount of structural stability, which eliminates the possibility of the folds and contours of the hood from invading your vision; dampening onto your forehead, cheeks, or neck; or from simply flying right off your head during a high intensity, high motion workout. By trimming the fat, keeping things minimal, and utilizing their tried and true hyperfuse technology, NIKE’s new apparel is a versatile and multidimensional fabrication that is wide ranging in its applications and even further ranging in its attractiveness.

Photography courtesy of NIKE