Kris | Astral Currently

Astral’s LE program creates several limited edition lifevests a year. This installment, The Greenjacket LE5 ‘Dark Water’ was created by Astral in-house designer Kris Northern and assembled by our staff in the Asheville mothership.

Dark Water also represents our first LE featuring the new 2011 Greenjacket enhancements including:

-a new and improved front pocket with pull tab
-updated side pockets
-our easy access front knife sleeve

About this LE:

Dark Water features several breaking waves in grey threaded embroidery on black cordura. The style of the waves is based on Kris’ interest in Tibetan thangka artwork, which he has been exploring in the unlikely medium of spray paint on windows. You can view more about the window art on his website www.phidelity.com

The back panel features additional embroidery of a waterfall and a few rock outcroppings, as well as our iconic Wave Harvester on the side wing.

The design was initially inspired by the idea of an all black on black jacket after the much loved Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where Zaphod Beeblebrox decides to steal mega-rockstar Hotblack Desiato’s stunt ship (who is spending the year dead for tax reasons). Inside the ship Zaphod is having troubles with the controls exclaiming “Every time I try to operate one of these black controls, which is labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let me know I’ve done it. What is this, some kind of galactic hyper-hearse?”

To make the artwork stand out on the black shell we decided to go with some grey embroidery instead of black, but the original concept of “all black everything” is still subtly transmitted in this stealthy new LE design which would make Jay-Z proud.

About the LE Program:

Astral LEs are “Limited Edition” lifevests made in our home factory in Asheville, NC. The purpose of this program is two-fold. One reason is to offer our customers the choice to purchase a domestically made, highest end product. The other reason is to allow us to have more fun with design, to express ourselves according to seasonal creative influences. The LEs are built with the same meticulous details and supreme materials as our regular lifevests, but they are made in small batches, each having a unique artistic style. When you purchase one, not only are you going to look damn smart, but your money is helping to keep fellow Americans at work.