Goldwin 0’s first-ever performance wear is body-mapped to keep you cool

Two hours north of Tokyo by bullet train is the lush prefecture of Toyama, home of the Goldwin campus – a gleaming 20,000 sq m factory and development lab, where the cult technicalwear label, founded in 1954, cooks up its futuristic fabric innovations (these include Spiber’s Brewed Protein, which creates yarn using an sci-fi-esque fermentation process to create man-made protein fibres, or fabrics spun from waste plastic sourced from local coastal communtities).

More experimental still is Goldwin 0, a recently launched offshoot of the label helmed by Nur Abbas, a British-born, Portland-based designer who previously worked at Maison Margiela, Louis Vuitton (under Kim Jones), Yeezy and Uniqlo U, and brings a poetic sensibility to the label’s technically-minded garments.

Run free: Goldwin 0 launches the ‘Performance Capsule’

‘Working at luxury fashion houses, we looked at how sportswear could be translated into a piece from a surface level,’ Abbas told Wallpaper* on a recent tour of the Goldwin 0 campus. ‘In the functional world, there’s a chance to slow down, make something and test it quite thoroughly. To take it outside, go running or up a mountain, spend a few days using it and understanding what needs to be improved allows for a much more intimate relationship with the product.’

This is true of Goldwin 0’s latest launch: a new line of performance-wear, inspired by trail running (Japan has a long history of the sport, with the 330-mile Nakasendo, which runs from Kyoto to Tokyo, a popular route for international trail runners, who run from onsen to onsen). The result of a collaboration between the Toyama Techlab and Abbas’ design team, the collection was meticulously tested – most notably, bodies were mapped for areas exposed to the sun or prone to sweating while running, with the resulting heatmap used to construct the garments, which feature areas of ventilation or panels designed to reflect away the sun.

Such is the meticulous process behind each garment, the ‘Performance Collection – a first from Goldwin 0 – features just five garments. These include long- and short-sleeved T-shirts, which are crafted from quick-drying, moisture-wicking fabric and feature distinctive circular ventilation; water-repellant ripstop shorts cut wide for ease of movement; compression half tights; and a version of the Goldwin Star Trail Pack, a lightweight running backpack which has been redesigned with 26 holes for airflow and ventilation, meaning you can still do your long run in the heat.

‘Goldwin 0 Performance Capsule’ is available from Goldwin stores and the Goldwin website.

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