On its own initiative, Ukrainian outerwear brand IENKI IENKI has developed free outerwear for the team of the Ukrainian Antarctic station "Vernadsky Research Base" - Antarctic Expedition Parka.
The uniform was created as a part of the brand new program called Advanced Research. The main purpose of this project is to explore and subsequently use the latest technologies for the implementation of non-standard tasks in difficult and extreme weather conditions.
Creating an outwear for the true polar explorers is a real challenge for the brand. The development of the park lasted six months. During this time, the brand's team worked closely with the polar explorers, given their experience in Antarctica. Throughout the year, the expedition members live and work in very specific and harsh climatic conditions of Antarctica: during the cold season, the outside temperature drops to minus 27°C with frequent snowstorms and abrupt weather, there is snow or rain about 300 days a year. Also, polar explorers go to work on other islands, some of which are located even tens of kilometers from the station. Waves, icy splashes, and strong cold winds blow on the expedition members while traveling by boat. For the team to conduct research properly even under such conditions, it needs good equipment.
During this time, our design team was in tight cooperation with the station staff to take into account their experience and to make sure that the new outwear will protect the scientists in very low temperature.
For us, designing a jacket for such unusual conditions has become an internal challenge. To this end, we worked closely with the Ukrainian Antarctic team and took into account all their wishes, the entire experience of 26 expeditions.
Dmitry Evenko, founder of the IENKI IENKI
“First, in collaboration with the Italian factory Majocchi, we created a new fabric specifically for the weather conditions of the station. The fabric of the outer layer of the parks was designed to withstand the effects of cold, moisture and wind. Second, we used hydroscopic down. Today, goose down remains the best insulation in the world in terms of weight to thermal insulation - it is warm, light and adapts to temperature changes, preventing overheating of the body. The only disadvantage of down - its ability to absorb moisture. At Antarctic Expedition Parka, we treated the down with an innovative hygroscopic solution that made it waterproof. Thus, parks have double protection from water - outside and inside." said Dmitry Evenko, founder of the IENKI IENKI brand
"These jackets were primarily designed for boating in harsh Antarctic conditions, and we are very grateful to IENKI IENKI for their attention to detail: where to place pockets, how to protect the face, there is even a special hole for batteries, because the equipment quickly "sits" on frost. And the very idea of ​​developing an ideal polar park for polar explorers is very cool, our expedition participants deserve it,†said Yevhen Dykyi, director of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ukrainian photographer Sasha Maslov was invited to demonstrate the results of cooperation between IENKI IENKI and the National Antarctic Research Center. He has lived and worked in New York for 10 years and is known for his documentary photo projects "Veterans" and "Ukrainian Railroad Ladies" and collaboration with The New York Times, Esquire, and many other media. The shooting took place on a research ship that will take members of the expedition to Antarctica under the Ukrainian flag for the first time in 20 years - icebreakers "Noosphere" shortly before his departure to the station "Academician Vernadsky", and the heroes were members of the ship's crew.
In March, the entire batch of outerwear from IENKI IENKI will go to Chile, where it will later be delivered to the station "Vernadsky Reserch Base".
