History Of The Nimbus Jacket

A wardrobe staple for surfers the world over, the Nimbus is our classic insulated puffer jacket, suitable for everything from dawn surf checks to hiking in the hills.

An evolution of our early Sastruga insulated jacket, the first Nimbus was launched in 2010 with a focus on producing a recycled version of this ubiquitous surf-lifestyle product. The outer shell was constructed from a hard-wearing 100% recycled polyester, with a synthetic fill made of Primaloft containing 98% recycled material. At the time this was a huge achievement, as sourcing recycled fabrics was not yet as commonplace as today.

One of the early innovations came from a lightbulb moment on a trip taken by one of our designers. Catching the overnight sleeper train with no cabin, they stuffed the jacket into a pocket and folded it to rest between their head and the pillow that was surprisingly comfortable. From that moment on, the jacket was designed to pack into its own inside pocket to create a handy travel pillow - a feature that has been retained to this day.

From its inception, the Nimbus was designed to provide warmth in wet coastal conditions, so synthetic insulation was favoured over down for its ability to retain more warmth when wet. For years we searched for a 100% recycled fill, but the options on the market didn’t meet our standards. So we made our own.

In 2017, after nearly a decade of research and development with our suppliers, we introduced Finisterre Engineered Insulation (FEI); our own synthetic insulated fill that had a higher recycled content than anything that was available on the market, and in 2019 we followed this up by creating our new A-Form insulation made of 100% recycled polyester.

At the same time we were also on a mission to eliminate harsh fluorocarbon-based water repellent finishes from all our outerwear. These are chemicals that are commonly used as durable water repellents (DWRs) for fabrics, however they are made up of C8 long chain chemicals (PFCs) which can slowly leach from fabrics and gradually find their whey into the environment. The Nimbus was never designed to be waterproof but was designed with a lower strength water-repellant fabric, and from 2018 this was upgraded to be FC Free, along with the rest of our outerwear range.  

Over the following five years, the Nimbus became one of our bestselling products and one that we were known for. As we continued to innovate and grow as a brand, the design team dug deep on our mission and worked on aligning the product more closely with our purpose as a brand - to inspire adventures and protect the ocean in the process.

This soul-searching led to the two latest and arguably most significant improvements to the jacket – the introduction of REPREVE® recycled insulation and NetPlus® fabric made from discarded fishing nets.

Introduced to our outerwear in 2023, REPREVE® is made from discarded plastic bottles which are at high risk of entering the ocean. Sourced from coastal regions where there are no formal waste management or recycling facilities, the bottles are collected and recycled into a high-performance synthetic insulation that retains all the attributes for which we prize it.

Finding an outer fabric that had the same positive impact took us a little longer, and we experimented with different fabrics, weights, strength and size of ripstop, etc. All of this testing led us to NetPlus®, an innovative recycled yarn made entirely of discarded fishing nets. The sourcing process is fully transparent and the materials can be tracked from collection through cleaning and processing to the final recycled product which can then be used to make high performance technical gear, like the Nimbus.

Launched in autumn 2024, our NetPlus® Nimbus represents the ultimate expression of our brand purpose and product innovation. Built to enable your adventures in and around the sea for years to come, whilst reducing our impact on the environment we love to explore.