Australian motorcycle protective clothing company Draggin will release the first single-layer denim jeans with abrasion resistance higher than four seconds.
The company also claims the jeans will be as comfortable to wear as a regular pair of jeans.
Their announcement follows the ABC Catalyst program on March 29, 2016, which highlighted the difference in quality of protection in motorcycle protective clothing. Watch the video above.
It showed that the Draggin Roomoto MR4 lining has the highest abrasion resistance of 6.67 seconds, out-performing textiles at 0.25 seconds and leathers at 3.64 seconds.
The test was performed by running the fabric along sandpaper to replicate the action of sliding down the road.
Draggin Roomoto lining being testedThe Catalyst program focussed on university research into abrasion resistance and the safety aspects of comfort, especially heat.
A statement by Draggin says these are the areas they also concentrate on in their research and development.
Draggin also says they support an independently tested Star Rating standard to “help stop the confusion of what performance any piece of riding gear offers, not all gear is equal, not all riding jeans are equal as not all leather is equal”.
“The holy grail for Draggin is to create riding gear than in both feel and appearance no different to normal clothes, but with the added bonus of high performance protection,” their statement says.
In 1997, Draggin created the now-standard practice of making clothing with a denim or a fabric outer and a performance lining to protect the rider.
Draggin Holeshot motorcycle jeans with Roomoto liningDraggin claims their clothing now can outperform much of the leather and all of the textiles on the market while being much more comfortable to wear.
“For many years Draggin has been researching the possibility of creating a single layer fabric that can have the look and feel of regular denim that also provides a comparable level of protection to our lined jeans,” they say.
“There have been other brands in the market to release this single layer denim however, with testing they are shown to perform no better than regular denim and even at times decrease the performance of standard denim.”
Draggin will release the first single-layer denim jeans that offers performance to a standard higher than four seconds of abrasion resistance later this year.