Since its launch in 1973, Kolon Sport has been challenging the status quo to renew its title from the “first” leading outdoor label in Korea, to become the “best”. LIFETECH is the relentless pursuit to push the boundaries of fashion and technology. The forward thinking and superior technology development project continues to seek and realize values, beyond fashion. The commitment to protect life in extreme conditions continues and is expanded to everyone as the knowledge is trickled down to satisfy the needs of everyday life.

2006-2007 LIFE SAVER
LIFETECH, was born through a collaborative project with the world-renowned Central Saint Martins in London in 2006. Kolon recognized and awarded the ‘Extreme Armor Jacket’ for its creativity and design which embedded tools for activities and also for emergencies. With this foundation, LIFETECH’s first product ‘Life Saver Jacket’ was born.

‘Life Saver Jacket’ is a jacket for diverse activities such as hiking, climbing, skiing or snowboarding. The unique aspect of the jacket was the survival kit inside, developed to keep someone alive in emergencies with a focus on medical supplies, tools, and instructions. The Life Saver Jacket had a run of 2 generations.

2008-2020 LIFETECH
Since 2008, ‘Life Saver Jacket’ renewed as ‘Life Tech Jacket’, with products that put more emphasis on the ideas of ‘Respect for Life’ with upgraded technologies. Kolon Sport ran field test with polar adventurers to understand and to the test the newest technologies in extreme environments. Through this research, Kolon Sport worked with subsidiary Kolon Glotech to develop a flexible heating system ‘HeatEX’ for the jackets. Other generations added LED lighting systems, emergency energy generation turbines and a black box to record and send a signal out to rescuers.

LIFETECH v6 was recognize by being invited to show case it’s cutting-edge technology during the London Olympics at the Harrods Depart ment store in London.

In 2013, Kolon Sport collaborated with the award winning product design and innovation strategy company Seymour Powell in London. ‘Life Tech Jacket’ v7 was recognized for the well-executed balance between innovative lifesaving features and design with a gold price in the iF Product Design Award in 2015. LIFETECH continued its success in innovation with the v9 jacket winning the Reddot Product Award in 2020.

2010-Current LIFETECH MILITARY
In 2010, LIFETECH moved beyond consumer products. The Korean army experienced an unfortunate winter training exercise accident when soldiers lost their lives due to the frigid cold of the mountains. Kolon Sport stepped up to offer its innovative technologies, material know-how, and design capabilities to develop the current generation of the Korean army’s winter clothing.

Kolon Sport worked with its subsidiaries and partner companies to develop a cost effective but technology leading set of winter clothing. Kolon Sports has continued its mission to assist the Korean Department of Defense in developing innovative materials, sharing the best of practice design principles, and manufacturing the best quality for the soldier protection equipment’s.

2017-2018 LIFETECH SPIN-OFFS
In 2016, LIFETECH raised the innovation bar for fashion companies by collaborating with leading global IT companies.

The first spin-off project was the LIFETECH Orca with Korea Telecom, one of the leading telecommunication and networks companies in Korea. The IoT convergence product was a wearable jacket with smart textiles which added LTE communication modules into clothing so that the wearer can have access to all the available features of a smart phone, in a fashion product. protection as well as sending emergency signal when lost.

Through this successful endeavor, LIFETECH connected with NOKIA to develop CHASE, Connected Health & Safety Equipment Connected Fashion Platform, a 5G wearable and management system for First Responders. CHASE is an intergrated end-to-end connected fashion system designed to enhance protection and safety for professionals working in extreme environments. Real-time data generated by the wearer is transmitted seamlessly and securely via public telecom networks to a command center dashboard. Monitoring authorities can receive information and alerts from the wearer, and can send commands and alerts to the wearer individually or in groups. Idea for monitoring and safety, real-time situational awareness, rapid response, and asset deployment.