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Oros co-founders and college
students, Mark Markesbery and
Massimiliano “Max” Squire, similar
to many other inventor/entrepreneurs
before them, started down the path
of a better mousetrap as a result of a
less-than-perfect outdoor experience.
While on Santis, a mountain in North-
east Switzerland, Markesbery and
Squire were cold.
As Markesbery recalls, “with all
the layers of gear, we looked like the
Michelin man. Even worse, we
were still cold. We got to thinking,
why does anybody put up with
this shit?”
Back in school a few months
later, Markesbery landed a NASA
scholarship while conducting
research on possible cancer treat-
ments. It was through this award
he became aware of aerogel.
“A big lightbulb went off in my
head. ‘Hey! Just a few months
ago, I had a miserable time sum-
miting this mountain because
of the bulky layers and intense cold.
You’re telling me there’s this aerogel
stuff that could fix all my problems?’”
declares Markesbery. With that,
Markesbery, Squire and other Oros
co-founder Rithvik Venna jumped down
the R&D rabbit hole, sourcing aerogel
and experimenting with its properties.
They saw a fourfold problem with
aerogel use in apparel.
“One, it was incredibly expensive,
not leaving a whole lot of margin for
the brand,” Markesbery recounts.
“Two, the aerogel particles were em-
bedded in a fiber. With movement,
the aerogel particles would come
loose from the fiber (meaning, every
time you’d move, you’d lose thermal
performance from your garment).
Three, if these particles came in con-
tact with your skin, it would dry it
out like you wouldn’t believe. To pre-
vent this, manufacturers put aerogel
through a process called encapsula-
tion. But encapsulation cut down
heavily on the garments breathabil-
ity. Four, if the encapsulation was
ever ripped, aerogel particles would
Aerogel is so light, in some cases is less
dense than air, composed of 99.8% gas
(courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)
SolarCore polyfoam infused aerogel,
cold rated to -58F or -50C
Inside
Outdoor
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Spring
2016
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