Near the end of my first year as Cotopaxi’s athlete ambassador, they approached me with a unique assignment: help them to launch the Libre sweater on Kickstarter. Cotopaxi had their factory in Bolivia ship prototypes of the llama wool knitwear to me in Switzerland; from there, it was on.

I proceeded to wear the Libre for more than 60 consecutive days—without washing—while adventuring around the world. It was my primary layer for alpinism in Chamonix; kayaking along the border of Mexico; rock climbing in New York; on a surf expedition to the Aleutian Islands; at port in Cape Town; on a seven-week sailing expedition to Antarctica; and while day tripping around Perth, Australia.

Throughout the journey, I captured content of the Libre in-action; helped to script the campaign video and then recorded its VO; and shared my experience on social media. The sweater was an absolute hit; it exceeded its fundraising goals by 20x; and was well-loved by customers and the press alike.

Check it out.