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February 2, 2017

Launching a 200km/h Cocktail

We’ve just released a new piece of work for Hackett London – the latest in our little series of ‘extreme pursuits (in suits)’ films. This time, we’ve got a pair of debonair skydivers making a 12,000ft jump, effortlessly mixing a gin gimlet on the way down.

The 200km/h Cocktail follows on from The 70mph Skater and The World’s Coolest Pitstop and features the same, instantly-recognisable combination of dark suit and white racing helmet that has become a hallmark of Hackett’s brand.

It’s the third film we’ve made for Hackett; the previous campaigns quickly racked up millions of views, with exceptional view-to-share ratios.

This latest film is designed to showcase Hackett’s ‘Journey Collection’ – a range of tailored suits that are also water-repellent and crease-resistant (and thus perfect for parachuting on to deserted beaches).

Despite the film’s laid-back feel, it turns out that preparing a drink in freefall is in fact no mean feat. We recruited three of Europe’s leading skydivers – Pete Allum, Ally Milne and Paul Capsey – to pull off the stunt. Allum is a leading expert on ‘swooping’: a technique involving a 1,000ft vertical dive before pulling up at the last second to glide into a perfectly flat landing.

Hackett parachuters in suits enjoy a cocktail on the beachIt means, though, that everything you see in the film is real: a genuine 200km/h cocktail (albeit with a little topping-up before pouring – cocktail shakers were subject to some spillage on the way down!)

It took 18 separate jumps, a few bottles of gin (mostly in the planning) and a handful of limes to bring together the full effect – compressed into one 90-second film, designed for easy consumption and sharing on YouTube and Facebook.

Matt Golding, our Director, said, ‘we wanted to see if it was possible to make a cocktail in freefall and then make a kind of instructional video. The answer is ‘yes’ – but you need to follow the instructions in the video very, very carefully because otherwise you might actually die.’

The film is released today. Watch it at youtube.com/hackettlondon