Prada Linea Rossa Dresses Red Bull's Human Catapult Jumpers in a 360-Meter Chimney

Prada Linea Rossa has put its name on one of the stranger sporting stunts of the year. Prada announced on Instagram on November 10 that it supported Red Bull B.A.S.E. jumpers Dani Román and Fred Fugen as they launched from what it calls the world's biggest human catapult, installed inside the 360-meter chimney at Trbovlje in Slovenia. Red Bull published its own account on November 9, and ANSA dates the jump to November 5. On November 11 Prada followed with a reel on the records.

The catapult is a 60-meter structure built into the upper section of the chimney by DD Squad, a Slovenian team of stunt acrobats and engineers, according to Prada's project page and Red Bull's release. Red Bull's release says it fires a jumper from zero to 180 km/h in 2.15 seconds, with forces of up to 4.2 G as they leave the chimney, and that the build took about two months. The jumpers then rise further, reach a brief moment of weightlessness, and fall until their parachutes open.

Prada

Prada and Red Bull both report two Guinness World Records titles. Román set the greatest height by human catapult, 100.36 meters above the release point in a single launch, and the two of them set the greatest combined height in a simultaneous launch, 151.72 meters: 75.97 meters for Román and 75.75 for Fugen. Prada calls that total official. We couldn't find a Guinness listing for either title, so for now the records rest on Prada's and Red Bull's accounts.

What Prada supplied

Prada's page says Prada Linea Rossa equipped both jumpers with functional clothing and accessories, and lists technical pants, jackets, sweatshirts, footwear and eyewear. It names no pieces, models or prices, and doesn't say whether any of it is for sale. In Prada's photos the jumpers wear black suits and helmets in the air, and on the ground black sweatshirts with a red stripe at the chest.

Prada

Our read

This is a sponsorship, not a collection. Prada hasn't launched anything: the page is a story about the stunt, and the clothing gets one sentence. What the project does is put the Prada name, in big letters down the chimney, in front of the audience that follows Red Bull's extreme-sport content, a very different crowd from the one watching its runway shows. The records claim is the part to watch. If Guinness lists the two titles, the stunt gets a lasting headline; until then it is Prada's and Red Bull's word.