About Escape Gear

From humble beginnings, find out about Escape Gear and our journey of bringing you the gear your need to protect your seats, dashboard, transmission and more! Tailored, custom-fit, high-quality products made for your vehicle.

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to award winning suppliers

Escape Gear are official suppliers for several manufacturers including Toyota and Ford and have won multiple supplier of the year awards. Buy your protective vehicle gear right from our online store.

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About Escape Gear

Our Story & Adventure

From humble beginnings in the garage of one of its founders, the Escape Gear operation came to life in 2004 and was then purchased by Felix and Brita Unite two years later.

Our Inception

Escape Gear came to life in a garage in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa,  as a ‘pop up’ company with 4 employees.

Partners with Passion

The fledgling company was sold in 2006 to new owners with a deep interest in the great outdoors.  The company directors have, at one time or another, excelled in trans-ocean yachting, endurance mountain biking, kayaking, trail running, and pioneered the river rafting industry in South Africa.

Simple. Dependable. Quality

Passion for the outdoors, the need for robust products that can cope in such environments, a beady eye on customer service, quality and value for money, meant  Escape Gear quickly outgrew its first home and moved to larger industrial premises in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. 

Over the years the company has grown from strength to strength with people, processes and products. 

The “New” Escape Gear

Recently Adinah Capital Partners acquired a controlling share in Escape Gear.  Going forward into the next decade and beyond, the “new” Escape Gear represents a company cognisant of the dignity and responsibility towards its people & countries in which it conducts business.

Want to find out more about our product range? Read more about our product fabrics and superior quality →

Seat Cover Fitment Instructions

Watch a fitment video for our Escape Gear seat covers. These seat covers are the polycotton Tough Canvas fabric (available in charcoal) and are for the Toyota Hilux Pickup Double Cab (2016 to present model).

Please note: The principles are similar and applicable across most make/model variants.

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About our Manufacturing Process

Our seat cover pattern origination utilizes 3D scanning technology, followed by a 2D flattening process. Thereafter the digital pattern is e-mailed to an automated cutting machine.
The cut-to-size pattern pieces are manually sorted, crated and sent to the machine room for sewing. Next, the finished seat covers go through a final quality control check before packing and shipping.
Our high technology manufacturing process ensures top quality products, backed by our lifetime warranty on seams and workmanship.

Technologies

3D Scanning

Our 3D scanning technology uses the projection and recording of structured light and has a point accuracy of up to 0,1mm. This computer captured data is used to produce a 3D geometric reconstruction of the seats, consoles or floor wells of any vehicle. These 3D captured scans are then aligned, joined and processed into a single surface that can be used as a reference to model the new pattern pieces.

CAD 3D modelling and digital pattern making.

Once the 3D scans have been processed, its over to our design department.

CAD (Computer aided drafting) software is used to produce 3D surfaces of individual panels that will later be flattened out to produce the pattern.

Once the pieces have been flattened, seam allowances and technical details needed for the manufacturing process are added. A detailed technical drawing is then produced which will serve as the specification sheet for that pattern.

Nesting

The flattened pieces are then imported into a nesting program that will be used to produce the most economical layout for that pattern. This technology allows us to reduce waste and increase productivity

CNC (computer numerical control) fabric cutting

Our Gerber Paragon is a computer controlled, high-speed CNC cutting system designed specifically to handle multiple layers of fabric at a time. This improved productivity allows us to increase our output of cut parts shortening lead times.

Laser cutting

This technology works by directing a high-powered laser through optics. This focused laser is CNC controlled to follow generated G-code matching the outlines of the pattern. The laser beam then burns away the connecting fabric which is blown away by compressor, leaving a high-quality precision cut edge.

This machine is used in conjunction with our heat transfer and automated cycle stitching machines to precisely attach zips, webbings and difficult to manufacture facings.

Guaranteed Airbag deployment

If your vehicle is involved in an accident, the airbags integrated into the seats will need to break through a specific seam on the seat covers. At Escape Gear, we call this technology “Red thread”.

This “Red thread” safety seam must be strong enough to resist the stress under normal conditions and at the same time it must guarantee the unrestricted, accurate deployment of the airbag. Each safety seam is computer controlled and carefully monitored and documented recording the sewing parameters and sewing processes.

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All our gear is custom-tailored to your exact vehicle. Select your Make, Model, Year, Type and Edition of your vehicle and we'll show you all the gear available to you.
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