Smart Threads
Today’s technology-driven fabrics coddle you while battling the elements.
BY CLIFF GROMER
April 13, 2004
Our showcase of wearable technology includes Burton’s jacket with Spaceloft insert. Underneath that is the Cloudveil vest that, along with the Manzella glove, features Polartec WindPro. A Hot Chillys BioSilver System bra and CW-X conditioning tights complete the wardrobe.
Your son is a brain surgeon and your daughter owns her own software company. That’s nice, but what does your jacket do? If it just lies on you and looks cool, you’re totally yesterday. Cutting-edge fabrics worth their weave will function as a personal climate control system, automatically regulating temperature and moisture. They will knock out bacteria that can make you smell like a locker room, mask your scent from wildlife and keep pesky insects at bay. And that’s just for starters. Here’s a look at some of the latest performance threads.
Hi-Yo, Silver
Fiber manufacturers are infusing special powers into some synthetics at the primordial soup level, before the fibers are even extruded. Clothing makers have discovered that adding silver ions to molten polyester is the most effective way to create antimicrobial clothing. Until now, many makers of active wear treated fabric after it was woven. Using elemental silver as an antibacterial agent is nothing new. The Egyptians used it medicinally thousands of years ago. Early American settlers put silver dollars in milk to prevent spoilage. Silver ions used in fabrics will bind to the bacteria found in perspiration. This alters the microorganisms’ metabolic process to keep them from growing and giving off that familiar odor–Locker Room No. 5. Marmot and Hot Chillys, both makers of active wear, use this new technology. Hot Chillys’ products include the Bio-Silver System bra, the Bi-Dri base layer shirt and pants, and winter sport socks. Marmot offers its Infinity Base layer line that features BacteriaStat with A.M.Y. yarn. A.M.Y. has a silver ceramic polymer embedded in its polyester matrix. www.marmot.com and www.hotchillys.com
Phew! Factor
One thing antimicrobial fabrics won’t do is mask your natural scent from our 4-legged friends and foes. Every inch of your skin emits smelly solids, gases and oils that turn you into a virtual walking boombox to wildlife. Scent-Lok’s odor-adsorbing activated carbon has been a hunter’s mainstay for years. Advances in nanotechnology manufacturing have created a new breed of odor-control clothing. Instead of gluing activated carbon into finished fabrics, it’s now possible to attach activated carbon directly to fibers before they are knit. Stretchable, odor-control garments, such as socks, gloves and base layers, are possible and will hit store shelves in late spring. www.scentlok.com
Shell Game
Timberland’s new shell technology in its Pro Sports Series Master Rack boot offers scent control, superior waterproof protection and abrasion resistance with a new shell system. The boot’s polyurethane outer layer also allows a higher-resolution camouflage pattern to be printed on woven textile–such patterns previously were restricted to leather and Cordura. The pattern won’t fade thanks to the shell’s ultraviolet (UV) coating. www.timberland.com
Connect The Dots
Beyond the fiber level, special weaves are giving fabrics greater versatility. Until now, one of nylon’s drawbacks was its tendency to cling to skin when moist, and you know how crummy that feels. What Royal Robbins has done is to weave extra nylon strands into the fabric in a pattern of 1mm “dots.” These dots contact the skin, leaving air gaps between the garment and you. www.royalrobbins.com
Tight Situation
Compression fabrics, with their circulatory and support benefits, are a hot trend. At the forefront is CW-X and its new, revolutionary conditioning tights. Many runners use tape to support their muscles and joints and help prevent injury. CW-X replaces the tape with a conditioning web–a 2-way stretch fabric that’s sewn into a 4-way stretch layer. The web will stretch only vertically, not horizontally, and it exerts gentle compression on major leg muscle groups (quads, hamstrings and calf muscles). The web also gives the knees lateral stability while allowing the kneecap to move within its normal range of motion. Tights made with this fabric will not replace a leg brace, but wearing them might save you from needing one. www.cw-x.com
Putting On Airs
When it comes to clothing insulation, nothing comes close to aerogel–the lightest and lowest-density solid known to exist. Aerogel, invented in 1930, resembles smoke that is frozen in place, and can consist of up to 99.5 percent air. The problem up to now was that aerogel primarily came in the form of a stiff monolith. Put that into clothing and you’d walk around like Frankenstein. The breakthrough for the first flexible aerogel insulator was Aspen Aerogels’ finding a way to form aerogel molecules around a fabric matrix. This forms a blanket product that the company calls Spaceloft. It’s currently found in only three garments–NASA’s spacesuit, and Burton’s new Ronin Katana winter-wear jacket for men and Radar Type-Z jacket for women. Burton’s jackets use panels of Spaceloft in areas where extreme warmth is critical–at the kidneys and spleen, for example. Aerogel is also used in Shock Doctor’s new HotBed line of footwear inserts, which are made of a crushproof carbonaramid felt that’s 2.5mm thick. The inserts turn your shoes into portable radiators for cold-weather applications. www.burton.com and www.shockdr.com
Sew The Wind
To stay current, many major fabric companies are busy reinventing their product lines through manufacturing advancements. W.L. Gore is aiming at a broader customer appeal for its fabrics by creating a softer-feeling Windstopper shell jacket, and partnering with high-fashion designers for a more zippy look. Polartec’s new fleece product is called WindPro. It is four times more wind resistant than classic fleece, yet it retains 85 percent of its breathability. WindPro uses no membranes or laminates to broaden its functionality. Its wind resistance is a result of the knitting process. Utilizing fine micro-fibers, the outer layer of WindPro fabric is knit more tightly than the inner layer of fleece. The breakthrough with this product was Malden Mills’s ability to get the microfibers to stand on end so they would retain their lock when knit. You can find WindPro fleece in the Cloudveil Wister vest, the Mountain Hardwear Micro-Ozone Zip T shirt, Manzella’s gloves and REI’s All Season Gloves. www.polartec.com
Thin Is In
New fabric technology isn’t limited to landlubbers. Radiator, a new company in Australia, is taking a new cut at wet suits. Radiator wet suits offer the same warmth as a wet suit twice as thick. Half the thickness means more flexibility and comfort. While the 4-layer fabric is conventional for high-end wet suits (jersey outer layer, titanium thermal barrier, closed-cell neoprene core layer and Super Composite Skin [SCS] metal layer next to the skin), Radiator’s manufacturing process sets its suit apart. All the layers are sliced uniformly thin and then laminated. Because wet suits don’t rely on loft to trap air for warmth, the thinner materials can deliver conventional thermal performance. www.radiator.net
Hugs, Not Bugs
The fabrics covered so far do nothing to protect you from bugs. We’re going to remedy that right now. Buzz Off’s claim to fame is bonding the insect repellent Permethrin into moisture-wicking garments (jacket and pants) with 30+ UV protection. The insect-shield bonding process is proprietary, but the repellent performance of the fabric is claimed to be effective for up to 25 washings (do not dry-clean). Buzz Off is said to repel mosquitoes, ticks, flies and other nasties. Too bad it won’t repel your nosy neighbor. But we’re sure the fabric industry is working on that too. www.exofficio.com
