Trends

Wearing Technology

SmartShirt System

The SmartShirt is a seamless light, breathable, nylon fabric with fully integrated conductive fibres, creating connectivity to acquire and transfer physiological signals to a small controller where the signals are digitised and sent wirelessly to a remote location.

The SmartShirt is fully washable, greatly expanding the fabric’s future applications. In 2006, the system, developed by Sensatex, was named Product Innovation of the Year by a leading global analyst firm.

Sensatex Inc, the developer of smart textile materials, is due to begin field trials of a new seamless shirt that monitors an individual’s heart rate, respiration and movement wirelessly and remotely.

Be healthy with nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is being used to create clothing that can keep you healthy. The clothing can protect against poisons, viruses, bacteria, etc. The secret is in the size of the particles. Particles that are, for example, the same size as viruses keep them trapped in the clothing — preventing the virus from reaching your skin where it can make you sick.

The particles are made of a kind of metal that can recognize bacteria or viruses and trap them, for example silver is a natural antibacterial agent.

Juan Hinestroza, the chemical engineer who made this technology, is trying to expand on the uses, one of which is material that can change colour without the use of dyes.

He does this by creating nanoparticles that are the right size to reflect the desired colour. As with capturing bacteria and viruses, the trick is to create particles that are the same size as the intended colour particles. This means creating particles that are 5 — 20 nanometers in size (one nanometer = one-billionth of a meter). The particles cling to cotton fabric, because the particles and fabric have opposite electrostatic charges.

Because the particles are smaller than a wavelength of visible light, the particles can only reflect a selection of the light spectrum that match their size — red, blue, and yellow.

Nanotechnology can also be used to protect the environment and textile manufacturers will be able to reduce their costs and overheads by using this technology. The precise measurements allows manufacturers to reduce the bulk of raw materials that they need, and thereby reduces the amount of wasted textiles.

A big benefit in using nanofibres, is that they are smaller than traditional fibres, and fewer are needed to produce the same effect as natural fibres.

This also means that less raw material is needed.

The use of nano-scale materials will mean that clothing can also be made in a smaller quantity — meaning more exclusivity to those manufacturers who wish it.

Another bonus is that products will degrade better or be able to be transformed into other products.

iPod in your clothes

grooveRider, created by Austrian company Urban Tool and nominated for the German design award 2008, is an iPod T-shirt that enables the wearer to operate their Apple iPod through sensors incorporated into the T-shirt — the wearer controls the settings through fabric swatches — and there is a special pocket for the iPod that allows you to move freely. Plus, the clothing is both teenage and parent friendly: the grooveRider is washing machine washable.

Today fabric technology has taken on a whole new meaning. Judging by what has been shown at the latest ispo Sport & Style show, your customers will soon be able to wear garments that behave like something out of a science fiction movie or James Bond laboratory. Clothes and shoes are being designed more for their entertainment and protection value than the fashion dictates.

In the sport market, textiles are now being made from intelligent molecules that protect against injuries. While your body moves naturally, the molecules flow past each other at low rates of cohesion, but if there is a sudden impact the molecules instantaneously lock together to provide a protective barrier.

Auxetic materials — materials that become fatter when stretched, unlike conventional flexible materials — have been developed that can change colour under tension.

Smart fabrics are also being designed to protect against terrorist bomb attacks by absorbing energy.

Hot and cold fabric

Outlast, an active thermo regulating process that encapsulates micro PCM’s, is a process that regulates vast changes in temperature, for example from an air-conditioned plane to desert temperatures or from an air-conditioned office to a hot summer city street, in fabric. This is done through the use of thermo regulated microcapsules that go from solid to liquid form when going from cold to hot temperatures, and vice versa.

Klimeo, launched by Avelana and Roudière in France, use the same technology on Australian merino wool.

A conductive polymeric yarn has been designed that can be knitted into a garment to keep the wearer warm — only, the yarn heats up when a power source is applied from a battery of mains power.

Eco-friendly pants

Marks & Spencer developed made eco-trousers — made from 14 recycled mineral bottles that have been spun into polyester. If the trousers turn out to be a success the recycled material will be used to make other items in the range and extend to women’s wear. The retailer is one of many companies trying to do their bit to make the world a greener place.

Converse’s All Star "Chucks" won the 2007 Peta Proggy Award (Peta Progress Awards) in the category Best Cruelty-Free Trainers.

Moisture management

Moisture management, the ability of fabric to transport moisture away from the skin to the clothing’s outer surface, is nothing new. Most fabrics can wick moisture away from the skin, but moisture management is becoming more refined. The demand is growing for fabrics that can stop trapped moisture from heating up and causing fatigue, or dropping in temperature and causing chilling and hypothermia.

The two main factors that affect how well the moisture management performs are the speed with which it can move moisture away from the skin, and how absorbent the fabric is.

Moisture is moved through capillary action or wicking with the spaces between the fibres forming ‘tubes’ that act as capillaries and transport the liquid away from the surface. The narrower the spaces between the fibres, the more effectively they draw up moisture, which is why microfibres are ideal.

With absorbency more is not necessarily better: greater absorbency increases the ability for moisture to be drawn into the fabric, but absorbent fibres also retain the moisture – thereby affecting comfort levels as the clothing becomes saturated.

Fabric that wick moisture rapidly through the fabric, while absorbing little water, help to regulate body temperature, improve muscle performance and delay exhaustion.

The most effective moisture management fabrics are high-tech synthetic fabrics made from polyamide or polyester microfibres that are lightweight and capable of transporting moisture efficiently and that dry relatively fast.

Push-pull fabrics — bicomponent fabrics composed of a non-absorbent material on the inside and an absorbent fabric on the outside - are also very effective, because the absorbent material on the outside draws the moisture away from the skin, while the non-absorbent material keeps the skin dry.

Put a spring in your step

Earlier this year David Cheruiyot won the Ottawa Marathon, wearing footwear using Spira’s patented WaveSpring technology. This unfortunately did not comply with US Track and Field (USATF) Rule 143, which bans spring technology in footwear for competition and may also violate IAAF Rule 143, which bans technology that provides an unfair advantage — this despite the fact that Spira had already submitted its shoes to the IAAF for review and approval in September last year. The IAAF has been unable to provide the company with an answer.

Spira recently initiated a lawsuit against the USATF and IAAF alleging the rules that ban spring technology constitutes a restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

After racing and training in the Spira shoes for six months, Cheruiyot claims that he is less tired after racing and training compared to other shoes and also claims to have suffered no injuries, that his recovery time post racing and training is reduced, and that he can train and race at a more intense pace than before.

Shown at international shows

The European Space Agency (ESA), a partner of the Wearable Technologies Show, presented its technology transfer program at ispo’s Wearable Technologies Show, part of the ispo Sport & Style show.

ESA showed a protective suit for firemen, the Hydro Jacket (above), which prevents heat strokes when putting out fires — originally developed to protect astronauts against direct sunrays — and an aerogel jacket, which protects researchers at the Concordia Station in the Antarctic against temperatures of minus 50 degrees.

German company IQTEX was this year’s winner of ispo’s Brand New Award, an entrepreneurial competition for the sport and outdoor industries, with their Vayu Verde — the world’s first intelligent, air-permeable membrane.

The surface pores close instantly when the surface gets wet, and it becomes absolutely waterproof — even when high pressure is applied. When the material dries, it regains its breathability. Its special macromolecular structure is responsible for making this material as air-permeable and breathable as a cotton T-shirt. Vayu Verde is made from eco-friendly raw materials that are also used in cosmetics.

It can be used on anything from jackets to shoes, tents and sporting accessories to hard hats, as well as electronic devices and medical products.

In April, IQTEX also received a prize from the Quelle InnovationsStiftung for their Warming Waves technology, which converts the kinetic energy of human movement into heat.

The Ventilation Vest (above), launched at ispo Sport & Style’s Wearable Technologies Show, is an innovative way of cooling yourself by means of air cartridges in miniature fans inside the vest. The inside is made of 3-dimensional pressure- resistant fabric that is permeable to air. The two ventilation units in the side pockets can be switched on and off independently and once activated, the fans blow ambient air into the fabric. The airflow causes an even cooling effect all around the body thus removing any moisture.

For more information visit www.procool.de.

Keep track of stock with RFID

Technology is not only for suppliers. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) promises to make retailers’ lives easier as well.

RFID is a small electronic device that consists of a small chip (capable of carrying 2 000 bytes of data) and an antenna, which serve the same purpose as a bar code – it provides a unique identifier for the specific object that it is attached to. To get the information from the RFID, it is scanned.

OK, so it works like a barcode, so what? Barcodes are everywhere already, why switch to RFID? Well, for one, the RFID tag does not have to be placed precisely for the scanner to read it – making it easier to scan items with a non-flat surface. RFID tags also work up to roughly 6 meters away from the scanner, meaning you can scan a heap of items all at once - the tags can be read simultaneously, instead of one-at-a-time as is the case with barcodes.

The technology has already been available for more than 50 years, but the ability to manufacture the tags to the point where they can be used as ‘throwaway’ inventory or control devices has only recently been available.

The biggest problem with RFID is that there is no standard yet, and as such, no way to fully control the customer’s privacy. Companies have a right to be wary of anything that can track individual items, because customers will be.

These tags have the potential to be used for surveillance or inappropriate data gathering. Due to this the AAFA (American Apparel and Footwear Association) has urged its members to create guidelines as to how and what type of data will be gathered from customers. The guidelines in turn can give customers more reassurance about their privacy, and educate customers about the technology at the same time.

Some groups see the tags as a ‘Big Brother’ that can track customers’ movements, and some even fear the tags might give companies a way of influencing how customers spend.

O’Neill’s fourth generation

O’Neill has introduced the H4 Campack, a backpack with built-in camera recorder, which enables the wearer to shoot their own movie while on the move.

The new backpack, designed to be used for snowboarding, includes a media player and an external camera lens. The wearer can start and stop recording by pressing a button on the left shoulder strap. The media player, which is secreted in the top pocket, can record all footage captured by the goggle strap or helmet mounted camera lens. The files are sent directly to a memory card and the user can review footage on the slopes or on a PC.

A snowboard can be attached horizontally to the backpack, which can also accommodate a hydration system for all-day hiking expeditions.