ISPO's Innovations Meet Winter's Challenges

Debra Cobb reports from Munich

It would be difficult to find a more enjoyable trade fair than winter ISPO in Munich, where some 80,000 industry professionals and over 2300 exhibitors converged from 29 January to 1 February, in 17 halls filled with the best the outdoor industry has to offer. The crowd was young and enthusiastic, a mix of laid-back shredders, techno-geeks and eco-enthusiasts anxious to share the latest in cool gear for the slopes.

Vibrant colour created a strong first impression, along with heritage styling including slimmer fits, wool-inspired surfaces, urban graphics and traditional plaids. Behind the fashion, however, was a wealth of new technology developed to keep us dry, warm and healthy during winter activities.

Keeping Warm and Dry

Hard and soft shell membrane fabrics protect us from wind and rain; but breathability has always been an issue. Two highly functional jackets received ISPO awards in the outdoor segment: the Alpha SV jacket by Arc’teryx, and the 3F women’s jacket by Sympatex®. Five years in development in partnership with W.L. Gore, the N80p-x face fabric of the Arc’teryx jacket is woven from an 80 denier, false twist textured, high tenacity nylon 6.6 yarn. The fabric is inherently water repellent, abrasion resistant, and over 10% lighter than previous materials in this category.

The Sympatex® 3F jacket, designed by Sandra Dörfel, a student at the British Bath Spa University, is recyclable due to the Sympatex® environmentally-friendly polyether-ester membrane. The company has recently developed a new membrane exclusively for Chiemsee which is only 5µ thick, supposedly the thinnest membrane in the world.

Toray’s Dermizax NX™ membrane is completely waterproof with 200% stretch in both directions, and exceptionally high breathability. Inspired by the Japanese weaving technique called “akira-ori” used to produce light weight kimonos, Toray has created an outer fabric for lamination with the Dermizax membrane that further increases its breathability.

Columbia is introducing a proprietary technology called Omni-Wind™ Block with a breathable membrane that blocks wind as well as transferring excess heat and moisture. Polartec®’s NeoShell® range combines the breathability, ventilation and stretch of a soft shell with the waterproof performance of a hard shell. “The difference is the membrane,” explained Allon Cohne, North American marketing manager for Polartec; it’s based on electronically spun submicron fibres arranged in a grid-like structure, creating precisely-constructed pores.

Cocona®’s Xcellerator™ membrane uses activated coconut charcoal technology to accelerate moisture transfer and improve breathability in technical outerwear. Cocona® particles are used in laminates, printed on fabric surfaces, and spun into yarns for fabrics. Recent testing demonstrates that using Cocona® in combined base and outer layers results in increased efficacy, according to CEO Brad Poorman.

Also based in natural materials is Schoeller®’s new corkshell™ soft-shell technology, using cork granulate, a by-product in the production of wine corks. The corkshell™ fabrics claim a 30% improvement in thermal insulation compared with conventional soft-shells and are highly breathable.

Warmth without Weight or Bulk

Down products, whether natural or synthetic, offer the optimum balance between warmth and weight. The look this year is flatter and less bulky, with narrower fill channels and less of a “Michelin Man” effect.

Featured in Houdini’s Cloud Nine ™ range, Primaloft®’s Synergy is a new multi-denier endless insulation fibre offering a high degree of breathability and compressibility, with heat values close to that of down. Arc’teryx have developed an even flatter product called Coreloft™ Compact, which has undergone a special reduction process to reduce the thickness of the material by 50% while retaining most of the warmth.

The Ghost Whisperer down jacket by Mountain Hardwear may be the lightest on the market. Using a 7D x 10d nylon ripstop shell, the down fill is processed in individual strands and weighs only 24 gsm. Toray’s Quix Down™ is the first water-resistant finished down which retains its functionality in wet conditions.

Technology from the Inside Out

The baselayer category continues to expand and offer more functionality. Comfort, temperature regulation, moisture management and odor control are important parameters, while compression to enhance performance has become a hot topic. Brands such as X-Bionic, 2XU, Skins and Falke are engineering variable compression through warp knits or seamless body-mapping; and Invista has expanded its LYCRA® SPORT fabric branding program to include a category for compression, called LYCRA® SPORT ENERGY.

Keeping us warm while transporting moisture to maintain a comfortable temperature can be achieved in a number of ways. Merino wool is a favorite, along with blends including silk, polypropylene or TENCEL®, and thermoregulating synthetic fibres. For example, Advansa’s Thermo°Cool® hollow-core polyester is combined with Merino wool in a dual-sided fabric for Devold’s Active performance underwear, and is combined with nylon in Falke’s seamless Skiing Comfort Fit range.

Accapi’s Polar Bear seamless underwear uses Advansa’s insulating Thermolite® fibre, developed to mimic the hollow fur of the polar bear which traps air for insulation while speeding moisture to the surface for evaporation. Mizuno’s Breath Thermo is a heat-generating fabric, knit from polyester and polyacrylate, which absorbs body moisture between the fibres, causing friction which creates warmth.

Applied technologies used to create thermal regulation include Adaptive by HeiQ, based on an innovative polymer that provides a layer surrounding each textile fibre. At low temperatures, the polymer binds moisture in its structure to keep the skin drier; as the temperature increases, the polymer releases the moisture which evaporates, cooling the textile and the wearer’s skin. Outlast®’s Adaptive Comfort® Thermocules® can be integrated into acrylic, viscose or polyester staple fibre; the phase change material maintains the body’s temperature by absorbing excess heat, which is released back to the body when needed.

Textiles which return the heat and energy of the body’s own far infrared rays are being touted as providing a range of performance-enhancing benefits enhancing performance through increased blood circulation. Schoeller®’s energear™ is a titanium-mineral matrix that can be integrated into membranes and coatings or applied as a printing paste to create such textiles. Seamless baselayer brand Accapi is knitting with Nexus, a Japanese fibre containing platinum, titanium and aluminum, also said to generate far infrared rays.

The methods used to keep these next-to-body fabrics fresh are evolving as well, moving away from biocides and nano-silver technologies. Agion® Active is a dual technology which fights both microbial and vapor-based odors. It combines a silver ion-exchange antimicrobial with a zeolite-based, rechargeable odor adsorber. Polygiene®, also based on ion-exchange, uses silver salts from recycled silver, and is Oeko-tex and Bluesign approved. Both products are applied as a finish, said to last the life of the garment.

Debra Cobb

Debra Cobb is a veteran of the knitted textile industry with experience in the development and marketing of yarns, fabrics, and apparel trends. She currently contributes to a number of trade journals in the UK and the US, and has recently co-authored a textbook on forecasting. dj.cobb@hotmail.com