Sponsored by brrr°
Textile technology company brrr° develops yarns that are embedded with permanent cooling technology. WTiN has the story.
Most brands that market themselves as ‘cooling’ do not actually cool — they just wick, according to textile technology company brrr°.
Some use chemical sprays and coatings to achieve a cooling sensation, but those can wash out and fade over time. Other products must be wet to activate the cooling, but these are not practical for business attire or lifestyle clothing.
That’s why a former Spanx executive decided to create brrr° in 2014: to make fabrics more functional and comfortable. Ever since then, the start-up has developed cutting-edge yarns that are embedded with permanent cooling technology.
Brrr° was founded in 2014
The company says: “brrr° is setting a new standard in cooling technology by bringing the cooling elements directly to the structure of the yarn itself.”
It adds: “We have developed a proprietary patented process that combines a secret formula of natural cooling minerals, active wicking and rapid drying to create the ‘Triple Chill Effect’. This instantly and continuously draws heat and moisture away from the skin. Every product is independently tested by globally recognised labs and proven to outperform other brands.”
The company integrates the cooling elements directly into the structure of the yarn
The idea started when brrr° founder and CEO Mary-Cathryn Kolb was an executive at Spanx. She says she was captivated by how the fibres in the fabric could stretch, lift and support the human body. With that in mind, she began to wonder what else fabric could do to keep people more comfortable and help them feel their best.
Kolb says: “I was curious about what else these teeny tiny little fibres could do. Could you make fabric that could actively pull heat away from your skin?”
She adds: “It took a lot of R&D and a lot of testing. Then a lot of iterating and trial and error and testing again. Finally, we found the right combination.”
brrr° holds several patents on its cooling technology, with more underway. Already the company licenses its cooling technology to dozens of leading retailers including Southern Tide, Vineyard Vines, Aday, Reebok, Under Armour, Forloh, Greyson, Sheex, Bigfoot Sock Co and many more.
To prove that it outperforms other brands, the company says that every brrr° product goes through rigorous independent testing by globally recognised third party textile labs. The tests include:
- Q-Max (FTTS cool-feeling textiles FA-019)
- Wicking (AATCC Vertical Wicking of Textiles 197-2013)
- Drying rate (AATCC Heated Plate Method 201-2014)
brrr° scientists also say they are constantly working on new cooling yarn technologies that have demonstrable better cooling properties than other products on the market.
In fact, the company recently introduced a new performance-level cooling yarn called brrr° Pro, which is aimed at the athletic market as well as active lifestyle and athleisure brands. brrr° Pro uses micro cooling minerals to amplify the cooling sensation, plus hyper wicking and performance drying that elevate the Triple Chill Effect.
The company recently introduced a new performance-level cooling yarn called Brrr° Pro
In independent lab testing, brrr° Pro Polyester scored 0.194 in Q-Max testing that measures how cool to the touch fabrics are. The result was 81% better than the score of another brand of cooling fabric and 53% better than a comparable performance polyester fabric, according to the team.
Kolb says: “brrr° Pro is a game-changer for hard-working athletes and anyone with an active lifestyle who wants to feel their best when they train, compete and recover.”
She adds: “brrr° Pro draws more heat and moisture away from the skin to keep you cooler and dryer whether you’re doing sports or doing life.”
The team at brrr° says it has experimented with dozens of formulas that were tested on more than 1,000 kgs of yarn before landing on the best recipe for brrr° Pro Polyester. And the company says it is already working on R&D for future advances in cooling yarn technology.
Another new product recently introduced is a cationic dyed polyester yarn. This can be single dyed or double dyed to achieve a true heathered or solid effect for both knit and woven fabrics. The company says brrr° CD yarn gives customers more flexibility for diverse product offerings for knit or woven fabrics, and is ideal for base layers, sleepwear, activewear and other lifestyle apparel.
Another new product recently introduced is a cationic dyed polyester yarn
Kolb concludes: “With every formula we consider and every method we test, we learn something new. Just like in our earliest days, we let our curiosity guide us and it inevitably leads to something creative and innovative.”
To learn more about brrr°, please visit brrr.com.
Have your say. Tweet and follow us @WTiNcomment
