INNOVATION by Design

Inspiration in fashion is where you find it, and Cotton Incorporated has been finding inspiration and new marketability in the performance markets—in “clothes that work,” as a major retail adopter of the Storm Denim ™ technology for water repellency puts it. Athletic consumers continue to pursue the active lifestyle, and for many, the key is the combination of fashion and function to keep them trendy, dry and comfortable. As fabric innovations such as Wicking Windows ™ and Storm Denim ™ build acceptance, they transition to newer versions, such as STORM COTTON™ and TransDRY™, the next generations of technologies designed to keep cotton’s natural comfort in the performance picture.

The Perfect Storm

Water, water everywhere... and Cotton Incorporated has a raft of systems to deal with it! First introduced in 2006, the STORM DENIM™ innovation, a garment application that offers water repellency, protection from the cold and damp, and breathability, is both fashionable and functional, and has been adopted by two diverse sources: fashion designer Alexander Wang, and Canadian retailer Mark’s Work Wearhouse. Applying the STORM DENIM treatment to the jeans, as a final step, allows for final styling effects such as whiskering, localized abrasion or decoloration. Alexander Wang featured jeans treated with the technology in his New York Fashion week show and gave a brief demonstration of their water-repellency in a Nylon magazine video segment on YouTube. Wang’s jeans will be sold at high-end boutiques, including Barney’s, in fall, 2008. Mark’s Work Wearhouse, with 300 stores across Canada, adopted the STORM DENIM finish for its Dakota line of work jeans, which have been available since spring 2008. Another application of the STORM DENIM innovation is the STORM COTTON™ technology for lighter-weight cotton fabrics, such as the board shorts being offered by Shipley & Halmos for spring 2009. In the moisture-management market, an early adopter of the WICKING WINDOWS™ technology, SubLock is actively pursuing the market for all-cotton performance apparel for running, exercise and other activities.

Welcome to TransDRY™

Advanced moisture-management engineered for precise garment applications is what TransDRY™ technology is all about. The logical next step after Cotton Incorporated’s Wicking Windows ™ technology, TransDRY brings quick-drying, engineered fabrics to performance apparel, with cotton’s comfort and softness to keep active people cool and comfortable. Fabrics with TransDRY technology transfer moisture in one direction, away from the skin to the outside of the fabric, drying faster. Cotton Incorporated has spent the last year working with moisture management testing to gauge the performance advantage of TransDRY technology. The result? Cotton fabrics engineered with one-way transfer performance beat any synthetic product in head-to-head comparisons. TransDRY was developed with the environment in mind: Instead of applying chemistry to the entire fabric, it’s used selectively in lower amounts on certain areas of fabrics so as to engineer to the right level of performance. The result is a responsible and more sustainable production. Longworth Industries, Inc., an American manufacturer of high-tech performance apparel and base-layer garments, will be the first to bring a TransDRY product to market under its new PolarMax Naturals brand. Cotton Incorporated will be working selectively with strategic partners to bring TransDRY technology to golf, ski, running, tennis and other performance apparel categories.

Active Spring/Summer 2010:
The Match of Runway and Performance

The lines between high-fashion on the catwalk and performance design in the gym have blurred. Donna Karan gets inspired by ballet, D-Squared goes for track and field. Norma Kamali gets into the ring with Everlast, Stella McCartney aligns with Addidas and Michael Kors takes to the dance. One world inspires the other, the possibilities are endless, and cotton now performs in ways that were once thought impossible. In the photographs above are some activewear trends that would gain new life with new technology for cotton, from left to right: Outerwear is transformed for the ideal water repellency of the STORM COTTON™ technology, patterned soft cotton fleece is another target for protection from the elements, and the basic polo, treated with the WICKING WINDOWS™ finish, gains moisture transport, while the cotton jacket is protected with the STORM COTTON™ innovation. What more can the active minded consumer expect?