Under Armour, the sports apparel and shoe company which had been most disassociated with cotton sportswear, has switched over to the dark side.
But in Under Armour's mind, it's more like the soft side.
Last week, the Baltimore-based apparel giant introduced its Charged Cotton line in New York and showed off its embrace of the sweat-wicking power of next-gen cotton, a turn of events for a 15-year-old company that's been known as an industry leader in creating synthetic materials to help athletes stay dry during intense competition.
What caused UA's about-face? It discovered that, on average, core customers -- many in their late teens, 20s and 30s -- owned about seven cotton T-shirts for every one made of a synthetic material. So it did what any opportunistic organization would do: It joined the crowd, recognizing the untapped business potential.
Thus, Charged Cotton was born.
The clothing line has been two years in the making, and it's not your typical cotton product. The T-shirts, shorts and capris from which the items are made contain 95 percent cotton and 5 percent elastane. (The latter material is recognizable to UA consumers, since it's what gives the company's traditional products their recognizable, stretchy feel.)
UA senior VP Henry Stafford told Wired.com that most cotton shirts feel stiff when a person is sweating, and that Charged Cotton responds differently: "This moves with you as you're performing."
The production process starts with alternating yarns of hydrophobic and hydrophilic cotton. The hydrophilic part is responsible for cotton's moisture absorption, which can extend to 25 times its weight in water. But the inclusion of a hydrophobic yarn, which contains molecules that reject water, helps athletes stay as dry as when they first put on the garment. "That's what causes the sweat to wick away from the cotton and dry quicker," Stafford said of the hydrophobic yarns.
Heather Mitts, a defender with the Atlanta Beat of the Women's Professional Soccer league, explained to Wired.com that the cotton products she used to wear while training were too heavy. Not so with Charged Cotton: "You don't really notice that you're wearing cotton."
The apparel line should arrive stores in mid-February and go on sale by early next month. And after going through UA's training session, it's clear that consumers might be weighed down by sweat more from running to the stores to buy the new line, as it really does seem to keep you from walking out the gym looking you were caught in a rainstorm.
Photo: Kyle Stack
