[DRB]

Imagine a shirt that you can wear several days in a row for serious hiking during a camping trip this summer.

Without washing.

Without driving away your companions and every living, breathing being within 20 feet.

It's a reality now with sports clothing, underwear, socks and shoes that promise to take the stink out of fitness.

The new collection by Brooks called HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) claims to stymie the stink by eliminating most of the bacteria. The collection debuts this month, and Trance, new Brooks running shoes that use the same technology, are available in stores.

When the R&D crew at Brooks started developing the products three years ago, they were focusing on clothes that enhance thermoregulation -- keeping the body from overheating or getting too cold, said Stan Mavis, senior vice president of product. Odor control was not the objective.

The researchers incorporated silver fibers -- a natural conductor -- into fabrics such as polyester and nylon. The fibers move heat away from hot spots, such as under the arms, to other parts of the garment.

It turned out that the silver-integrated fabric also had anti-microbial properties. "The silver ions stab the cell wall of the bacteria and `electrocute' the bacteria naturally," Mavis said.

Kill the bacteria, eliminate the odor.

Brooks put the clothes through 80 to 90 washings to see how long the smell-control quality could last.
Test subjects worked out as they usually would every day in the HVAC shirts for a week to 10 days. The shirts weren't washed between workouts. They were stink-free the entire time, Mavis said.

This fall, Swix, a Norwegian sports-clothing company, is launching a fitness collection that uses FreshGuard, another technology that fights odors.

FreshGuard has been around for several years as a component of another technology called Dri-release, which moves moisture away from the body.

FreshGuard in fabric keeps the body's natural oils from attaching to it, so bacteria can't breed on the fabric and make it malodorous.

Other companies that have used the FreshGuard technology include Billabong.

Now that would be cool.

 

[Jeremy R]

There is this greasy facker at my gym that I will buy a whole wardrobe for, if it works.
This dude always wears sweatpants, and smells like dead buzzards,


when he gets to the gym.
A couple of hour long classes later, and he is downright lethal.

 

[sanjuro]

Wait, I have a material just like it. Warm (even when wet), no odors, lightweight, and most important all-natural: wool.

 

[DRB]

Wait, I have a material just like it. Warm (even when wet), no odors, lightweight, and most important all-natural: wool.

A jersey of it in the smack middle of 100deg summer heat is just what I am looking for.

 

[Reactor]

Wait, I have a material just like it. Warm (even when wet), no odors, lightweight, and most important all-natural: wool.

Noooooooo