Technology

Sweat-and-Wrinkle-Free: Next-Gen Dress Shirt Made With Space Suit Tech Keep You Cool

In the dog days of summer, it can be hard to make it from your air-conditioned homestead to your car without starting to sweat through your work shirt — and the day has just begun.

A team with diverse professional backgrounds — former Apple employees, investment bankers, consultants at Deloitte, to name a few –are hoping to change that with next-generation business wear developed using technology like that found in space suits. The line — called Ministry of Supply — boasts a fabric that changes with the environment and your own body temperatures to keep you cool.

Ministry of Supply Develops Apollo Shirt With NASA Technology to Change With the Environment

Final design of the "Apollo" shirt. (Photo via Kickstarter)

In addition to being sweat-free, the shirts, which first began at MIT in 2010, are touted as wrinkle-free, machine washable and made in the USA. What more could you want?

As you might expect, many want to get their hands on such an item. When the team launched a test line of shirts in 2011, they sold out. They then started a Kickstarter site — a crowd funding website — to bring their “Apollo shirt” to the next level. With the goal of raising $30,000, the team already has 1,350 backers with donations exceeding $193,900.

Watch the group’s Kickstarter video for more information:

Here are the results the team has achieved using a proprietary synthetic-blend fabric for the line:

1) Heat management: Your temperature rises and falls many times throughout the day.Using the same technology that NASA uses in space suits, our proprietary blend of fibers, “Apollo” will literally control your body temperature. Imagine you’re outside on a hot day.  Apollo uses Phase-change Materials (PCMs) to pull heat away from your body and actually store it in the shirt – like a battery.  This way, when you get back into your AC’ed office, the shirt will release the heat back to you and keep your skin at the temperature it should be at. The difference is noticeable, and can change your day. Ministry of Supply is literally bringing this technology down from space.

2) Moisture management: Your body naturally sweats throughout the day. Using an engineering-driven approach, our unique blend of fibers will wick moisture away from your body, keeping you dry — in the hottest or tensest of situations.

3) Odor control: Your skin releases oils and other materials, which leads to bacteria. Bacteria is the leading cause of odor. By using an anti-microbial coating, as well as Silver threads, the Apollo shirt takes care of pesky odors.

4) Dynamic motion: All day long, you are moving. You walk briskly, sit down, stand up, climb stairs, shake hand — and do thousands of movements you no longer notice. But we do. By using tests like Strain Analysis (see FAQ for more detail), and designing the shirt with your motion in mind, the Apollo shirt adapts to your movements — it stays tucked in all day, and moves with your body rather than against it.

Ministry of Supply Develops Apollo Shirt With NASA Technology to Change With the Environment

Ministry of Supply performance-based layer shirt. (Photo via Kickstarter)

The team has begun manufacturing the shirts, which it expects will retail for $100 to $129 depending on the shirt. The money generated on the Kickstarter site, which has eight more days to go, will be used toward production costs of making the shirt. First shipments of those issued as rewards to Kickstarter backers will begin going out in August.

For now, the shirts are fitted in sizes meant for men — sorry ladies.

Fun Fact: If you didn’t notice or if you were wondering, the name Ministry of Supply is the cover name for Charles Frasier-Smith, the designer of items for WWII British Special Ops. He was the inspiration for Q in James Bond, according to the team.

(H/T: Popular Science)

Comments (13)

  • Tempurfect
    Posted on July 6, 2012 at 5:44pm

    There’s a pretty cool new trend happening within air conditioning / thermal comfort — personalized & optimized temperature control! Not only is it more comfortable, but it can also be much more efficient.

    Many studies done by academia and industry have shown that better thermal comfort at an office, home or anywhere else, results in happier, healthier and more productive people.

    A quickly growing company in Arizona has developed some pretty novel solid state thermoelectric technology that adds personalized and optimized heating & cooling to different products such as office chairs. With each person in complete control over their own thermal comfort, not only will the office or home be healthier, happier and more productive, but fighting over the thermostat setting can be eliminated!

    It’s active, so optimized, not passive like this phase change technology. They would work great together, though.

    Company is called Tempronics (www.tempronics.com) and they are selling their office chairs commercially now while working with leading OEMs to integrate its proprietary technology into other products.

    The office chair would also be great for the home office, living room or anywhere else, especially during a heat wave.

    Report Post »  
  • 65Plus
    Posted on July 6, 2012 at 12:13pm

    I’ll test one!

    Report Post » 65Plus  
  • miketype1each
    Posted on July 6, 2012 at 1:22am

    Hey, Blaze, are you looking for reporters who know good grammar when it bites them?

    Does your Liz Klimas know that this new shirt fabric technology keeps a person cool? She said the shirt keep you cool, but a shirt either keeps (keepssssssss) you cool, or it doesn’t.

    Apparently, this shirt KEEPS a person who wears it cool. Keeps. Keeps. Keeps.

    Report Post »  
  • black9897
    Posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:43pm

    Thank God! Finally. As someone who gets hot very easily and sweats more than anyone I know, this will come in very handy.

    Report Post » black9897  
  • battles
    Posted on July 5, 2012 at 10:41am

    The company needs to beware that the FDA may claim these shirts to be a medical device and require them to spend $900 million to prove they are safe.

    Report Post » battles  
  • Baddoggy
    Posted on July 5, 2012 at 8:07am

    Ny golf shirts already use something like this. And screw dress shirts….I will NEVER wear another tie. Even at a funeral.

    Report Post » Baddoggy  
  • mamaduck27
    Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:42am

    I love this, and hope the next project is a bra. Am I right, ladies?

    Report Post » mamaduck27  
  • historyguy48
    Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:08am

    How wonderful! This way we can all be cool and comfortable while global warming gives the Earth a temperature!
    Oh, you don’t believe in the proven science of global warming? Then how about the proven science that the Earth is flat. Or the proven science that the Sun revolves around the Earth? So I supposed you want to breech the Popes ban on longbows also because they made war to deadly!
    I suppose you don’t believe in the proven science that the Earth is hollow either?
    Whats wrong with you, comrade?

    Report Post » historyguy48  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on July 5, 2012 at 9:22am

      You are funny!………………

      Report Post » Stoic one  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on July 5, 2012 at 9:25am

      mixing facts, theories, and hypotheses .

      BUHAHAHAHA!

      FUNNY!
      mixed metaphor’s
      HA HA HA HA!

      Report Post » Stoic one  
    • GJPinks
      Posted on July 5, 2012 at 9:40am

      I suspect you would back a modest proposal to help the starving poor also.. hehehe

      Report Post »  

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