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.

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.

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)