What fabric keeps you cool? In China, the arrival of “Li Xia”(the beginning of summer) marks the coming of summer. In summer, we often hear and see the word “cool feeling” embedded in various summer products. From waistcoats, short sleeves, cool clothes, trousers and even bedding, they are all labeled like this. And is this cool fabric really as effective as described?
Materials We Often Choose In Summer
Clothes made of cotton, hemp, silk and other natural fibers can be said to be our first choice for summer wear. Generally, these clothes are light in weight, good in sweat absorption and air permeability, and the fabric is relatively soft, so it will be more comfortable to wear close to the body. But they are not suitable for wearing sports, especially the cotton material, which becomes heavier and heavier after absorbing sweat.
What Fabric Keeps You Cool: Ice Silk Fabric
In addition, ice silk fabrics are also extremely popular with the public, and they are very comfortable and smooth to wear next to the body, and even have a cool feeling.
The cool feeling it brings is more due to the “large space” inside the fabric, and the corresponding internal air circulation is good. The result is that relying on sweat will take away heat, and it will be cool when converted into an intuitive feeling.
what fabric keeps you cool? Fabrics woven from cool silk are collectively referred to as cool fabrics, which have the properties of fast heat dissipation and easy cooling. The weaving process of the cool fabrics is different, but the principle is roughly the same-the fabric quickly diffuses heat, accelerates the dissipation of sweat and reduces the body surface temperature.
The cool feeling fabric is composed of a variety of fibers. Its structure is a high-density network structure like capillaries. This structure can deeply absorb water molecules into the fiber core and then compress them into the fiber voids of the fabric.
The effect of this gap on water molecules is: when the product is activated by shaking (in motion), a large amount of water vapor will evaporate to achieve a cooling effect. At the same time, the unique combination and interaction of different fibers make the water loss during evaporation will be suppressed, and it will remain inside the fiber for a long time.
“Cool feeling” clothing generally incorporates some heat-absorbing materials into the cool feeling fabrics. For example, some companies add Lantian jade powder to ice silk fabrics to speed up the process of heat absorption. Nowadays, clothing with a “cool feeling” on the market is distinguished from the composition of the fabric. Generally, there are two types: adding ore powder or adding xylitol.
What Fabric Keeps You Cool: Ore Powder
Let me talk about the first type of clothing that incorporates “ore powder”. It is often promoted on the market as “cold contact”. As the name suggests, it reduces the temperature (usually 1-2°C) after contact with human skin.
The principle is that the specific heat capacity of the ore is small and the heat balance is fast.
(*The smaller the specific heat capacity, the stronger the object’s ability to absorb or dissipate heat; the faster the heat balance, the shorter the time it takes to reach a temperature similar to the outside world.)
Therefore, girls often feel cool when wearing diamond/platinum accessories in summer. Considering the price suitable for consumers to purchase, the clothes are added such as mineral powder, jade powder, etc. Different minerals also bring different things. effect. Otherwise, adding too expensive ore may not be enough for ordinary people to consume.
However, there is also such a fabric company, which is known as “the best fabric that money can buy”, and once launched fabrics with diamond/22K gold/platinum powder. Of course, the price is quite arrogant.
2XU’s popular ICE-X icy series in summer is to combine cold jade embedded yarn in PWX ICE-X fabric to achieve the purpose of coolness.
When the fabric is in contact with water (sweat), it can lower the temperature as high as about 2.5°C, which is probably the feeling we bring when we walk into the shade of a tree in a hot weather.
In addition, the addition of cold jade helps to inhibit the penetration of infrared rays, play a role in sun protection and reduce heat absorption. Coupled with the excellent breathability and sweat wicking performance of the compression pants, it can further increase the time to maintain the “cool feeling”.
What Fabric Keeps You Cool: Xylitol
Next, let’s talk about the clothing with “xylitol” added to the second fabric. The well-known xylitol is mostly found in foods, such as chewing gum, sweets, etc. We can also see it in the ingredient list of some toothpastes, and it is mostly used as a sweetener by people.
But what I’m talking about here is not its role as a sweetener, but rather the reaction that occurs when it comes in contact with water. After xylitol is combined with water, it will cause water absorption and heat absorption, resulting in a cool feeling.
The xylitol chewing gum we often eat has a refreshing sensation after chewing, and this is the reason.
This feature was quickly discovered and applied to the clothing industry. It is worth mentioning that the award-winning suit “Champion Dragon Suit” worn by the Chinese team at the Rio Olympics in 2016 contained xylitol in the inner layer.
At first, xylitol fabrics were mostly made into clothing by surface coating methods, but problems followed one after another——
After xylitol is dissolved in water (sweat), it becomes less and less, which means that the cold feeling is getting weaker and weaker.
As a result, the “advanced version” of fabrics with xylitol embedded in the fabric fibers appeared, and the washing durability was greatly improved. In addition to the different embedding methods, different weaving methods also affect the “coolness”.
Another X-VENT series of 2XU uses ICE-XP fabric embedded with xylitol.
In summary, the “cool feeling” clothing has better sweat absorption and breathability in addition to the fabric itself (the ability to quickly absorb sweat and evaporate), and some materials that can speed up the reaction process are added to the fabric.
Wearing such clothing during summer sports will make your skin feel more comfortable.
Tips:
In summer, clothes are washed frequently, and you need to pay attention to hand washing when you use them. One is that the agitation and stretching of clothes in the washing machine during machine washing will easily weaken the elasticity and compression performance of compressed clothes. On the other hand, frequent machine washing will have a relatively impact on the effect of icy fabrics.
