It sounds too good to be true – clothes that provide warmth when you are cold and help cool you down when you are hot. But that’s exactly what Coolactive, the high-tech apparel brand, is promising with the launch of its new ThermoCool base layers collection.
Launched in February 2008, the base layers collection is now available to the imprint and promotions market through exclusive UK distributors UKL. The new range, which will appear in the 2009 UKL brochure, includes long and short-sleeve tops, shorts and leggings. These new garments are well suited to use as a workwear base layer but Richard Nyman, Coolactive’s business development manager, views this as just one application. “These unique garments are suitable for all kinds of uses, “ he explains. “They are comfortable to wear in the home or at the office, on holiday in the snow or the sun or on the sports field.
“ThemoCool fibres are designed to work with the body’s natural thermoregulation capabilities through smart fibre cross-sections. By combining two existing high performance fabric technologies we produce a fabric that has benefits beyond one type of fibre in a single yarn. The ThermoCool combination is a unique blend of Thermolite, with a hollow core, along with fibres with a channelled surface, Coolmax. This mix provides excellent evaporative cooling and effective thermo-buffering (protection against temperature extremes), depending on the wearer’s situation.”
In a period of high activity, the body maintains a comfortable temperature through perspiration. As perspiration evaporates, it takes excess body heat with it. ThermoCool clothes can prevent this from happening. When we stop being active, the body cools and perspiration stops, but any moisture trapped in clothes next to the skin also cools, causing an even greater fall in body temperature. The garments we wear can actually get in the way of the body’s natural processes and we can end up either overheated or chilled.
With ThermoCool moisture is moved away from the skin, while the hollow fibres allow better air circulation, keeping you cool. And when you are less active, the hollow Thermolite fibres help protect against the effect of temperature changes on the fabric, so you stay warm and comfortable. That’s the theory. In practice, the important thing is that ThermoCool garments help keep the body comfortable, whatever the changes to the outside temperature or the person’s level of physical activity.
So how long do these properties last? Because it’s all down to the way these fibres are engineered, there is no need for chemical treatments or fabric coatings, and so will be good for the life of the fabric. So good in fact that the manufacturer’s performance results show that ThermoCool has 48 per cent more effective wicking performance than other performance fabrics tested against it, and in terms of evaporative cooling, ThermoCool’s mix of hollow and multi-channelled fibres show an even greater performance advantage – being 53 per cent more effective than other performance fabrics.
Coolactive will be at the 2009 UKL Trade Show on January 14-16. To book an appointment and see the other UKL suppliers register online at www.uklonline.co.uk and follow the Trade Show 2009 registration link.
The new UKL 2009 brochure is now available to order with a choice of covers for overprinting your company details. For more information on Coolactive products, the 2009 brochure options or any of the ranges available from UKL visit www.uklonline.co.uk, email orders@uklmail.co.uk or call 0800 220955.
