With the Olympics last year, there has been a considerable focus on innovation in sportswear. New product developments from both small companies and large brands alike, not only make garments look and fit better, they also help athletes perform better. Many of these require uses of new or specialist technology within the manufacture of the garments, not just the materials they were made from.
The market leaders present these specialist technologies at Texprocess, the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials from June 10 – 13, 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany in co-location with Techtextil, International Trade Fair for technical textiles and non-wovens from June 11 – 13, 2013. .
Smart textiles are an example. The Adidas miCoach Elite System was included within Adidas’s Olympic Performance Sports Bra. It has also been introduced to football to help with coaching and game monitoring. For this, the miCoach Elite System includes a small data cell that fits in a protective pocket located within the back of a player’s base layer, between the shoulder blades.
Connected by a series of electrodes and sensors woven into the fabric of the base layer, the cell wirelessly transmits more than 200 data records per second from each player to a central computer which is instantaneously displayed in a series of simplified insights and results on the coach’s tablet or iPad enabling the coach to monitor the work load of an individual player by measuring every move, heartbeat and step, compare one athlete with another, or view the whole team, to gain a complete picture of the game both physically and physiologically.
For the Olympics, Speedo introduced its FASTSKIN Racing System which combines the swimsuit, cap and goggles into a unified system, which Speedo claim enhances both comfort and hydrodynamic efficiency, with a full body passive drag reduction of up to 16.6%, an 11% improvement in swimmers' oxygen economy enabling them to swim stronger for longer, and a 5.2% reduction in body active drag.
Accurate three dimensional head mapping data is used to ensure the cap and goggles are made to fit head and face contours of each swimmer exactly, delivering optimum comfort, improved hydrodynamic performance and ease of use’. Different fabric construction, surface structures, fibres and finishes on the body suit combine to help reduce skin friction drag, water absorption and create graduated compression across different body zones, whilst the seam framework provides a flatter, more efficient profile and gives greater stability.
3D body scanners are key to this close individual fitting. These not only automatically measure the body in hundreds or even thousands of unique places, some contain automatic 3D digital avatar creation from the scan including face texturing from a photo, together with body shape and body composition analysis tools, enabling a virtual try-on of garments within seconds.
Three-dimensional CAD software is used to help develop the design for sportswear. It is used to create custom fit models, build life-like digital clothing samples, and adjust these based on virtual fit. Users provide the software with the digital pattern, the type of material with fabric values (such as stretch, weight, etc.) and the measurements and shape of the fit model. The software will accurately create the sample.
The digital sample of the garment can then be seen draped on a 3D virtual fit model. Where a sports animation capability is included, the virtual garment can be analyzed on the virtual model whilst it is undertaking sports such as soccer, jogging, cycling, ice skating, etc. The software can actually show a sample-in-motion that allows for a virtual review of the design, fit, athletic movement and artwork placement in advance of the actual garment being cut and sewn, whilst images and videos can be shared with customers and clients before any physical sample is made.
Companies producing key individual and team athletes’ leotards and other close fitting gymnastic clothing rely on unique patterns and styling. However, increasing the complexity of these products cause development and production challenges for the company. Converting an increasing number of imaginative sketches for short run, multi-size orders, into usable, practical patterns in a wide range of sizes requires not only a talented patternmaker, but also a powerful technology solution.
The growing number of smaller, decorative pieces needs optimized marker-making as materials will include highest quality elastanes and multi-stretch fabrics, often pre-printed with holograms and glitter. Cutting is further complicated by the need for highly intricate markers. This calls for a powerful CAD package for design, grading, marker making, cut order planning and computerised cutting, as well as an effective PLM and ERP system to ensure the multiplicity of small or individual orders are produced on time.
Apart from redesigning materials, patterns and surface architectures for the Nike Pro TurboSpeed uniforms on key areas of the athlete's form to assist aerodynamic drag reduction, the interior surface is as smooth, even and uninterrupted as possible. By placing elastics and edge finishes on the outside of the garment and incorporating an innovative flat, smooth waistband, bulkiness and abrasions are virtually eliminated.
Thus it is not only the design, fit, choice and use of materials which is important in performance sportswear. The entire method of construction can have a significant effect on the effectiveness of the product. This leads to consideration of all the different technologies which can be used throughout the process. This includes tension free fabric spreading, multi-ply verses single ply cutting, colour matching, needle and thread choices, stitch types, feed types, ultrasonic and high frequency welding, bonding, heat sealing, fusing and much else.
Much sportswear is highly branded, maybe incorporating transfer printing, digital printing, screen printing, embroidery, laser cutting or engraving, embossing, embroidery, appliqué. The brand needs to be protected from counterfeit and there are now technologies which can be incorporated into garments enabling immediate confirmation that a product is genuine or an imitation.
