Teijin Frontier has launched a new heat insulating structure which combines sweat absorption and quick drying for innerwear and heat insulation for brushed-finish intermediate wear, or middler, worn between the inner and outer layers to retain heat. The new structure is positioned as a key material for outdoor wear in fall and winter 2021 collections.
Eventually, applications of the new structure will include outdoor, sports, casual and uniform applications, targeting annual sales of one million meters in fiscal 2025.
The new structure offers a new type of bulky plush structure that does not brush. It is a double raschel knitted fabric cut in half with high precision. Its middle nodes are made with Octa, Teijin Frontier’s highly modified hollow-core fibre with eight projecting fins aligned in a radial pattern. It also uses a distinct dyeing technology to maximise Octa’s crimping function and stabilise its high-quality plush structure. Unprecedented comfort is enhanced with heat insulation (lightweight bulkiness and warmth) and yarn tips on the skin side that evenly absorb sweat and dry quickly, according to a press release by Teijin.
Outdoor wear warmth is determined by outer, middler, and inner garments which are added or excluded by the wearer in accordance with expectations regarding level of activity and usage environment. However, the expanding everyday use of outdoor wear has raised the demand for single layers offering two-layer functionality, in particular, a compact layer with both middler and inner functions. Whereas brushing yarn is mainly used to achieve heat insulation in middler, the inner layer typically requires sweat-absorption and quick-drying functions. Until now, however, it has not been possible to combine middler and inner functions because uneven surface caused by brushing yarn decreases sweat-absorption and quick-drying function.
