Fashion meets technology: the stainless shirt
As
fashion and technology are inventing new ways to congregate, futuristic fabrics have been in development for some time now. Fashion startup Dropel
Fabrics wants to close the gap between everyday clothes and wearable
technology. The six-month-old company has set out to integrate its hydrophobic textiles — which
allow spilled liquids to roll right off the fabric — into the production cycles
of popular retailers and up-and-coming designers.
Dropel
isn’t the only hydrophobic fabric out there, but it has a promising feature
that others don't: It feels almost exactly like plain-Jane cotton. Dropel’s
goal isn’t to start its own line of hydrophobic clothes, which other startups
have done, but rather to
stain-proof everyday cotton fabrics, from kids’ clothes to button-down shirts.
Six retailers, including menswear and home furnishing brands, have already partnered
with the company.
To
achieve its magic the ISO-certified textiles are produced by adding
stain-repelling nanotechnology into the fabric between the dyeing and knitting
process. This allows their gear to fend off just about any liquid, as long as
no physical pressure is applied, according to Dropel co-founder and President
Bradley Feinstein. The cost of producing the garments with the technology rose
only 5%, while retailers can see up to a 40% increase in sales, according to a
client case study. “This is everyday wear,” Feinstein said. “Just better.”
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