They’re also adjustable: workers can add or remove a cooling collar or wrist cuff as needed.
In the United States, work is under way to commercialise wearable technology that mimics air conditioning, while scientists in China are working on highly reflective fabric. With more heat and more heatwaves expected in the years ahead, cooling is becoming the holy grail for garment makers.
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“As climate change pushes temperatures in extreme directions, demand from consumers for cooling apparel is also increasing at a faster pace,” says Sophie Bakalar, a partner at venture firm Collaborative Fund, which invests in climate-friendly apparel start-ups.
“This trend is likely to continue as the global south industrialises further and consumers have greater disposable income to spend on comfort.”
Extreme heat isn’t just inconvenient – it’s bad for human health, and the economy. Heat stress is particularly dangerous for children and the elderly, and can exacerbate existing medical conditions.
Productivity also takes a hit. In 2021, heat exposure cost 470 million labour hours globally in agriculture, construction, manufacturing and the service industry, according to data compiled by medical journal The Lancet.
Research shows that heatwaves are likely to become more frequent in coming decades. For companies like Techniche, that’s a recipe for growth.
Today, the start-up sells vests, hats, neck bands and other garments with built-in cooling technology to companies and individual customers in nearly 30 countries.
In 2022, it booked revenue of almost £7 million (US$8.8 million), compared with £150,000 in 2014, when Techniche launched cooling baseball caps as its first commercial product.
“The market is growing enormously,” says co-founder and managing director James Russell.
The company is now developing a cooling vest that will come equipped with smart sensors capable of monitoring workers’ biometrics and predicting when they might be at risk of heat stress.
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It’s also working on gear that can absorb heat using phase-change materials, originally developed by Nasa to help astronauts maintain a consistent body temperature in space.
On the other side of the world from Techniche’s London office, Renkun Chen, a professor of the University of California at San Diego, is working on the same problem, except that Chen is leveraging his background in mechanical engineering to design clothes that come with air conditioning.Just as conventional air-conditioning units keep a space cool by transferring heat outside of it, Chen has crafted palm-sized thermoelectric devices that react to a preferred temperature set by the user.
The devices are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and are small and flexible enough to be embedded in clothing. They offer a maximum reduction in skin temperature of 10 degrees Celsius.
“Our climate has already changed and this is irreversible,” Chen says. While cutting carbon emissions is vital, he says, “we also have to find ways to adapt to it, as more extremely hot days will surely come.”Chen says his research team has already partnered with a California-based start-up to commercialise the technology. They still need to develop an automated production line that can manufacture the thermoelectric devices at scale, which would lower production costs from several thousand dollars for one shirt to closer to US$200 (HK$1,500).
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In China, researchers from Zhejiang University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and several other institutes are taking another approach: clothes that reflect solar heat.The scientists manipulated the structure of polyester using nanomaterials and a redesigned weaving technique, resulting in a material that reflects roughly 90 per cent of the sun’s rays, according to a 2021 study published in Science journal. A conventional white cotton shirt reflects about 60 per cent of sunlight.
The reflective polyester also radiates more infrared energy than regular fabrics, which reduces body temperature.
According to the study, the material can stay as much as five degrees Celsius cooler than midday ambient air temperatures, and as much as 10 degrees Celsius cooler at night. While their work has yet to be commercialised, the study’s authors say their polyester is “readily compatible” with making garments.
Blistering summers have fuelled innovations across an array of consumer products and wearables. Tokyo-based Kuchofuku has developed a fan-equipped baby carrier, while another Japanese manufacturer, A-Mec, makes a cooling vest for dogs.
Even with the variety of approaches, most of these cooling solutions face similar limitations, says Bakalar at Collaborative Fund.
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The biggest of those is price, which will have to come down to make hi-tech cooling gear accessible and appealing. Even at a production cost of US$200 per shirt, Chen’s AC clothes would be prohibitively expensive for most.
Russell says Techniche’s cooling suit is priced comparably to mid-end gear worn by construction workers in the US and Europe, but costs more than four times as much as similar workwear in the developing world.
Some cooling clothes come with other trade-offs. To work for eight hours, Chen’s air-conditioned clothing is embedded with roughly 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) of electronic components. Techniche’s cooling vest is 20 per cent heavier than a conventional option. Then there’s the limited styles on offer, and lingering scepticism from would-be buyers.
“It’s worth noting there are no strict guardrails required to validate brand claims around cooling just yet,” Bakalar says.
All of these impediments are part of what make outdoor workers a good demographic to target: cooling clothes are more necessity than novelty for them, and companies that employ such workers are inclined to foot the bill.
Nearly 90 per cent of Techniche’s revenue comes from sectors like construction and oil drilling, Russell says.
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But today’s niche solutions could very well be tomorrow’s mainstream fashion. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Over time, entrepreneurs like Russell expect adoption of cooling clothes to spread from outdoor labourers to almost everyone.“There will come a time when people will need to wear cooling clothing with sensors in, just to walk across the street,” he says. “It’s not tomorrow. It’s not the next day. [But] it’s absolutely inevitable.”
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