Moisture management is one of the key performance criteria in modern sports and active outdoor wear is moisture management—the ability of a garment to transport moisture away from the skin to the garment’s outer surface.
The market is dominated by Invista’s portfolio of moisture management fabrics—which include CoolMax, Tactel Aquator, ThermaStat, Thermax, and Thermolite Base. However, the pace of development has accelerated over the past ten years, and a growing number of other companies have started to compete. Such companies include American Fibers and Yarn, Comfort Technologies, Hind, Honeywell, Intera, Intex, Lenzing, Marmot, Milliken, Mitsui, Nano-Tex, Nike, Patagonia, Pearl Izumi, Polartec, Reebok, Rhovyl, Schoeller, Tomen, USA-Pro, and Wellman.
For applications in which wicking is essential—such as base layer garments—the most commonly used material is polyester. This is often chemically modified to create a fabric in which the fibres encourage moisture to migrate through it. However, fabrics which are made from modified wool, cotton and polyamide (nylon) may provide similar or superior properties to polyester.
The number of moisture management fabrics on the market has increased dramatically in recent years. This trend is likely to continue over the next few years as manufactures strive to boost the comfort of their offerings.
As the number of fabrics and fibres with moisture management properties increases, so will the number of applications. In addition to sportswear and active wear, there is growing interest in the use of moisture management fabrics in the flame retardant apparel market.
The next generation of textiles is likely to incorporate nanotechnology, as it has already been proven that extremely fine fibre surfaces have beneficial properties. In addition, the near future could see the development of smart fabrics which are able to respond to changes in the environment by adjusting their pore size or thickness at a given moment to facilitate moisture transmission.
