The New York Times magazine recently published an article, “The Evolution of Fleece, From Scratchy to Snuggie”, which takes a historical look at the product category Polartec invented.

Polartec fleece products are now more lightweight, warm, functional, versatile and durable than ever. And we keep working to make them better.

The Evolution of Fleece, From Scratchy to Snuggie

By HILARY GREENBAUM and DANA RUBINSTEIN

Published: November 25, 2011

Even in the heyday of the polyester age — during the height of John Travolta and white bodysuits — when people wanted to stay warm, they still wore wool. And that venerable material had its downsides. It was notoriously itchy. When it got wet, it stank. And moths liked to eat it.

By the late 1970s, however, Malden Mills, a Massachusetts textile maker that specialized in baby bunting, began experimenting with polyester’s outdoorsy potential. Under the direction of the mill’s owner, Aaron Feuerstein, a team of engineers wound superfine polyester yarn into a dense fabric resembling terry cloth, only lighter. After its fibers were brushed, the fabric’s volume greatly increased; they also provided insulation and could wick water away.

In 1981, through an unusual collaboration with Yvon Chouinard, owner of a little-known mountaineering outfitter called Patagonia, Feuerstein introduced his invention to the burgeoning sportswear market. “We had the finest technical group, engineering group and research group in the textile industry,” recalls the father of fleece. “We built performance into the fabric. We were so proud of what we did.”

“GAP HAD IT TO THE MAX”

The first-generation fleece, called Synchilla (as in synthetic chinchilla), was used in Patagonia’s seminal Snap-T pullover (1985), which was subsequently made famous by family ski trips across the Northeast. “For many, many years,” says Rob Bondurant, vice president of marketing at Patagonia, “Synchilla was the Kleenex of fleece, if you will.”

Within a decade, however, fleece had become an inescapable element of daily life. And just as the fabric’s lightness appealed to sportsmen, its colorfulness, lack of fur and relative inexpensiveness made it, in a word, trendy. Scott Schulman, who runs The Sartorialist, a popular style blog, is reminded of the transformation that jersey went through after Chanel used it in her early collections. Before that, he says, jersey “was thought of as underwear fabric.”

Eventually, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean and others incorporated fleece in everything. “In the late ’90s, Gap had it to the max,” explains Ingrid Johnson, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. According to Nate Simmons, director of marketing at Polartec, the successor company to Malden Mills, “It completely changed the way the world dresses for cold weather.”

COMING IN FROM THE COLD

Ever since its early days, fleece has been continuously improved. The yarn — now about as fine as cashmere — was honed to prevent the fabric from pilling and wind from blowing through. As a result, the unmistakable fuzzy material is unusually lightweight and warm — an unreasonable expectation only a synthetic could fulfill. In 1993, Patagonia and Polartec began exploring how to make fleece from recycled content. The first iterations, however, were fraught with issues; they were also scratchy. By 2006, though, they were able to make recycled fabrics at costs comparable to the original.

Beyond embracing environmental issues, fleece’s greatest impact has probably been on the eco-chic fashion industry that blossomed around it. No longer does a man, come winter, have to hide his svelte figure beneath dowdy layers of down and wool. And no longer does he have to wear it outdoors. Lands’ End, for instance, uses fleece for monogrammable dog jackets with reflective trim, beanbag covers and Christmas stockings. Of course, for $10 anyone can enjoy the Snuggie, a fleece blanket cum smock that no mountain climber ever could have imagined.

Did you know Polartec is a major supplier to the US Military? Well, out of the company’s Lawrence, MA headquarters, Polartec has worked with the US Military for over a decade – developing new fabric technologies that protect our troops. No melt, no drip fleece that protects soldiers from skin burns during IED explosions? That was us, and we couldn’t drive this innovation without all the dedicated people who work with us everyday.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown recently toured Polartec’s headquarters in Lawrence, MA, where he met with executives and some of the several hundred employees that work there. The Senator even held a short Q&A with employees.

Polartec President Andy Vecchione shows Senator Brown a garment made from Polartec® Power Dry® FR, a flame resistant, highly breathable and quick drying fabric designed for high speed tactical operations.

Senator Brown can't get over how soft the fleece feels.

Polartec provides discounted rates on its fabric for MoJo to use in its product line of apparel and logo-wear. MoJo employs a full staff of single mothers and the proceeds from MoJo product purchases are dedicated to providing free childcare, higher than average wages, healthcare, and educational opportunities for MoJo employees.

We were thrilled to see a feature in the Boston Globe this week on MoJo, which will hopefully help to get the word out about an organization that we are proud to support.

According to the article, “MoJo, which has been operating for six months, expects to generate $3.7 million in sales in its first full year of business. The company has already scored contracts to produce jackets for Fortune 500 businesses like Accenture and Morgan Stanley, college fleeces for Big East schools, such as Syracuse, and blankets for the Dave Matthews Band and other musicians under the Red Light Management music label.

By the end of the year, MoJo hopes to open factories in struggling cities beyond Lowell, which was once a thriving textile center. The company plans to bring its model of manufacturing across the country to Detroit, Oakland, and New Orleans, cities where nearly half of single-mother households live below the poverty line. ”

To read the article in its entirety, click here. To Shop for MoJo products you can also go to www.momsandjobs.com/shop.

So, why is it so cool?
Polartec NeoShell is completely waterproof (10,000mm) but unlike most hardshells on the market today with zero airflow, NeoShell allows actual air permeability (0.5 CFM or 2 l/m2/sec). Even a tiny amount of air permeability, imperceptible from a wind chill standpoint, accelerates moisture vapor transport significantly. While traditional shell fabrics require heat and pressure to build inside the garment before the membrane begins to work, Polartec NeoShell breathes actively thanks to an exclusive sub-micron fiber membrane with unprecedented air permeability. Pretty cool, huh? Here’s a diagram for you visual learners out there.

Big Shoes to Fill
This launch comes on the heels of the incredibly successful introduction of Polartec Power Shield Pro that won three “Gear of the Year” awards this fall. We are overhauling expectations for outerwear performance and creating a much drier, less steamy experience for technical users. The momentum is exciting for us, and we are eager for NeoShell to hit the market so our consumers can give it a shot.

Liberating Adventurers from Terrible Conditions
Ok, it’s not solitary confinement, but being stuck outside in layers that never dry, stay cold and wet, or never breathe enough to cool you off after a tough slog is still pretty brutal. You zip and unzip, layer and delayer, hat on, hat off. The awkward dance of a miserable athlete. With NeoShell, we aim to free you from the annoyances that you have considered for so long to come with the territory. Check out what cold baselayers have done to tele superstar Nick Devore.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

01.13.2010 – (Lawrence, Mass. / Greensboro, N.C.) – Polartec, LLC and Unifi, Inc. (NYSE: UFI) announce a new partnership introducing performance fabrics made with REPREVE 100. REPREVE 100 is made from 100 percent post-consumer waste (clear plastic water bottles).

Polartec and Unifi have been industry leaders in the development of high performance recycled content yarns and fabrics. Collaborative efforts have grown Polartec’s recycled product line from less than one percent of total production to over 30 percent in the past four years – dramatically reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption. The introduction of Repreve 100 will enable Polartec to shift much more production to recycled content by 2011. Every pound of REPREVE 100 yarn contains approximately 27 water bottles.

Andy Vecchione, president of Polartec, LLC, states, “Unifi has been an excellent partner in our quest to deliver high performance, recycled content fabrics while reducing our overall footprint throughout the supply chain. The goal has always been to use as much post consumer content as possible. We expect REPREVE 100-based Polartec fabrics will hit the consumer market in the spring of 2011.”

“In the past, limited technology presented many challenges in offering a high quality 100 percent post-consumer product,” said Roger Berrier, executive vice president for Unifi. ”As technology has evolved, we are now able to offer a first quality, 100 percent post-consumer product in the right colors and styles that Polartec requires for its fabrics.”

The transition to REPREVE 100 will be transparent to consumers except for a new hangtag and joint marketing program highlighting the benefits of Polartec performance products with REPREVE 100. The look, feel and performance of the new fabrics will be the same as virgin polyester fabrics. Every year over 21 billion plastic bottles enter the landfill, and through this partnership Unifi and Polartec hope to raise the visibility of recycling and further educate consumers to adopt more eco-friendly practices.

(From L to R) FRONT ROW: Allon Cohne (Polartec), Bill Belcourt, Janet Bergman, Kelly Cordes, Sari Anderson, Nate Simmons (Polartec) SECOND ROW: Nick Devore, Antoine Barthelemy, Michael Silitch, Mike Kloser, Laurent Valette, Doug Heinrich, Eric Yung (Polartec) Gord Betenia

This past weekend, Polartec organized the first meeting of its new 11-member Athlete Advisory Board. The group met in Boston and then traveled to HQ in Lawrence, Mass. to tour the Polartec plant. After the plant tour, the group of world-class climbers, skiers, alpinists, cyclists, guides and adventure racers sat down with Polartec’s product development team to provide feedback on current performance fabric technology and discuss some of the ‘dream’ layers they would all like to have in their packs.

The group gelled really well and by the end of the trip, lots of people were planning ski rendezvous and climbing get-togethers. The meeting exceeded everyone’s expectations and we’re all excited about the potential for real fabric innovation this group can help Polartec to create. The group consists of:

- Sari Anderson (30, Glenwood Springs, CO) is a national mountain bike champ, a world class adventure racer and randonnée ski racer.
- Antoine Barthelemy (54 of Annecy, France) is an accomplished alpinist and ski mountaineer.
- Bill Belcourt (45, Salt Lake City, UT) is a crusty alpinist and champion paraglider pilot.
- Janet Bergman (29, Madison, NH) is an accomplished all-around climber and consultant to outdoor nonprofit organizations.
- Gord Betenia (47, Vancouver, BC) is a talented ice climber, mountaineer and gear flogger.
- Kelly Cordes (40, Estes Park, CO) is a renowned alpinist, climber, writer and self-proclaimed dirtbag.
- Nick Devore (24, Aspen, CO) is a telemark freeskiing world champion and ski mountaineer.
- Doug Heinrich (47, Salt Lake City, UT, is a world-class all-around climber and multi-sport athlete.
- Mike Kloser (49, Vail, CO) is a world champion mountain biker, adventure racer and legendary multi-sport athlete.
- Laurent Valette (39, Rotherens, France) is an accomplished ultra runner and adventure racer.
- Michael Silitch (48, Chamonix, France) is a certified international mountain guide.

Checking out the huge dye jet machines

Learning about the napping and shearing process

Inside the testing lab

Look for updates, fields tests and other cool content from our Athlete Board in the months to come. Incidentally, if you’d like to learn more about Polartec’s manufacturing process, check out these videos.

Polartec receives yarn from one of its yarn vendor/partners, Unifi in North Carolina, on recyclable pallets. Trucks return to Unifi with empty pallets and also fabric scraps that can be recycled into new yarn. In 2009 30% of Polartec’s production will use recycled content yarn saving millions of pounds of CO2 emissions each year.

Dozens of spools of yarn feed into a circular knitting machine at Polartec’s main production facility in Lawrence, MA, USA. Different yarns and constructions can be combined to create hundreds of different fabrics with specific performance attributes. As the fabric is knit, it rolls up inside the bottom of the machine creating what looks like a giant terry cloth tube sock. Later this “tube sock” is slit down the middle to create flat fabric.

From the circular knitting machines, rolls of greige fabric await quality inspections before going to dyeing and finishing. These rolls look like giant terry cloth tube socks before the tube is slit to create a flat piece of fabric.

As greige goods come off the circular knitting machines, the fabric runs past a light for quality inspection. This happens before the fabric is slit, dyed, and finished.

Greige goods are dyed in “jets” that look like giant front loading washing machines. These jets apply heat and pressure to lock in color as well as performance enhancing treatments like odor resistance, anti-static, and wicking agents. New dye jets use 50% less water.

After the dye jets, a machine wrings out the fabric and then slits the fabric to create one flat piece which is then dried before finishing. Fabric next moves to be napped and then sheared in finishing.

Finishing the fabric is the process of the loops in the fabric and then shearing the yarns to an even height. This is a specialty of Polartec’s which creates long lasting, non-pilling fabrics. In this video, giant rollers covered with small wires break the loops in the fabric to create loft for warmth without weight.

Finished Polartec fabric is inspected for quality before it is shipped to apparel manufacturers.

A Martindale machine tests abrasion resistance on Polartec fabrics.

Pilling test for Polartec fabrics.