I’m not sure how many of the events I watched during this summer’s Olympics. More than I should have probably, but I did watch a bit from the seat of a stationary bike so maybe it isn’t too bad. But as we watch the closing ceremony on Sunday, I bet we won’t see one of the new stars that was made. I mean cotton. What? You didn’t see it? I saw a whole lot of it but until cotton friend Wes Underwood drew it my attention to it, I hadn’t realized it.

photo via cc from mikep on Flicker

Okay, I know there was a lot of performance wear on athletes. You see uniforms know with slick stripes for aerodynamics or to help ensure they glide the swimmer through the water. Those aren’t cotton. And most of the athletes wore the gray jackets which also appeared to be mostly man-made materials. However, cotton was seen in the pool, on the volleyball and basketball courts, throughout track and field events, on soccer fields and more.

It’s everywhere: on abs, legs, backs, even backsides.

The neon tape swathing sprinters and swimmers alike, called Kinesio, is taking London by storm.

“It’s all over the Olympics,” said Dr. Jennifer Solomon of New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery. “Athletes love it.”

Developed by a Japanese chiropractor, Kinesio claims to cut pain and boost performance. And judging by its prominence at this year’s Games, athletes think it works.

“If you ask them, they say it does,” said Solomon, team physician for the U.S. Tennis Association. “But there’s no solid scientific evidence that this tape helps.”

Crafted from cotton and medical grade adhesive, Kinesio is more flexible than traditional tape. And when strategically strewn along injured muscles, its gentle tug promotes circulation to help clear out damage, according to its maker.

via Injured Olympians Turn to Tape: The Sticky Science of Kinesio – ABC News.

Looking around to learn more I found more and more elaborate placings of the tape and find it interesting that the folks behind Kinesio do training sessions as the tape should be placed in certain ways based on the injury, muscles, joints, etc. Some of the designs at the Olympics have almost look artistic as you see six-packs striped and shoulders sculpted.

Kinesio describes the tape as “elastic therapeutic taping” as being made of gentle cotton fiber that can be worn for 3 to 5 days providing 24 hour treatment. On the website, they highlight several points on what it does on the website including:

• It creates a lifting effect on the skin’s surface, which improves circulation and relieves pain.
• It may be applied using different amounts and directions of tension, so the tape has the ability to relax or stimulate muscles.
• It does not limit the wearer?s range of motion.
• The distinctive wave-pattern weave moves with the wearer?s movements.

It seems that this is the latest thing athletes feel improves performance. It’s hard to tell where science ends and the power of positive thinking begins. And I bet this will be much like those necklaces you couldn’t help but notice in the World Series, they will be showing up on courts, diamonds, pools and all in our own neighborhoods. Products like this don’t have to be reviewed by the FDA (which reviews foods and drugs that make health claims) but it seems clear, athletes think these things make a difference and performance has such a mental component that maybe you see athletes excel if they’ve had a recent stress taped.

I have to say, I think this may be found in a lot of other areas of life, not just sports. If a mental or emotional component leads someone to think something is better, then it truly is better for them. It just may not translate to being better for all of us. And it may not be proved through science. There may be some science there, just not indesputable. On other things, full scientific packages have been reviewed and found solid by some and yet that still isn’t enough for others. A lack of scientific support surely doesn’t mean we won’t see it anymore.

Related articles

• What the Olympics Can Teach about Humanizing our Company Brand (brianvickery.com)
• Olympic Gymnastics and Branding – Deductions Keep You From the Gold (brianvickery.com)
• The Silent Star of the 2012 Olympics: Kinesio Tape (washingtonian.com)
• Kinesio tape: The latest Olympic accessory (cnn.com)

The post That Bright Tape so Many Olympic Athletes Have On is Made of Cotton! appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

We’ve all heard it…. if you are going to run or do exercise, you want some type of fabric that wicks away the moisture. Somewhere along the line, that seemed to limit the use of natural fibers like my beloved cotton. But there are a couple of products in the market that have more people looking at cotton. And I just wanted to point them out in case you are in the market for some great gear for athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. Since the natural fibers offer a better feel, increasing some of the performance characteristics means everyone can have a win-win!

UnderArmour’s Charged Cotton

I have mentioned Charged Cotton from UnderArmour and previously posted about the ad campaign that had me UnderArmour free. But I only saw UnderArmour’s cotton products recently while shopping my 16-year-old nephew (it was his birthday shopping trip!). I was impressed with how big the selection of Charged Cotton was! The signs clearly position it as active wear when you aren’t sure of or you don’t care what the weather will do. Take to the road in the rain cause its weather tough. There are hoodies, t-shirts, etc. and they all feel really good. I may just have some under the Christmas tree as a result!

Gear Junkie Reviews ‘Performance’ Underwear made of Cotton

A couple of weeks ago, I caught this product review from Gear Junkie and thought to myself…. this HAS to go on the blog! If you are familiar with the Gear Junkie site, you know that whether you need winter boots, the latest in cycling or camping gear, etc, then its a site to check out. To see them covering underwear is…. well…. unexpected.

Cotton underwear. Seriously, that is the topic of this column. But these boxer shorts, made by Longworth Industries Inc. of North Carolina, are not knitted with your run-of-the-mill white fluff. Marketed as “performance underwear,” the company’s Polarmax AYG line of men’s and women’s boxers and briefs feature a special cotton type branded as TransDRY.

The quick summary of TransDRY is that it is a fabric that looks and feels like normal cotton, but it breathes like a synthetic. The secret is in a chemical treatment applied to the threads that helps disperse moisture that might otherwise get caught up in the fine filaments on each cotton strand.

In my use, the TransDRY treatment seems to work. I have worn the boxer shorts on long hikes and on backpacking trips that last a couple days. (No, I did not change my underwear the whole trip!) The TransDRY fabric is indeed a neat product, as it creates a comfortable, non-clammy environment inside boxer shorts that otherwise might act like normal Fruit of the Looms.

A bonus is the underwear’s anti-microbial treatment, which is necessary for trips where your skivvies might do duty for a couple days in a row. The treatment helps with odor and “enhanced comfort and hygiene,” as the company puts it.

The feel of TransDRY is that of a thin cotton fabric, comfortable and light. On the underwear, a strong elastic waistband keeps them in place, and an athletic cut allows for free motion.

via ‘Performance’ Underwear made of Cotton | Gear Review | Gear Junkie.

Do you have any athletes on your shopping lists? If so, this may work!

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The post Cotton is Getting Major Attention from Athletes #GetFit appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Its getting close to reality and closer to a store near you. What am I talking about? Cotton clothing from UnderArmour, the brand that was not showing much love to my beloved natural fiber before. (A past blog post does more background.) But they are officially launching the Charged Cotton line and it will be shipping soon for March sales.

Wired magazine says the about face was led by the reality that their target customers (people in their late teens through 30s) have an average of seven cotton T-shirts for each synthetic shirt in their wardrobe. Yep, it’s the best way to grow the brand to use cotton fiber and then put a bit of UA spin to it by combining the vast majority of cotton with five percent elastane, which is the fiber that provides a stretch fabric. The result is comfort, wicking & dryability.

The production process starts with alternating yarns of hydrophobic and hydrophilic cotton. The hydrophilic part is responsible for cotton’s moisture absorption, which can extend to 25 times its weight in water. But the inclusion of a hydrophobic yarn, which contains molecules that reject water, helps athletes stay as dry as when they first put on the garment. “That’s what causes the sweat to wick away from the cotton and dry quicker,” Stafford said of the hydrophobic yarns.

Heather Mitts, a defender with the Atlanta Beat of the Women’s Professional Soccer league, explained to Wired.com that the cotton products she used to wear while training were too heavy. Not so with Charged Cotton: “You don’t really notice that you’re wearing cotton.”

via How Under Armour Learned to Love Cotton Fiber| Playbook.

I’m going to have to check the line out next time I’m at Sports Authority or Dick’s Sporting Goods. Wonder what the sales people will think when I mention how I have a bunch of cotton farmer friends…. and imagine the glaze over when I ask about the hydrophobic and hydrophillic yarns. I think I’m going to like this!

The post Under Armour Charged Cotton Coming Soon appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Today is a day that has taken QUITE A WHILE to come. It’s one that I am POSITIVE a number of friends have been waiting for! For years, I have walked into various sporting goods shops… and as I’d near the clothing sections, I’d feel an uneasiness… In fact, I’d feel damn well unwelcome frequently. So much so that if a certain thing was seen, I would take photos with my phone & share the with words of caution to friends. Here’s what would make my redhead temper flare:

The ad would fire me up. And when I saw friends wearing Under Armour clothes, I’d mention the ad campaign. And when I saw land grant schools (who were being paid tens of thousands of dollars by thousands of cotton farmers) sporting the UA logo on team gear, I would get mad. I couldn’t think that maybe the garment had some performance characteristics like wickability or something because all I saw was “COTTON IS THE ENEMY.” 

Now, to be clear, I prefer cotton and think that the fabric of my life feels awesome. I tend to prefer other natural fibers like silk, linen and wool too. BUT I don’t think I’ve even said polyester or any other synthetics were the enemy. In fact, I think there is a real role for them. And I say that while wearing a pair of jeans, a favorite t-shirt (both 100 percent cotton) and a Polartech Mountain Hard Wear jacket that is 100 percent polyester.

See, it was the heated word “enemy” that repeatedly brought my heated reaction. Sort of a tit-for-tat that was unwritten. And I’m sure I am not the only one as I saw a friend from Texas recently point to the phrase when a mutual friend’s profile photo on Facebook included the UA logo.

But months ago, I began hearing rumors in the cotton industry that maybe we could all get along. I was told Under Armour’s ad campaign had changed and visits to their website had me coming up empty for the cotton hatin’ words. I decided to cool off & have practiced UA neutrality for a while. Then came an announcement I had hoped for, it popped up in the daily news email from the National Cotton Council.

Under Armour to introduce cotton shirt in 2011

Baltimore Business Journal – by Ryan Sharrow

Cotton is no longer Under Armour Inc.’s enemy.

Under Armour CEO Kevin A. Plank said Tuesday the Baltimore sportswear maker will introduce its “first true performance cotton shirt” next spring.

The product will “introduce Under Armour to a whole new level of consumers,” Plank told analysts on a conference call while discussing the company’s third-quarter earnings. “We’re confident this innovation will expand both the reach and the equity of our brand.”

For years, Plank has declared “cotton is the enemy” to investors and customers.

via Under Armour to introduce cotton shirt in 2011 | Baltimore Business Journal.

WOW! Read the first line of that article again — “Cotton is no longer Under Armour Inc.’s enemy.” Seriously, that makes my day. And it is the sort of thing that we need to see a lot more of, if you ask me.

I see or hear equally hot words pop up all too often. In fact, a couple of weeks ago in a Twitter discussion — a forum founded on the idea of bringing different viewpoints together — I saw words like “bigot” and “invade” used to talked about people who believed differently and ways to counter those opinions. It’s still stuck with me today. And yet, had the words been better chosen, I would have most certainly agreed with the person’s viewpoint. The word “bigot” turned me off immediately so I can only imagine what it did for people who disagreed.

If you use a word that strong, you have to realize you have killed any productive conversation. You could be expressing your opinion on something totally unrelated but by showing a lack of acceptance of diversity, you make things black and white rather than allow for grays.

The fact is one word can make a difference between possibility of working together to being diametrically opposed to each other. At the end of the day, I just don’t see that as helping any of us. It’s easier not to make enemies to begin with if you ask me.

The post Under Armour Makes Friends Where Enemies Once Were appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.