f a b r i c s & f i b e r s

THAN 2,000 YEARS AGO, HIPPOCRATES,

known as the Father of Medicine, wrote

about the medicinal powers of silver, noting its ability to heal

wounds. The Phoenicians and other ancient people also

lined containers with the metal, which killed bacteria and

prevented water from spoiling. Flash forward a couple of

millennia, and hospitals are using silver in a variety of ap-

plications, from bandages to bed sheets, to silver drops put

into the eyes of newborn babies.

For hikers, climbers, paddlers and anyone who is active, silver’s greatadvantage is that it kills the bacteria produced when we sweat. To borrowa phrase from a silver-tongued philosopher (actually my old collegeroommate), the naturally occurring element is like “Deo for the BO.”

While silver fabrics first made their way into outdoor appareland clothing about five years ago, they’ve really started to shine thelast couple of years. Once a fringe technology, more apparel andfootwear manufacturers are using silver-based antimicrobials, whilea greater number of silver fabric suppliers are entering the outdoormarket. As consumer demand for odor-fighting clothing grows, thesilver story could be a persuasive pitch on the retail sales floor.

The outdoor market has just begun to tap silver’s potential, said DavidWhitley, business manager for Agion Technologies, which has provided

silver-based antimicrobials to brands in theoutdoor market, such as Timberland, DuPontand adidas. Whitley said companies areseeking natural and durable antimicrobialtechnologies that serve as alternatives tochemical treatments. “It’s a market need thathas not been fully addressed yet,” he said,“and we’re just getting into (silver antimi-crobials) in any kind of size.”

The producers of silver-based antimi-crobials say the technology will flourishas consumers come to expect clothes thatinhibit odor, just as they now expectgarments that wick moisture. “Look atcasual apparel in department stores, andyou’re starting to see phrases like ‘miti-gates odor.’ Consumers recognize this, andit’s an attribute they’re coming to expect,”Whitley said.

We’d argue that outdoor customers aren’tquite clamoring for odor-fighting clothes,but the demand will likely increase, andmore product stories will have a silver lining.

A FEW SHINING EXAMPLESAt the 2006 Outdoor Retailer Winter Markettrade show in Salt Lake City, there were 23brands on the show floor that incorporatedthe X-Static brand of silver fiber. At theshow, we found silver fibers in apparel,socks, shoes and even insoles, and tooknote of the silver trend in a FebruarySNEWS® report (go to www.snewsnet.comto read, “Outdoor Retailer Winter Market’06 Trends: Base layers”).

This year, InSport expanded its Xodusline of X-Static clothing to include longsleeve and short sleeve T-shirts, long johns,briefs, boxers, a skullcap and even a thong.

Even the most core outdoor companieshave embraced silver, and MountainHardwear’s new Extend Mid-weight Zip T($55) is made with Milliken’s VisaEndurance antimicrobial fabric.

While most apparel brands utilize silverfabrics to fight odor, Wigwam Mills’ newX-Static Medical and X-Static LightweightMedical socks are designed for people with

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f a b r i c s & f i b e r s

diabetes and other foot problems such asneuropathy (a nerve disorder).

While X-Static and Visa Endurance havebeen in the market a few years, we also sawnew silver antimicrobial technologies intro-duced recently, including Hot Chillys Bio-Silver nylon. Not only is Bio-Silver instandard base layer tops and bottoms, butHot Chillys has also added it to more inti-mate fare like bras, camisoles and boy shorts.

Another new antimicrobial called Silpurewas unveiled in late 2005. Sometimes soldunder the name Ultra Fresh, Silpure is aproduct of Thomson Research Associates,a 51-year-old Canadian company in Toronto,Ontario, that produces all sorts of antimi-crobials, including ones that use chemicals,such as triclosan. “We wanted to develop aproduct you can use in a broad range andreplaces triclosan,” said Glenn Runciman,director of sales for Thomson. Whiletriclosan is effective (it’s the main ingre-dient in many soaps and deodorants), someof Thomson’s customers want a naturalalternative to chemical antimicrobials.

Runciman said that silver antimicro-bials first emerged in the 1980s, butThomson didn’t produce its own versiondue to high cost. But new manufacturing

techniques that require smaller amountsof silver have made it more affordable.“Silpure allows you to sprinkle fine parti-cles of silver over a fabric or fiber, ratherthan using inefficient lumps,” saidRunciman. Also, companies have foundways to make smaller amounts of silvermore efficient and durable.

Agion encases silver ions in a ceramicpowder called zeolite. When salt fromsweat touches the ceramic grains, thesilver ions become charged and killmicrobes. Jeff Trigolo, chief technologyofficer for Agion, said that it only takes asmall amount of silver to kill bacteria, andthe ceramic delivery system doles out theions in small amounts only when needed.

Milliken’s Visa Endurance product,introduced to the market in 2002, alsoencases silver in a ceramic cage bondedto a fabric surface, which prevents silverfrom shedding. Lyn Murajda, a divisionbrand manager for Milliken’s apparel andspecialty fabrics division, said that thismakes the silver antimicrobial last longerthan a chemical treatment that can washout relatively quickly.

If you track the growth of VisaEndurance, you get a good idea of what’s

happened with silver in the outdoormarket. Though Visa Endurance firstarrived four years ago in Terramar prod-ucts, Milliken really started a seriousmarketing campaign for it in 2004. “That’swhen it really started to take off,” Murajdasaid. “We’ve added a lot of new customers,not only in the outdoor market, but inhunting and fishing.” In addition toMountain Hardwear, it supplies UnderArmour, Dillard’s (for a private-labelproduct) and Bass Pro Shops.

About the same time Visa Endurancebegan its marketing campaign, U.S. salesalso jumped for X-Static, perhaps the mostrecognized silver fiber. Introduced byNoble Fiber Technologies in Scranton,Penn., five years ago, X-Static is now usedby 50 outdoor brands globally. Joel Fuery,president of the Noble Fiber Technologiesconsumer division, which supplies theoutdoor industry, said X-Static’s businesshas grown 75 percent to 100 percent ayear for the past five years, but the U.S.sales have really picked up in the lastcouple of years.

X-Static not only has a consumer divi-sion, but also a medical division that part-ners with Johnson & Johnson to make

bandages, an industrial division that serv-ices the electronics market, and a militarydivision that supplies six pairs of X-Staticsocks to every U.S. Army soldier.

One thing interesting about X-Static isthat its growth hasn’t been slowed by thefact that it’s one of the most expensive silverantimicrobial technologies on the market.Compared to other products, X-Static usesa greater amount of silver to coat entirefibers, so it carries a higher price tag. But,Fuery said, X-Static offers a higher levelof performance that’s required in themedical industry. “We’ve stuck to a highstandard that is too expensive for a lot ofbrands and companies,” he said.

While X-Static tends to work with high-end brands, Whitley of Agion said that lessexpensive technologies might allow thesilver concept to spread more rapidlythrough a wider range of markets. And thesilver fiber producers we spoke with saidthey try to keep from passing costs along tothe consumer. Nevertheless, a silver-basedshirt can cost the consumer about $10 morethan a synthetic shirt without the tech-nology. Retailers may need to explain tocustomers the reason for the higher price,and keep in mind that most consumers are

still not aware of silver antimicrobials. Infact, many shops say that customers appre-ciate anti-odor clothing, but they’re not yetasking for it specifically.

Wes O’Neal, outdoor shop manager forSunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop inLawrence, Kan., said he sells plenty ofsocks with X-Static and MountainHardwear Extend shirts, but customersrarely ask for odor-fighting products. “Wedo tell them about what the silver does,”O’Neal said, noting that it’s a helpful partof the general sales pitch.

James Sloan of High Country Outfittersin Atlanta agrees that few customers areclued in about antimicrobials. “But that’ssomething we tell people about, as far asdescribing the differences between under-wear. And they’ll lean toward the ones thathave it,” he said.

On the other hand, Neptune Mountain-eering in Boulder, Colo., isn’t bringing inany synthetic clothes with odor-fightingtreatments. “We’re seeing a significantincrease in our wool base layer business,and that is partially driven by one of thechief benefits of wool—that it doesn’t takeon odor,” said Mary Michaels, buyer forNeptune Mountaineering.

Apparently, the champions of silver stillneed to win some hearts and minds in theoutdoor market. But, they do have onething on their side—right now there’s anantibacterial craze sweeping the consumerproducts market.

CLEAN CRAZE, CLEAN CONCERN Roll your shopping cart down the aisles ofpretty much any grocery store and you’llpass dozens of products that claim to killbacteria and microbes. “In the early to mid-90s, we started seeing an influx of antimi-crobial and antibacterial products,” saidStuart Levy, Ph.D., a professor in the TuftsUniversity department of microbiology. “Itwas sparked to some extent by all the newsabout emerging infections, and peoplebegan to think, ‘We better take care ofourselves.’ But what really did it were themarketing people.” Once the productmarketers began to highlight the antibac-terial properties and jazzed up their pack-aging, the trend really took off. “The firstwas the soaps,” said Levy. “Once the anti-bacterial label was put on, they becamemuch more sought-after—they becamemarket winners.”

Levy and other scientists have been

As consumer demand for odor-fighting clothing grows, the silver storycould be a PERSUASIVE PITCH on the retail sales floor.»

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concerned for years that the flood of anti-bacterial products might contribute to thedevelopment of resistant strains ofbacteria, or “super bugs.” Experts argueover the notion that antimicrobial prod-ucts contribute to the problem, and noone can say for sure whether bacteriacould become resistant to silver.

“Theoretically, something could becomeresistant to silver,” said X-Static’s Fuery.“But the common thinking in the market-place and medical community is it won’t,because it’s been around forever. Bacteriagenerally become resistant within a 20- to50-year timeline.”

In March, the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention published the results of astudy that examined whether householdantibacterial cleaning and hygiene productscould create drug-resistant bacteria on users’hands. The study concluded: “Antibacterialproduct use did not lead to a significantincrease in antimicrobial drug resistanceafter 1 year…nor did it have an effect onbacterial susceptibility to triclosan. However,more extensive and longer term use oftriclosan might provide a suitable environ-ment for emergence of resistant species.Further research on this issue is needed.”

In a statement sent to GearTrends®,Patagonia said, “Silver mining and refiningis environmentally damaging.” It also saidthat silver from discarded fabrics couldleach into groundwater and waterways.“Or when silver gets into wastewaterthrough home laundering, it may beabsorbed or ingested by algae and smallfish,” Patagonia stated.

In the late 90s, environmental expert EricWilmanns worked for Patagonia andresearched the prospect of using silver asan antimicrobial. He suggested that theconcern over extraction techniques couldbe justified. “Silver mining is usually open-pit or strip mining, and extensive chemicalprocesses are used to process the silver,”he said. “Environmental regulations incountries other than Europe and NorthAmerica are suspect. And one problem isthat the supply chain is so diluted, it’s hardto tell where silver is coming from.”

Silver fiber producers counter that theelement is used widely throughout the world,and the extraction to supply their productsmakes a very small impact in the grandscheme of things. “A pair of X-Static sockshas only 0.01 ounces of silver,” said Fuery.

As for the threat to groundwater andwastewater, Murajda said that Milliken’smanufacturing is a closed-loop process so,at that stage, silver isn’t deposited into the

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environment. “U.S. manufacturing regula-tions are so strict that (water contamina-tion) is not an issue,” she said. In addition,Murajda said that a full washing machineload of Visa Endurance shirts woulddischarge less silver into the water systemthan the amount released when you washsilverware in the sink or dishwasher.

Beyond its environmental concerns,Patagonia’s other beef with silver is that itsimply didn’t perform well during its owncompany field tests. The SNEWS® andGearTrends® editorial team has casuallytested several socks and shirts that includesilver, and they generally kept the stinkfactor to a minimum. Or would there havebeen stink without it? One of our testerscompletely sweated out an X-Static shirt,and then chucked it into the back of histruck, where it cooked in 90-degree heatfor three days. Afterward, the shirt gave offonly a mild odor, so it appears to us thatthe technology worked in this instance. Or,maybe we just don’t stink as much.

Naturally, not everyone has the samebody chemistry, so products may workbetter for certain people. Also, Murajdasaid that some people have noses that aremore sensitive. “I have a very sensitive noseand can smell things very sharply, but myson—when we pass a dead skunk on theside of the road—he thinks it smells likelemons.” She said her best testimonial camefrom a New Hampshire couple who hikedin Thailand, India and Sri Lanka for 10weeks. “The husband used to have tochange his shirt twice a day, and he didn’thave to with our product,” she said.

Can silver win over the masses, as it did thefolks from New Hampshire? The jury’s stillout, but silver shouldn’t be a tough sell. Theelement enjoys a favorable reputation, andit’s present in the lives of many people. Afterall, we trust its use in our finest flatware.

Though silver’s presence in the outdoormarket has primarily been in apparel andfootwear, we can envision that it might beused in other types of gear, such as hydra-tion systems. There’s a saying that historyrepeats itself, and wouldn’t it be some-thing if the very element that preservedwater in vessels thousands of years agomade its way into water containers of the21st century.

» To download extra copies of this maga-zine, go to www.GearTrends.com/magazines.

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Many of you have been asking for it, and SNEWS® hasdelivered—RSS feed capability for all of ourcontent. Now, you can be in-the-know aboutindustry events, news, stories and more, as soonas the story goes live. Yet another reason SNEWS®

is your outdoor industry news leader. To learn more, goto www.snewsnet.com/rss.

DO YOU RSS? WE DO!

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