Polartec is introducing Power Air, a fabric said to reduce fiber shedding. Even the most resilient fiber is susceptible to shedding through normal wear. The construction of Polartec Power Air is said to mitigate this by encasing the insulating lofted fibers during the knitting. As the first fabric construction to encase air with a continuous yarn, the new technology has the potential to become a fundamental technology platform, and eventually provide shedding reduction to all apparel categories. Polartec recently won the Future Textile Award for Best Innovation: Sustainable Textiles from the World Textile Information Network for its new fabric. Initially intended for apparel, Polartec Power Air was publicly presented at Performance Days in Munich, Germany, on Nov. 29. The Polartec Power Air Hoody is now available from Adidas, and other brands including Mammut and Houdini are set to release their own offerings in the months to come. Power Air is the latest product of Polartec Eco-engineering, the process by which Polartec deploys recycled inputs and advanced production techniques to create innovative and sustainable fabrics. The company was a pioneer in eco-engineering sustainable fabrics, inventing the process for knitting technical fleece from post-consumer plastic bottles back in 1993.

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