TOKYO — November 22, 2023 — Teijin Frontier Co. Ltd., the Teijin Group’s fibers and products converting company, today announced the development of Microft™AR, a seamless knitwear for outdoor sports, featuring warmth that gently envelops and innovative stress-free comfort combined with a high functionality. The innovative clothing is made of a bulky fancy yarn using Teijin Frontier’s newly-developed high-performance polyester filament.
Microft AR uses highly crimped (*1) DELTAPEAk™ processed yarn as the core to create a high density loop structure to provide favorable raising and bulky heat-insulating performance while preventing fibers from falling off. Also, Teijin Frontier’s proprietary polyester filament is used for pile to provide various functionalities. Low gauge seamless knitwear (*2) made of the fancy yarn enables Microft AR to offer unique sense of fit such as stress-free and soft, lightweight, and warmth that gently envelops with wear comfortability such as sweat-absorbency and quick-drying, high breathability.
Also, it can be compactly foldable in small-size. Furthermore, Microft AR is an environmentally compatible product as it is made of 100-percent recycled polyester and features limited appearance changes after repeated washing and wearing, long-term use, and a reduced amount of falling-off fibers that are degraded to microplastics.
Recently, outdoor clothing and sportswear are required to have a premium look and feel, further wear comfortability (high water-absorbent/quick-drying and stress-free properties), and eco-friendliness are desired in addition to excellent heat retaining property. Light and thermal fleece materials are popular, nevertheless, it has some issues such as poor sweat-absorbent and quick-drying functions, bulkiness and appearance change after washing and wearing due to brushed fabrics.
Teijin Frontier focused on the structure of chenille yarn (*3) to assure heat retention and functionality without brushing. However, conventional chenille yarns have been mainly used for fashionable clothing with the focus on textures such as soft feeling and airy appearance, lacking the functionality required for outdoor uses.
Article characteristics of Microft™ AR
| Function | Feature | |
| Comfortability | Excellent heat-insulating performance | – Light, soft, and thermal comfort thanks to super bulky raised structure of special bulky fancy yarn |
| Comfortable to wear | – Stress-free wearing comfort due to no seams
– Comfortable fit thanks to low gauge bulky knit structure and stretch |
|
| Functional comfortability | – Excellent sweat-absorbent/quick-drying performance thanks to non-brushed structure
– Prevention of sweaty feeling through high breathability – Functional combination (e.g., antibacterial deodorant) by using various special original yarns for pile |
|
| Other | – Compactly foldable small-size | |
| Environmental response | Microplastic countermeasure | – Reduction of falling off of fibers during washing thanks to special high-density fancy yarn structure |
| Recycling | – Made of 100% recycled materials | |
| Wearability | – Capable of long-term use with little morphological change such as pilling (*4) even after wearing and washing | |
Teijin Frontier will begin promoting Microft™AR for the 2025 autumn and winter outdoor clothing and sportswear collections, thereafter, expanding globally for functional clothes such as casual wear and uniforms. It expects Microft™AR sales to reach 100,000 pieces during fiscal 2026.
(*1) Highly crimped fiber: Crimped fiber that offer high bulkiness, elasticity, and stretchability.
(*2) Low gauge: Knitting coarsely with thick yarn.
(*3) Chenille yarn: Fancy yarn consists of core threads, pile, etc. Knitwear created with chenille yarn is generally considered high-pile and good in touch.
(*4) Hairballs generated on the surface of clothes due to friction during wearing
Posted: November 21, 2023
Source: Teijin Group
