Madura Garments to push smart fabrics

Madura Garments plans to commercialise smart fabric technologies developed by Outlast Technologies, a US-based technology provider, in India.

Outlast Technologies currently offers various smart fabric innovations to European, US companies and NASA to cope with the extreme temperatures at work place. The technology used by NASA to tackle extreme temperatures has found consumer application on fabrics.

Madura Garments through technical collaboration with Outlast Technologies is bringing this technology to develop a new range under the Van Heusen label and on Tuesday launched 'Cool Pants' for the Indian market.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Vikram Rao, group president, Madura Garments, said with these new technologies, the company is in the process of widening its offerings to suit the changing consumer buying profile.

Among the Madura Garments portfolio of brands, Van Heusen has taken the lead in offering new products and so far has introduced Oxyrich shirts with oxygen ions to neutralise high stress levels, Best White shirts with optical brightness and trousers that adjust to waistline, he added.

Explaining the technology adopted in the fabric, Raj Pillai, technical director, Outlast Technologies said the product developed for Madura Garments is treated at the molecular level by a specialised technology (smart fabric technology), which gives trousers the power to absorb coolness from the atmosphere (air conditioned office) and retain it to be used later.

These new range of trousers are to be retailed at Rs 1,599 and will be available in 10 colours. "Based on the success of this range of clothing this season at Van Heusen showrooms, Planet Fashion, Trouser Town and other departmental stores, the company is to devise its future retail strategy," said a company official.

"With these new range of offerings, Van Heusen has redefined the way clothes are looked at in the country. They are not just about looks, they can also offer intelligence. Today technology allows scientists to enhance a fabric with treatment, microprocessors and sensors. This in turn opens up a whole world of possibilities," said Hemachandra Javeri, president, Madura Garments.

Inset Outlast Technologies, a US based smart fabric technology provider, is setting shop in India.

The company currently is in technical collaboration with Madura Garments to develop shirt and trouser range for both domestic and export market.

"With trade barriers coming down and buying power of Indian middle class has thrown business opportunities for us to enter India", said Raj Pillai, managing director and technical director, Outlast Technologies India.

"India being a tropical country, we plan to spin off many of our NASA application for consumer benefit in India", he added.

The company is currently sourcing many of its textile manufacturing needs from Hong Kong. India emerging as low cost manufacturing base has opened many technical collaboration with more companies.