The Woolmark Company announced the award honorees for its 2021/22 Performance Challenge. Of 400 global entries, 12 were chosen as the “preeminent ideas platform for the sports and performance market.”
For the first time, The Challenge partnered with Swiss running brand On and Italian skiwear company Salewa. On challenged participating students to “explore apparel innovations that respond to the highest demands of performance for modern outdoor runners, while maximizing fashion-forward wearability.” Salewa asked that submissions “innovate low environmental impact fabric technologies to create thermo-regulating apparel for mountain activities.”
- Caroline Schinle from Albstadt-Sigmaringen University was awarded an internship with On. Seeking sustainable alternatives, Schinle created a filling for padded jackets that is 100 percent biodegradable using a supportive structure for Merino wool and milkweed fiber filling.
- On created a Research Opportunity Award for Pearl Academy’s Harleen Kaur. Kaur looked at a pregnant women runner’s changing needs during and post-pregnancy and created activewear that supports both the mother and fetus in the correct areas, providing coolness when the body temperature rises and monitoring the baby’s health using a fetal heart rate monitor.
- Salewa selected Dan Winegar from the University of Oregon for an internship for his 3D flexible fabrics that can change from insulating to cooling modes depending on the levels of a skier’s activity.
- IED Milano student Francesco Matera won the €10,000 (US $11,002.5) Woolmark Research Bursary award for a garment that acts as a second skin when in motion. The design uses strategically placed high compression zones of elastane into seamless knitted garments that support and manipulate the wearer’s muscles and limbs during exercise.
