On the morning of January 22, 1943 in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the town of Spearfish, the temperature swung 49 degrees from -4 to 45 degrees in just two minutes, a world record.
It didn’t exist at the time, but Otherlab’s thermally-adaptive fabric sure would’ve came in handy.
The new fabric works by automatically trapping air and inflating when colder temperatures hit and is capable of transforming its insulation level from T-shirt to puffy jacket in about a minute.
The fibers in the fabric are layered in a such a way that insulating pockets of air are created and that responsive design is capable of holding up even after being crumpled, washed or worn.
There’s still work to be done, but Otherlab is hoping to go from making insulated fabric samples to producing actual inflatable garments within the year.
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