Cool-jams named among US apparel innovators

“It’s our process that gives us the outcome” says President Berezowski. “We are constantly performance driven in everything we do and performance to us is moisture management, body movement and body efficiencies. This applies to all forms of human activity. Whether you are active or inactive, the critical point is that at all times the body is doing a function and it is the efficiency of that function that helps you to have a better life.”

Berezowski compares the philosophy behind Garmatex technologies to the principle of the algorithm, an algorithm being “a specific set of instructions for carrying out a procedure, or solving a problem — each instruction by itself may mean nothing, but when the functions are completed it all comes together and the result is extraordinary.”

Keith Gracey, Garmatex Chairman, has even coined a word — “fiberithm” — to describe the complex, rigorous methodology by which Garmatex strives to achieve perfection in its products.

By a happy coincidence, the word fiberithm also nicely conveys the relationship between the sensitivity of the Garmatex fabrics to the human rhythms of its wearers.

Mahaffey would be the first to agree. She’s her own best customer for Cool-jams.

“I wear them all the time,” she laughs. “And my husband wears the men’s pajamas. He loves Cool-jams. Most people, once they’ve worn them, really don’t want to wear anything else.”

Mahaffey’s niche market is mostly baby-boomers — women and men 45 and up for whom a good night’s rest is the key to a healthy, happy life. As a baby-boomer herself, no one knew better than her that Cool-jams sleepwear had to live up to its promise: it had to look good, be a joy to wear and, most important of all, keep a human body cool at night. For middle-aged women battling night sweats — or, indeed, anyone, man or woman, losing sleep due to becoming overheated — the fabric offers unbeatable advantages.

“The purpose is to achieve an optimum sleep temperature,” says Mahaffey. “If you don’t maintain it, if you are too hot or too cold, then you don’t sleep well and the next day you feel tired, you won’t perform well. Athletes who don’t sleep well, don’t perform well. I think Cool-jams are not just for people with night sweats, but for anyone who wants to sleep better in order to perform better.” There is now abundant evidence that even a one-degree change in body temperature can interfere with sleep patterns.

Prof. Guowen Song, academic and author of the recent book Improving Comfort in Clothing, says: “The key is to keep human body balance in heat and moisture and therefore maintain thermal comfort to the human body. A one-degree change in human body core temperature is a huge change — it not only changes sleep patterns, but also some physiological functions.” Song, an associate professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, says the big challenge is to engineer textiles that match the transfer of human body heat and moisture with any given environment.

Garmatex Technologies