How does technical clothing work?

In a pre-Christmas fitness drive, OH and I have started trying to walk for at least an hour every day. At this time of year it’s so easy to hunker down in front of the fire, but we have to go out every day with The Reluctant Dog. She would be quite happy with a quick five minute spin round the block to complete the necessities and then back to snoozing on the sofa, but unless it is raining, we do try to drag her a bit further (sounds cruel, but she’s only five!). We’ve got a handful of set walks, each with their own quirky name: slaughter corner, the short walk, the new lake, the old lake, the wood, and the voie vert. The Reluctant Dog really only likes the two walks around the lakes, she disapproves of any walk where it is necessary to turn around and go back the same way so I needed to find some longer, but circular walks.

This started almost accidentally one Sunday morning when I suggested walking a bit further to a nearby chateau, as I wanted to photograph it. It was a damp, foggy morning and I hadn’t given a lot of thought to clothing. I was wearing cheap jeans and a woolly cowl neck jumper with a thin tatty polo neck underneath, all supermarket purchases. Of course, as we got into the rhythm of the walk I started to warm up and soon felt as damp on the inside of my coat as the outside. The woolly jumper was not up to the job.

 

Inspired by the endorphin release from this longer walk, the next day we decided to do another longer walk, this time along the voie verte, a disused railway line. Following some uncomplimentary comments from OH about the jeans and the woolly jumper, both were destined for the recycling bag. This time I was wearing the green polo neck, something I had bought about five years ago from a charity shop. Again, the same problem, as soon as we got up any head of steam I was sweating like a fat lass at a disco. I still quite like this jumper so it hasn’t made its way to the recycling bag yet, but I won’t be wearing it for any more long walks.

The lesson I had learned from this small experiment is that even in daily life technical clothing can help you feel comfortable. The third day I wore a long sleeve North Face top with my Rohan pack ice jacket and I was warm and comfortable. It got me to thinking, how does technical clothing work? Both the woolly jumper and the polo neck were made of acrylic so why did the North Face top perform in a different way? The reason is that technical materials have the ability to wick perspiration away from the body.

I found a great scientific explanation of how this wicking effect works in technical fabrics here on the CurioCity website. Essentially, the polymers from which the polyamide technical fabrics are made have two major chemical properties. First, the ends of the polymers consist of polar end groups that are negatively and positively charged, these attract the water molecules in sweat. Second, the polymers are crystalline, meaning their atoms are arranged in a highly organised, three dimensional structure that water molecules cannot penetrate. As a result, the water molecules are attracted to one polar end of the molecule, and are pulled right through the fabric to the other polar end.