A recent NYT article features a local Alameda company that manufactures clothing based on nanotechnology.
Contourwear, a women’s clothing maker in Alameda, Calif., uses a Schoeller fabric with a NanoSphere coating for its Anywear pants ($156). Neide Cooley, of Breckenridge, Colo., wore a pair of these pants, she said, for ”10 days straight all over Peru.” A serious adventure traveler, Ms. Cooley, who is retired, will soon take along her Anywear pants on a three-week horse-and-camel-riding trip to Mongolia with ”a group of cowgirl friends,” she said. (They plan to ride the camels in the Gobi desert.) The pants, which come in brown, black, green and charcoal, have coin pockets at the hip and passport pockets hidden at both ankles.
These pants look and feel like most others, but the ingenious finish on the fabric is different: it is made of tiny, nanosized particles that repel water, ketchup, honey, blood, vinaigrette and a thousand other potential indignities. With such a surface, if coffee is spilled on you, it just beads up or runs off. The pants can be wiped with a paper napkin — even the skimpy cocktail kind handed out on airplanes — leaving the material dry and unscathed.
Admittedly, the price is a bit steep. But being able to wear the same pants for 10 days without it showing any traces of grime and smell is a huge advantage and makes packing a breeze (adios to checked in baggage?) 🙂