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HI-TEC changes the face of footwear
Tony Linford, worldwide Brand Director for HI-TEC, talks to SGB about ion-mask and explains how this incredible innovation could change footwear forever. Read on, you won't believe your eyes...
SGB: HI-TEC's new innovation for the Sports and Outdoor world is ion-mask, which according to some publicity is one of the most exciting things that's ever happened...
Tony Linford: There are occasions where, in my life, in this industry, you come across something that has the potential to change the rules of the game and they come along very rarely. For example, when I was at Clarks we introduced these new football boots that didn't have studs and that transformed the soccer industry because it got "knocked-off" by all the major brands who came out with these boots without studs, if you remember. ion-mask is an innovation on a similar scale in the field of waterproofing and water resistant footwear. It will change the rules of the game.
SGB: That's a bold claim.
TL: The reason for making that claim is there's two sides to this story. There is a conventional waterproof story, i.e. taking a product and making sure your feet stay dry. There's also a hydrophobic story. Hydrophobic means that it repels liquid, it's liquid hating. That's where you have a shoe that wouldn't be conventionally waterproof and probably isn't in the sense of 100 per cent of your foot staying dry, but has a multiple of other benefits linked to the fact the shoe is hydrophobic and doesn't absorb liquid.
We're launching with a waterproof product, the V-Lite Altitude Ultra WP ion-mask. For a product to be waterproof with the ion-mask technology the shoe needs to be manufactured in such a way that it lends itself to be waterproof. HI-TEC are launching the technology in this instance, with a leather hiking boot and in that category it will be waterproof due to the way we make it. The benefits of ion-mask as opposed to conventional membrane technologies are many. The shoe is lighter, in the sense that it doesn't have the weight of the membrane incorporated into it which is typically about 30-35 grams plus in wet conditions the material no longer retains water. It is also easier to keep clean. The nature of the ion-mask repelling liquid means it also repels dirt molecules contained in the liquid, so the shoes stay clean for longer and they're easier to care for. Also, the shoe is much more environmentally friendly because the amount of chemical used to make these products is a fraction of the amount of chemical needed to make membranes, in the region of a thousandth. The process is also activated at room temperature making it one of the most climate friendly footwear technologies available. Finally, the shoes are much, much more breathable due to the treatment effecting each individual material fibre, eliminating the need for a waterproof membrane, so the shoe is as breathable before the process as after.
Let's say you're dealing with a product that is inherently waterproof. Leather is inherently water resistant, for example. There are no holes in it as compared to a mesh. The other side of the coin is where you have something like a running shoe and I'm testing a pair of trail running shoes at this time , with one shoe treated and one not. Honestly, the visual results are quite remarkable, you have to see it to believe it!
We will not claim that the trail running shoes with this treatment are waterproof because they're not, but it probably resists about 90 per cent of any liquid that could get into the shoe. Now, we've had a lot of wet weather the last month or so, the woods are muddy, the trails are muddy and the difference between the two shoes is amazing. The first time I wore them it was raining and extremely wet. The mesh on the untreated shoe changed colour because when mesh gets saturated it goes darker. I had two different coloured shoes effectively after about 15 minutes of running in the rain and there was a visible difference. So in that instance you've got a shoe that is very highly water resistant and more importantly, the key benefit is that it doesn't absorb any water. If you were running, for example, the London marathon or any road race in wet conditions, your shoes will absorb approximately 60 grams of water into the mesh, into the foams, into all parts of the shoe. Now considering the sports industry is constantly striving to shave one, two, three, four grams off the weight of running shoes, 60 grams heavier due to moisture absorption is very significant. From a performance point of view, repelling water is excellent. Secondly, when you go for a run, you take your untreated damp / wet shoes off and leave them in the porch or garage. The next day when you come to put them on again they're still damp, as often as not. ion-mask shoes, because they absorb less water they dry out much more quickly, so the next morning they're literally dry. This unique and fantastic benefit we're translating into the hiking and backpacking world because even if you have a boot with a Gore-Tex membrane, for argument's sake, that shoe can still absorb moisture in the upper material. Your foot will not get wet because the Gore-Tex membrane is a physical barrier, but the materials beyond that barrier will still absorb water. If you're backpacking and camping en route, storing your boots outside your tent, your boots are still going to be wet and extremely uncomfortable the next morning. Treated with the ion-mask because they have repelled the water and dirt, they're much less likely to be damp, cold and thoroughly uncomfortable.
SGB: It sounds fantastic, especially that it's more environmentally-friendly, that alone could be such a massive selling point.
TL: I won't underplay that because if you look at how they make general membranes, this really is a quantum leap forward.
In making membranes there's a huge amount of chemical usage and a huge amount of wastage because these fabrics are made in sheets, effectively in rolls which are oblong and you cut out the material pattern to make the booties that go in the shoes. The ion-mask system is literally chemically injected into a vacuum, only minute quantities of chemical are used and nothing is wasted. There's no discharge into the atmosphere and the amount of chemical is really fractional compared to the amount of chemical used in the production of a membrane. Equally the process is activated at room temperature, unlike membranes formed at 160 degrees, making it one of the most climate-friendly footwear technologies available.
SGB: How did HI-TEC come across the technology?
TL: ion-mask was originally developed for military clothing for the UK MOD, designed to repel chemical agents. Developed by Durham University the whole starting point was to provide protection for soldiers against chemical and nerve agent attack. Now, when soldiers are in the Iraqi desert they have to wear special chemical suits that protect them from this type of attack. Essentially what happens, when you're attacked with these chemicals, it's a liquid, it soaks through your garments to get to the skin and obviously when it touches the skin that's when the damage is done. Obviously the big downside, they're wearing these protective suits which are extremely cumbersome and very uncomfortable, particularly when you're fighting in the heat of the desert. So the objective was to try and develop a technology where their normal, lightweight uniforms would provide protection from that type of attack. The whole strategy was to make those fabrics liquid repellent so that they would reject anything fluid, it would just bounce off leaving no trace. So that was the starting point. The MOD decided to commercialize this and set up a company called P2i to develop it into consumer applications.
P2i's first thought was Sport and Outdoor 'footwear/apparel' and approached the industry. For some reason the other brands either missed it or didn't had the vision to see what potential this technology really offered. It may be, and the P2i guys will freely admit this, that HI-TEC were the first brand and company to actually have a vision and understand what this could be, and that's why we started then the process of taking this raw technology and actually commercializing it. We've been working tirelessly with them now for 15 months, it's not something that just dropped out of the sky. We've been working all this time to figure out exactly how to ensure the shoes get the best benefit from the technology. Because when they came to it, P2i weren't shoe guys, they are scientists, chemists and physicists, they know very little about the shoe business. We had to do the shoe-specific research with them to figure out how to make the shoes be most effective with this technology. So that's the research we've been doing for the last year and a quarter to get us to the point where we can now globally launch the product.
SGB: So in shoe terms, do you own this technology?
TL: No, but we are the only brand launching in 2008. We have a head start on everybody because we've done the due diligence and figured out how to make this work in a shoe production environment. It's not at all simple to figure that out, and it's been more complicated than we envisaged.
SGB: So when do you launch with product?
TL: We're launching first in autumn/winter ‘08 with one shoe, a new hiking boot the V-Lite Altitude Ultra WP ion-mask. This product is already an extremely technical light hiking boot and we're adding this technology to it.
SGB: Is that an established model that you're adding this to?
TL: No, it is a new slot for us but we're building on a well-known name. Our biggest-selling hiking boot around the world is the Altitude, which is a full-grown nubuck waterproof leather, a very classic hiking boot. We've done an Ultra version of that which features a Vibram sole, extremely light weight materials and with ion-mask technologies now for the waterproofing. That's what we're selling in now, and that's really building on an existing franchise.
Then we're going to expand the whole proposition into spring ‘09, when we'll be launching it in golf. The testing in golf has been extraordinarily good. World professional and HI-TEC sponsored player, Padraig Harrington, doesn't actually know it yet but he's wearing products that we've treated and taken out the membranes. We're not telling him what we've done, we're just going to get his feedback on it! So when he's playing in Asia during February and March he'll be wearing products and he should benefit greatly from the improved breathability because typically he wears products with a membrane.
We'll be expanding the hydrophobic story into performance categories in spring ‘09 like running, trail running and adventure sport.
SGB: This could be absolutely unbeatable for trail runners. If you're on a muddy trail, your feet will always get wet as you're bound to hit something that's wet above shoe height, even a stream. But a shoe that doesn't absorb that water? Priceless.
TL: It works at the molecular level, so it goes down to every individual fibre and coats that fibre one molecule thick. So essentially because it's so thin the shoe retains all of its breathability. That molecule changes surface tension of the fabric to make it hydrophobic so it resists the water.
SGB: Is this an expensive process, is it going to have a significant effect on unit costs?
TL: We're pitching it approximately the same price as a branded membrane would cost. It's a similar cost to us at the moment as an eVENT or Gore-Tex membrane. The economics of it are fundamentally different, however, because the actual operating costs, the marginal cost of treating a shoe is very cheap, but you've got a huge capital investment in the equipment. The economics are slightly different but once we get into the hundreds and thousands of pairs being produced it could well be quite a bit cheaper than branded membranes. At the launch phase though, it's coming out at a similar sort of cost and that's largely because of the capital investment required.
SGB: Is there any difference in your production times with the different process?
TL: One of these chambers will treat a pair in about three minutes. So in order for that to dovetail to a typical shoe production line in a factory we need a bank of six machines, so in effect we're adding about three minutes at the end of the process in terms of production. It's a minimal difference.
SGB: What has retailer feedback been like so far?
TL: The reaction has been tremendous. In the States, Sports Authority's reaction was extraordinary. They got the CEO of the company to come down and have a look at it because they were so impressed by it. It is true to say you have to see it, to believe it but even then you won't believe your own eyes!
