Dark colors are popular when it comes to workwear and corporate fashion because soiling is less evident and black is considered an elegant color. Up to now, anyone working in dark colors in sunshine had to accept this major disadvantage. Dark colors are well known for heating up more when exposed to sunlight than light shades.

This no longer needs to be the case. Thanks to coldblack®, a special finishing technology for textiles that reduces heat buildup and also provides reliable protection from UV rays. coldblack® is particularly well suited to all sorts of apparel and has recently become available for wool. This will be of particular benefit to uniform wearers. At A+A, Schoeller Technologies AG is displaying the latest applications for this new and already repeatedly award-winning textile finish.

The jubilee gala at the lakeside is beginning in an hour, and the event organizers are still going full tilt. A 300 ton stage is being built for a mega concert in August. The security staff are on high-alert as opposing fans are already rioting outside the soccer stadium... Work is going on around the clock for the official opening of the new building.

The workers are stretched to their limits and the sun is beating down. These four examples have one thing in common: All those involved are working out of doors and most likely wearing dark clothes and facing the one major disadvantage in sunshine: absorbing both light rays and heat rays and therefore heating up. In addition to stress, heat and the physical exertion, the situation is exacerbated by solar warmth. Lack of concentration and a drop in performance are the consequences.

Higher performance capacity due to efficient heat management

Clothing with the new coldblack® textile technology reacts like light-colored apparel with a big advantage; it reflects both the visible and invisible parts of the sun’s rays (both light and heat). Which is why, compared to the same material without this finish, they stay significantly cooler, having a positive effect on performance capacity, as tests have clearly demonstrated.

Laboratory tests* on a sweating torso (see picture) have proven that a black coldblack® polo shirt displayed a temperature increase of the torso which is approx. 5°C (9°F) lower than that of the non-treated black shirt when exposed to simulated sunlight (infrared lamp).

Tests with simulated sweating activity have confirmed that the wearer of a coldblack® shirt only perspires about half as much as the wearer of a conventional black shirt in order to compensate for the increase in skin temperature. In addition to the sports and sportswear market, coldblack® is ideal for the work wear sector.

coldblack® was developed in 2008 in Switzerland in accordance to the criteria of the bluesign® standard, the world's most stringent production standard for Environment, Health and Safety specifications (EHS).