History
The ArmaCool mission evolved over many years but its genesis was born on boat out fishing one day – true story
2006
Founders of ArmaCool say ‘enough is enough’. The global sports brands are doing a disservice to all sports, be they grassroots or professional sports as, for some reason, they are not embracing the latest in fabrics…and it’s time someone did. The actual phrase ‘enough is enough’ was said by the founders out in the middle of Cockburn Sound, squidding one very hot summers day, sweat pouring off into and through their clothing. Fabric technology was advancing but sports brands were just sticking with their usual supply chain of fabrics.
2007 to 2009
Almost every known sports fabric was tried and tested to ascertain the best possibility for the extreme hot weather of Perth and elsewhere. Unfortunately, none of the fabrics we tested seemed to perform any better than any other. Every single garment, from the $180 top end brand sports shirts, down to the low end $15 garments, were tested, with all recorded results showing minimal if any efficacy.
2009 to 2012
The founders begin their experimentation with PCM fabrics, or Phase Change Material fabric, which is basically fabrics that are coated or injected with chemicals cooling treatments. International research suggested some cooling benefits are attainable using PCMs. The cooling performance of these fabrics were hardly noticeable in the testing, but what was noticed was that the efficacy of these PCM fabrics declined over time and with every wash. which is a completely unacceptable situation. ArmaCool didn’t want to have its fabrics injected with chemicals to achieve their performance parameters, resulting in the vow to only ever use 100% chemical free fabric. Today, many well-known big sports brands are still using chemically injected PCM fabrics in their range of sports and outdoor apparel.
2012 – 2016
The founders of ArmaCool discovered a start-up in the U.S. making some incredible claims about the cooling, drying and wicking performance of their 100% chemical-free fabrics. This U.S. fabric start-up was called CoolCore and today they are the world’s undisputed leaders in cooling fabrics. The prestigious Hohenstein Institute in Germany, after extensive scientific testing, declared that CoolCore fabrics are the world’s leading and highest performing cooling fabrics on the planet. During these years, ArmaCool began a with CoolCore, establishing a long and prosperous friendship, becoming the first company in the world to import CoolCore fabrics into the southern hemisphere for extensive testing and development. This was conducted in collaboration with Curtin University.
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Curtin University ArmaCool Project Work
The founders of ArmaCool were determined to use the vast abundance of incredible local Perth apparel designing talent across all their range of garments. So much of this is normally done offshore, which is a great shame given the talent of local fashion designers.
To formalise this, ArmaCool established an exciting collaboration with one of Australia’s leading tertiary institutions Curtin University. This collaboration drew on Curtin’s fantastic skills, knowledge and technology through a formal course and program that enabled highly motivated students the wonderful chance and opportunity to work with a real industry based focused project.
This collaboration was the perfect example of industry engaging with incredible expertise and truly creative minds.
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Such was the success of this collaboration that ArmaCool was actually invited by the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival to be a part of its Fashion Week and present the design work and outcomes. Cool Fusions – Fusing Fashion + Tech was an amazing night which attracted global attention given the revolutionary advances launched.
27th August 2016
ArmaCool was globally launched during the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival COOL FUSIONS event in Fremantle. With an initial focus on cricket attire, the world’s coolest and most advanced cricket clothing line was released.