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Ep 24. Medicine-Embedded Textiles: Reimagining Fabric for Pain Relief and Healing with Bradley Seese
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In this episode, host Mili speaks with Bradley Seese,(“The Yarn Geek”), VP of Operations at Clothing 2.0 and a lifelong textile innovator and technical visionary, about the future of medicine-embedded textiles. Learn how Clothing 2.0 is infusing active ingredients like capsaicin (the spicy compound in chili peppers) into yarns to create health-promoting, pain-relieving garments. The conversation spans the science, safety, sustainability, regulatory landscape, and exciting possibilities for smart wearables that do more for our wellbeing—as well as Brad’s passionate journey from North Carolina yarn mills to the frontlines of textile innovation.
Key Topics
- What are medicine-embedded textiles, and how do they work?
- Capsaicin for pain relief: benefits, science, and use in smart clothing.
- Sustainability, wash durability, and minimizing waste in health textiles.
- The challenges and opportunities in bringing textile technology to market.
- Upskilling and creating new job pathways in US-based manufacturing.
- Brad’s personal journey and vision for the next wave of smart wearables.
Clothing 2.0: Website
Resources mentioned by Brad:
Manufacturing Solutions Center (for textile innovation and workforce training)
Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association
SEAMS: The Association for the US Sewn Products Industry
Hohenstein Institute: International textile test lab and standards organization
Connect with Mili Tharakan: Website I Linkedin I Insta I Buy me a cofffee
Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash
Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, where we explore innovations bubbling away at the intersection of textiles, emerging technology, sustainability, and craft. I'm your host, Millie Tharakin, a textile researcher and innovator.
00:00:21
Speaker
It's a gorgeous sunny day today here in London. The birds are chirping, the sky is blue, the flowers are in bloom. And to top it all, I get to talk textiles with you. and And it doesn't get more perfect than this for me on a summer's day.
Exploring Medicine-Embedded Textiles
00:00:36
Speaker
On today's episode, we're diving deep into the realm of medicine-embedded textiles, where everyday garments are more than just functional. They're also tools for health and wellness. Our guest is Bradley Seas, also known as the Yarn Geek, with over 30 years of expertise in yarn technology and additive manufacturing.
00:00:57
Speaker
Brad is currently the Vice President of Operations at Clothing 2.0, a company infusing medicines, vitamins and supplements directly into yarn to create laundry safe, reusable and health promoting garments.
00:01:12
Speaker
We'll be exploring how Brad and his team are pioneering the integration of active pain relief ingredients seamlessly into a sleeve or a pair of socks or all kinds of other garments.
00:01:24
Speaker
We'll talk about the science, sustainability, the challenges and the transformative potential of these active ingredient infused textiles. We'll also learn a bit about Brad's own journey in the textile industry from loading creels to developing FDA approved medicine infused yarns.
00:01:40
Speaker
So get ready for a conversation that combines the world of textiles with technology to bring everyday wellness and better health in ways you might have never imagined.
00:01:55
Speaker
Hi Brad, it is such a pleasure to have you with us today. a warm welcome to the No Ordinary Cloth podcast. I must say that recently we've been spending a lot of time focusing on innovations that are really bubbling away fashion sector, but textiles is so, so, so much bigger than fashion. And I'm super excited that we have you with us to discuss something completely different.
00:02:18
Speaker
a very different role that textiles can play in our lives. And today we'll be looking at everyday clothing, not only being functional, but actively beneficial for our health and wellness.
00:02:29
Speaker
And I'm particularly kicked about this episode because you actually combined two of my most favorite things in the world, which is textiles and chilies. Yes, I said chilies. I love spicy food. If anyone knows me, they know that's all I eat.
00:02:43
Speaker
And so today we're going to be finding this a very interesting way of how you brought the two
Brad Seas' Background and Textile Innovations
00:02:48
Speaker
worlds together. I won't say anything more, but let's dive in and learn more about Clothing 2.2 and find out what it's all about.
00:02:55
Speaker
Just get us started, Brad. Give us a little introduction of yourself. Where are you from? And tell us what you enjoy doing over the weekend. Wonderful to be here. Thank you. Brad Cease, native to the western part of North Carolina in the U.S. And it's an area that's well known for textiles and furniture making. And so I grew up with in an area that has a heritage for textiles.
00:03:19
Speaker
Myself, I enjoy outdoors, hiking, the mountains, ah mountain trails, and um i enjoy motorsport, motorsport racing. So that would be my hobby.
00:03:30
Speaker
And i'm a bit of ah of a yarn geek. That's how most people know me. I love it. We have a lot of textile geeks on the on the podcast here, so I think we're going to get along really well.
00:03:41
Speaker
Now, if you could tell us about Clothing 2.0. On your website, you claim to be the only company in the world that infuses doses of proven medicines, vitamins and supplements into yarns to create laundry safe, reusable, healthy garments and textiles.
00:03:57
Speaker
I took that straight out of your website. It's a big claim. Tell us more. Absolutely. Clothing 2.0 has a unique spot in the market. We have proprietary technology. We have some patents around a way to apply measured dosages and with a specific potency of active ingredients.
00:04:15
Speaker
And there's a number of different active ingredients, but the real magic, as we see it, is about adding the technology into the yarn itself. There are some technologies, there's other ways in the market to do things to a fabric at the fabric level, sometimes at the finished apparel level.
00:04:31
Speaker
um What makes us unique and and a placeholder in the market is that we're able to do it at the yarn level. And we see that as integrating a lot earlier in the process, which allows designers much more flexibility to pick and choose where you add a technology as opposed to a finish or a garment where it kind of covers the whole thing.
00:04:52
Speaker
Ours has more of a dimensional stability to be able to add it as a yarn, as a central ingredient, much in the way that ah a laptop might have an upgraded um processor chip.
00:05:04
Speaker
And so we see ourselves as being the intelligence inside of the garment. And that allows designers the flexibility to kind of go after a benchmarked ingredient and put it just where you want it.
00:05:15
Speaker
So it's it's unique. All of the equipment that makes it is custom made, built to our specification. And so it makes it a process that isn't anywhere else.
00:05:26
Speaker
But very basic question. Why integrate medication into textiles in the first place? wonderful Wonderful question. So one of the central problems out in the marketplace and in healthcare care and and fitness and just we as human beings is compliance.
00:05:42
Speaker
We really have issues remembering to take a medicine every day. ah For that matter, just being able to take a medicine, a supplement, our vitamins, we get busy, we wake up late, we're rushing to work. um And, you know, so we see it as a way to kind of take the complexity out of it, to to simplify the process, is to be able to have those supplements or those active ingredients right into the thing we wear,
00:06:07
Speaker
Most people don't have to be reminded to put their socks on or to put on a garment. they that They just get dressed. And so this is a way to kind of simplify the whole process, make it make it the same for everybody.
Technology Behind Medicine-Infused Textiles
00:06:20
Speaker
You can go and get that ingredient. You don't have to spray on something. You don't have to rub in a lotion or a cream.
00:06:27
Speaker
if you're If you're looking for a specific enhancement, a life benefit, here it is. It's already in the garment. And so really compliance and simplicity. There are some benefits to being able to have measured and washable.
00:06:41
Speaker
So you just go back to that same item again. You're not youre not going back to the pill bottle. Okay, now let's get a little bit deeper into the geeky stuff. Can you explain how Clothing 2.0 technology, how it infuses things like supplements and vitamins into the textiles? Are you able to share a bit about that technology itself?
00:07:00
Speaker
Sure. So there's um traditional processes in them where you can integrate things into a polymer in extrusion. There are a lot of limitations to that process. And a lot of the textile people and the yarn people and polymer specialists on here will understand what those are.
00:07:15
Speaker
But in the sim simplistic explanation is you can only get so much in there and the process of extrusion heats it and filters it. And everything you add into a filament or a fiber or a polymer isnt becomes an impurity, something that's going to take away tenacity.
00:07:31
Speaker
And it's going to make it less weavable, less knit-able. So from our perspective, what we did is we took an already continuous filament fiber, a synthetic, in most cases nylon,
00:07:43
Speaker
And then we add coating to the outside of it, a measured amount of coating. Think of it as another layer of plastic plastic on the outside or a coating.
00:07:54
Speaker
But in it, we have measured amounts of the active ingredient. and so We're able to take whatever that filament fiber is and coat the outside. We get an added benefit is there a lot of the synthetic filaments actually have individual filaments that bundle into a yarn. So we'll take a yarn and coat it and we get the benefit of the increased surface area of each of those filaments.
00:08:18
Speaker
So coating the outside of each of the filaments within that yarn bundle, you really have a lot of power. There's a lot of ah potential mass there, potential energy um that you can't really get locked inside of a polymer that's extruded.
00:08:33
Speaker
it's It's an exciting way of doing it, and we get the benefit of it allows for a lot of very close next to skin contact in these garments. So when you talk about the bundle, does that mean you can you can kind of make a bundle with different types of medication in each of the yarns?
00:08:50
Speaker
Can you mix and match? Potentially, you can have um long-term, we see the possibility for a cocktail where you're choosing perhaps a supplement and and and another active ingredient. So um for a benefit of adding a vitamin E, but you could also add a menthol.
00:09:07
Speaker
We think early on for for for designers, for people who are integrating these technologies, for the most part, they're going to want to choose to source ah a menthol yarn or a capsaicin yarn, and they're going to want to source ah vitamin E and then place those into the construction.
00:09:22
Speaker
um But the ah material content, the designer will create it in a tech pack, and they'll build these garments out with each of these ingredients where they want it, and they think it'll have the most benefit. But long term, it's possible that you can take several of these that have a synergistic effect and put the two together into the coating and have a single fiber that has multiple different beneficial induces.
00:09:46
Speaker
So you mentioned active materials. Can you give me some examples of what these active materials are and what they're able to do? Great, so um the first product, we we went after understanding that a lot of consumers have issues with pain relief.
00:10:01
Speaker
And so that was a product that we targeted early on, is what could we do for over-the-counter pain relief? And you know particularly given the concerns of opioids and things in the marketplace and challenges that opioids have brought on, pain relief was an area we focused on. How could we simplify the process, not use an opioid-based product,
00:10:21
Speaker
And so we found an active ingredient, the capsaicin, which you've mentioned is the active ingredient that makes ah chili peppers hot. And the part that, you know, the spicy aspect. So here's where the conversation gets really spicy. So...
00:10:37
Speaker
um We happen to be, um from the area in North Carolina and Carolina is known for Carolina Reaper, which is particularly hot on the scale. So we've, we found some, um the capsaicin, a synthetic form of the capsaicin. So it'd be very consistent, um high grade, very consistent product. And we've taken it and added it into the coating and And there is ah medicated in the U.S. and over-the-counter pain relief claim, a monograph that utilizes capsaicin as an active ingredient that does provide pain relief to a significant number of people.
00:11:13
Speaker
And so there's a yarn that has this special ingredient in it, and then it releases And for some people, there'll be a sensation, a heating sensation, ah similar to spices. But like like any spicy food, some people are very sensitive ti to it and others are not so much.
00:11:30
Speaker
um But it doesn't really matter. The monograph's based on the benefit and it helps helps um reduce the pain in a given area and There's some products in the market that spray on or rub on applications, good products.
00:11:42
Speaker
um But in those, they require reapplication and they require the consumer, the wearer who might be a nurse or a construction worker to stop, reapply every three hours. When they put it on, you know, whether they're using their hands or whatever, you rub it in.
00:11:58
Speaker
from From ours, this this active ingredient can be built into things that someone can put on and wear, a sleeve, a glove, an ankle support, a knee. But they can put it on and it will continue to release throughout that wear cycle without reapplication.
00:12:14
Speaker
And to our to our view, it's actually a more consistent dosage over a period of time. And the physical action of working, perspiring, movement, those actually enhance the release of the active ingredients. So for those people who are um you know working out or post-workout recovery or somebody who has a long 12-hour shift in the hospital, you know they're going to notice that pain relief throughout the entire time they're wearing it. So pain relief and capsaicin was an early target, we thought, and Consumers could understand it. And we've seen great success with that in the market.
00:12:48
Speaker
Amazing. Any of the other ingredients that you can tell us about? Sure, it's it's fun. the yeah We've worked with some others. There's a supplement of vitamin E that we've worked with. And so vitamin E is a supplement with sustained release um in in items that you wear. Quite often we'll see that put together with another one of the supplements so that you can have both of those there or pain relief. Menthol is is a known pain reliever. It's used also in some creams and some sprays.
00:13:15
Speaker
And so we have a menthol yarn that's been produced recently. where we've added in this menthol ingredient that interacts with the skin, the wearer, and then releases this pain relieving.
00:13:27
Speaker
the There's also some antifungal products that are used in the market. People spray on their toes or their feet. we use We source and use some of the same active ingredients that would be used in those well-known products in the market, but instead we add them into a coating. We add them into the yarn.
00:13:43
Speaker
And then really good designers have found ways to integrate those into products. And sometimes they may choose a specific portion. So for like an antifungal, they may choose a specific portion of the sock, you know, or or an undergarment.
00:13:57
Speaker
And they just put that special technology right where it's needed. And, you know, that's really what starts to make these things smart and wearable, know, smart, wearable things for the future. And that's where we call it clothing 2.0 is to because we think everything that was worn before and those things we've known, those are kind of clothing 1.0.
00:14:16
Speaker
We're given an opportunity here for well thought out designs for those designers that are very interested in it, those consumers who want the next level of benefits, that 2.0.
00:14:27
Speaker
And to that degree, to the companies that are out there who've already developed ah an active ingredient that right now might be a pill or spray or a cream, they now have an opportunity to partner with someone and extend that market platform out into things that people wear. Maybe it's performance athletic. Maybe it's the college athlete. Maybe it's the weekend warrior. But likewise, it could be just a construction worker really needs to go to work and wants those benefits throughout the entire shift, throughout the entire day, nurse. So,
00:15:01
Speaker
so Those are active ingredients, there's some others that are um very beneficial post-operative, and in certain circumstances, things that are um non-intrusive, they're things that are being done now that don't require an operation, but they they provide benefit
Challenges and Testing in Smart Textiles
00:15:16
Speaker
to people.
00:15:16
Speaker
These are items that can be worn. It could be plastic. a post ah process where somebody puts it on and compression wear a garment that actually has some ingredients that are known to reduce, you know, and speed up or recovery times, reduce the bruising, reduce the impact of redness that comes from some of these different things that are being done now. They're sculpting and and and things that are being done for weight loss and um and and other outcomes.
00:15:45
Speaker
And so there are active ingredients out there. We're working with a lot of them. So we probably have ah plan of maybe eight to ten different active ingredients, but it's still growing. Oh, there's lots of opportunities there.
00:15:57
Speaker
can imagine it was quite a challenging process to sort of get, you know, get the level of optimal coating on these yarns. And that's really where you've patented your technology.
00:16:08
Speaker
What was the most challenging stage of developing this technology and how did you overcome this? Oh, I'm glad you asked. because There are definitely, as everyone on here knows, challenges when you're bringing these things to market.
00:16:20
Speaker
So for us, it was very important that we create something that was wash durable and standard home laundering. And so a lot of things that are done in the marketplace currently at at at a fabric level or garment level can be done in finishing. And and they they tend to have one to three wash cycles of durability. Some really good products out there, five wash cycles.
00:16:43
Speaker
um For us, it was very important that we have something that matches up to a consumer to provide the value. So we targeted 15 wash cycles as a minimum. and And so we work with ah and a great third-party lab, the Manufacturing Solution Center, that has special laundering equipment so that they're able to work to international standards.
00:17:04
Speaker
And they will we will take the the product, the coating, and then we take it in a yarn form and we actually do wash testing using home laundering standards. And we see how long does that technology, we actually take that product and introduce it into some very high quality laboratory equipment with some analytical chemists that we have.
00:17:25
Speaker
And then we will see after one wash, zero, one, two, five, 10, 15 wash cycles, we're we're checking it on the chart, the spectrum to see how much of that, how potent is it, how broad is the spectrum measure under the curve, and we're able to know to truly know with the due diligence that this product is still there and it's releasing at some measured understandable dosage rate and still providing the potency that we claim, whether that be an over-the-counter product or even a cosmetic product, you want to know that it's working.
00:17:59
Speaker
So for us, that kind of sets us apart, but it is one of the major challenges. How do you get a product that and coat it with the active ingredients where over a given period of time, the wear being worn or being washed, going through a dryer cycle, that it then can still release. And so it's kind of ah kind of ah an idea of if you had many different window shades and each wash cycle, you're lifting another window shade and now you're exposing yet some more of the technology. and And that's really probably one of the biggest challenges is how do you do that? And then testing the garments
00:18:34
Speaker
to make sure that when that's integrated into the final garment, also doing the same test and wash testing for our customers, submitting it into an HPLC or and GC, and then actually looking at it.
00:18:47
Speaker
And so most solicitors, I don't know who might be An HPLC is a way to bend light through and be able to see what what particular ingredients are there. GC is more beneficial for other ingredients.
00:19:00
Speaker
But we have those. Those are all part of our yarn manufacturing operation, chemical. Analytical chemists, those high-end equipment machines. So it's it's really important. that's probably the biggest challenge is making sure that you're offering the consumer, the customer, the maker exactly what they ask Absolutely.
00:19:18
Speaker
um I love the way you described how you're removing different shades each time to enable more of that medication to come through. Is there a lot of drug wastage during the production of these yarns?
00:19:31
Speaker
No, actually, it's a very it's something that we take pride in. It's one of the more beneficial parts of the way in which we're doing this. We think it's much less wasteful. we We comply. We create a chemical batch record. We mix all of the chemicals together, all of the raw ingredients, go through a full quality analysis with expiration dates.
00:19:50
Speaker
And then we build these chemical batches ourselves. very little waste. And then those are integrated into a yarn manufacturing process through an application batch record to build each of the yarn items.
00:20:02
Speaker
And there's actually a very low waste level that occurs because of the way in which we're doing it. And then when you put it into a ah yarn product, And what you're wearing, if you actually think about it, some of the other products that are out in the market, when you're done with it, you you have a bottle that you throw away or a tube of paste, you throw the tube away.
00:20:22
Speaker
in in In a yarn product, like what we're doing in these textile products, the end item, when all of the technology is gone, is still the garment. And so really for a consumer, we're looking at much less waste because the item itself has a much longer life cycle.
00:20:39
Speaker
even given past when the active ingredient is no longer you know claimed for effectiveness. Interesting. um You mentioned about these different testing, light bending tests that you have to do to figure out how much of the medication is still on the yarn.
00:20:54
Speaker
But as a consumer, I'm just looking at a piece of garment or a sleeve and I have no idea if there's enough medication in it or when it's run out. How do consumers learn about this? that this is They can use it as a garment, but it's not functional in the sense of um releasing medication.
00:21:10
Speaker
So all the all the products we've seen and had out into the marketplace, they have they have a nice detailed, usually with an image, and it has ah has a picture that shows how many or in a picture and a number. And it will it will say, for example, 15 wash cycles, and it'll it'll have that claimed usage through that given period of time.
00:21:30
Speaker
And um there's care instructions there. But We're still talking about all these are designed to be durable through home laundering. So it's not some special, think about how many things we buy that need to go a dry cleaner or permanent press and special care and hand wash only. And these, that was from the very beginning, it was important to us that we build items that could be home wash durable.
00:21:53
Speaker
We wanted to make it as easy. if If our story is about compliance and simplifying that process, Then we need to make the garments so that they're simple to care for. They can go in the washer with everything else.
00:22:04
Speaker
And so that that was really important to us. But it will say on each of these products, if it's 15 wash cycles or 20 wash cycles or 25, it'll call out the claim of how much and how long.
00:22:15
Speaker
And some of these, the technology could continue on, but that's what we've tested it to. That's the benchmark. When you're buying it, you know what you're getting. This has been through the through our lab, through the testing, through third-party labs.
00:22:29
Speaker
And there's a benchmark there that says you're getting what you paid for. You're getting what you wanted. Are you able to tell us how that that mechanism works of where how the medicine's released into the skin?
00:22:42
Speaker
We have a um have a dermal studies lab. we We partner with UNC Charlotte. That's the North Carolina University System has a location at Charlotte.
00:22:53
Speaker
And we have a lab there that has an LC-MS, but we also have... particular items that are used to measure the transfer of one ingredient through actual skin. So we take in, we have human skin that we acquire through the ah leftovers from medical processes.
00:23:12
Speaker
We take that skin and we actually take the active ingredient, the yarn, and we measure the dosage as it goes through from one side to the other. um they So there there are specialists who work with that. and they have some really cool equipment to do it.
00:23:26
Speaker
And in doing that, you can take that and test it over a different number of hours. And then you can create a curve and a predictable course or path of how much is being released. And we can do that for any of these.
00:23:40
Speaker
And so that's very beneficial to know how much diligence is going on behind it. mean, these are at that these are at a level that um we bridge the gap into biopharma As a textile company, we have we have as many people who are regulatory compliance and pharmaceutical background as there are those like me who are textile background.
00:24:01
Speaker
And we really marry those two for what is this next generation that we all ah all want to see? You know, it's smart, smart wearables. Who doesn't want that?
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's great to hear about that collaboration between what's usually considered quite different disciplines. Now, just to get into some of the the safety and and regulatory aspect of of these technologies, are there any um FDA approval required for these kinds of textiles?
00:24:32
Speaker
and um And how does Clothing 2.0 address these requirements? Oh, wonderful. I'm glad you asked. Early on in this process, we understood, i understood being the textile guy and the the yarn geek. I understood that this is an area from the manufacturing and scalability I could help manage.
00:24:48
Speaker
But we went out and we found um people in the regulatory and compliance area who'd already been doing this with over-the-counter drugs for many, many years. And so we recruited them, brought them on board, and they're part of the team.
00:25:02
Speaker
And they have a full understanding having already taken items out into the marketplace, things that people would be familiar with as pain relievers and done for many, many years. And so it it helped us to build the process to understand the documentations that's required.
00:25:18
Speaker
So there are, in the U.S., there are certain pain relievers that are over-the-counter, and there's a monograph that's established. So we adhere to that monograph related to the active ingredient, the amount that's sort that's required in order to make that claim, and then what those claims can be are clearly outlined for a product like menthol or capsaicin, many others.
00:25:39
Speaker
um And so, yes, some of these products will be FDA-regulated items, and that's the area where we focus on um when we're dealing with those. But the really cool aspect from from the way I see it is, is that because we're building things that go to that standard so that our customers can go to market with a true FDA compliant product, we build everything else to that level. You don't really get to build one level for this and one level for that. So when we're building a supplement like a vitamin or we're building um ah something that's going to be used in post-wound care like an Arnica supplement,
00:26:16
Speaker
ah to reduce bruising. When you're using those kind of ingredients, even though they're not on a monograph with the FDA, we build to the same standard. When we bring in the raw materials, they must be the same level of rigor that's given to testing them when they come in.
00:26:30
Speaker
When you're building the coating, it's the same coating process, the same equipment, the same process entirely. is carried through, whether it be an FDA-regulated or compliant product that's likely going to come from our yarn, or whether it's going to be a supplement, like a vitamin E, um that's going to go to market.
00:26:49
Speaker
And likewise, for something that's going to treat like an antifungal you know product that's going to go out there, which may or may not um be an FDA standard. We take those things very seriously. And so ah think it's really an opportunity for the consumer to get to the next level of quality and compliance.
Consumer Education and Cosmetic Applications
00:27:10
Speaker
um How much education is needed to help consumers understand these products? Because I've realized, you know, people expect textiles to do certain things. And when it does much more than that, you have to, guess, bring them on board, tell them that this really works because they can't physically see this happening when they wear the sleeve. Once they wear it, they'll see the benefits of it.
00:27:31
Speaker
But to get them on board, what are your partners doing to educate them? It's really cool. I think if we'd gone back um probably very early in the 2000s, things like wicking yarns, quick drying yarns, quick quick drying fabrics and materials, items that offer stain release, those those kind of become part of the standard Rubicon of things that we have now.
00:27:56
Speaker
But 25 years ago, many of those were very new and still being explained or maybe only known among elite runners or elite hikers or people who are really involved in collegiate sports.
00:28:09
Speaker
um But now we see... ah You see business clothing and and in form all kinds of clothing will have stain release properties to it. It will have cooling, wicking, quick drying.
00:28:22
Speaker
The reason I mentioned that is that's 25 years and now a general consumer tends to understand what those things are. And what we see is a a similar process is where consumers, especially those who are in the know, the early adopters are going to see, wow, here's an opportunity for me to get so much more from what I'm going to wear every day. And there is some benefit of the people who are making it And who's taking it to market? Maybe they're taking it to through medical distribution channels where there is somebody on that other end who's able to hand it over and say, here's this new thing and you're going to try it, you know, to see just what opportunities there are and what benefit.
00:29:04
Speaker
So there is some education that's going to come from that, but it could be a workwear provider who already has, you know, people working out in the field in super hot conditions or you know, the and and they're going to also be able to explain that high value.
00:29:19
Speaker
We talked a lot about the medical use of this product. Are there any cosmetic purposes that this can be used for? One of the areas that we see is things like um sleep masks, gloves that people wear at night. A lot of times people wear gloves at night to help reduce the appearance of aging spots maybe or redness in the skin.
00:29:38
Speaker
Some people deal with the issues of either, you know, there they they they sweat too much or they don't sweat enough. And so you get dry and scaly skin and You know, things, skin conditions, eczema, psoriasis and things like that. There's potential here for us to be able to partner up and bring some active ingredients that are beneficial to people who are suffering those conditions.
00:29:58
Speaker
One of them I didn't mention, salicylic acid is ah is often utilized for things like skin acne. And so, I mean, there's the potential here. That's one of the products that we work with as an active ingredient is somebody can build a base layer that that helps people who suffer the condition of skin acne on the back or something like that.
00:30:16
Speaker
and and you know And things that people don't necessarily talk about We could be a problem solver for that. You know, you just have an undershirt that has these active ingredients in it. It's very seamless. It doesn't have the stink or smell or, you know, the greasy, the greasy rub on feel.
00:30:32
Speaker
Just really simply put on an undershirt and then go work out. And here's these active ingredients that are, you know, being released. I love that it is so seamless and people don't want patches and oily areas on their skin. And you have to apply them. Yeah, exactly. now you've got it, you know, it's on your hands and you're like, I really wanted it on my knee, but it's on my hands too. Now what do I do with Yeah. And then it rubs off if you wear clothing on top of it.
00:30:56
Speaker
So, you know, the impact of it is not as, as, as you said, we need to reapply it again and again. And this saves a lot of that hassle. It seems like almost the perfect solution, but... Are there any drawbacks or limitations to this product?
00:31:10
Speaker
So for us and what we're designing are really next to the wear, next to the skin, base layer applications. And so um so i would these aren't designed for outerwear.
00:31:22
Speaker
They could be beneficial like on the inside of a s sleeping bag, but not necessarily the outside. And they can be beneficial on, you know, that the the under base layers that you're wearing, but not necessarily your ski coat itself.
00:31:35
Speaker
And so I would say from a limitations perspective, because we're working with health and textiles, we're working for aware, providing wellness to the user. We need to be the closest to the user to get that maximum benefit.
00:31:48
Speaker
So I would say from a, that's probably the only limitation I see is, is make sure it's really close to you. And for the designers, they just know that from the very beginning, and you know, we're not designing materials for a tent or an awning or,
00:32:02
Speaker
you know, the outside of a sleeping bag or a ski coat, we're designing materials that are really the closest to the customer. So it needs to have skin contact for this to be, for the medication to be activated.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's correct. because It's the interaction, the movement, the heat from the person, the the the perspiration. It's really that next to skin that makes it so effective. And it's one of the reasons we think it's more effective.
00:32:26
Speaker
And want to point out that a lot of the things that are at you utilized out in the marketplace, pain relievers or otherwise, might be a pill that you take. And when you take a pill, you're taking it in. So your toe hurts and you take a pill, right?
00:32:40
Speaker
Your knee hurts, but you still, you're taking a pill and then it goes into your body. And most of these things are activated through organs, the different organs will process them. And people can see what acetaminophen or ibuprofen or naproxen are all released in different methods.
00:32:57
Speaker
We believe there might be a more direct path to a lot of these, and that's through the skin and closer to the area that you're actually trying to treat. So if you have a sore toe or an ankle sprain, well, why wouldn't you just put the technology right there? Why wouldn't you put a clothing 2.0 active and ingredient into an ankle support and let it be right there ah versus maybe taking a pill? I'm glad those other things exist, but we see some of that as...
00:33:24
Speaker
50 year old technology, you know, 50 years ago, were, we were adding these pills and we're still doing it. And so we really do think it's much smarter, much more efficient, much more effective. Let's get it on the on the person.
00:33:37
Speaker
Let's let them pick and choose what, what ingredients they're putting into the clothing.
Sustainability and Brand Opportunities
00:33:42
Speaker
Another question I had was around sustainability. So you mentioned that you wear it, lasts 15 washes.
00:33:49
Speaker
That could be a couple of weeks or a month or many months, depending on how frequent the pain is. But what happens to the end of life of this product? You have the sleeve that you don't really need the sleeve anymore as a sleeve.
00:34:03
Speaker
what What can people do with it? What is the potential for you collect it back? Have you thought about recyclability, biodegradability? eco-friendly materials, even if you haven't implemented it now, are these things that you're in your pipeline as you develop this product?
00:34:18
Speaker
Sure. And and um those are important things to us. the ah The technologies currently are applied to continuous filament synthetic nylon. um There are some different resources for sourcing nylon that go through recycled paths.
00:34:35
Speaker
um there is There are some products in the market now that are post-consumer recycled nylon that had been a very small section of the market up until very recently, but the market is improving that way.
00:34:47
Speaker
And of course, post-consumer recycled polyester, and it has a huge, huge market here. There's there's major producers that are building great um polyester continuous filament yarns from empty drink bottles.
00:35:01
Speaker
And thank goodness for those companies that are doing that. And so this technology, the coating that we have absolutely can be applied and built onto a post-consumer recycled polyester.
00:35:13
Speaker
And as the market grows, a post-consumer recycled nylon. And so we can start with something that's already been utilized and gone through a system and come back and add these technologies to it.
00:35:25
Speaker
and And like we said, if if you're building a compression wear or a base layer top, It's still usable as the garment for a very long time beyond when that application originally occurred.
00:35:37
Speaker
And we are we are working on next generation technologies to be able to um identify and show when the active ingredients go away. Those are things that are on the table and things we're working on.
00:35:48
Speaker
But too early to say too much about that. Of course, I understand. Well, that was my next question. What sort of advancements do you foresee in medicine embedded textiles over the next five to 10 years, whether that's you working on it or generally across the industry? Where do you see this going?
00:36:05
Speaker
Where I see is there are a lot of great technology, great new medicines, new pharmaceuticals that are out there. And and in the U.S., there's a there's a process by which companies, because they've invested so much in that technology to be able to help people, that they're kind of protected for a specific period of time. So they go into the market and then it opens up into generics.
00:36:28
Speaker
And what we see is some of these new products that have come to market is that those pharmaceutical companies really have an opportunity to also move over into things beyond just the pill or cream or all lotion.
00:36:42
Speaker
And they could be partnering up. with their great brand name that's well known in the market and partner up. I don't want to use any of the brand names here, but people can think of those that when they walk into the pharmacy section at a drugstore, even over the counter, and they walk in and they see this name and they recognize, you know, the red capped bottle or they recognize the blue and yellow bottle as they're going through.
00:37:06
Speaker
those could Those have built great market perception and and great consumer following. That could also be built into their running wear, their active wear, their work wear.
00:37:19
Speaker
And for some of those companies, I think there's an opportunity here to partner up and say, wow, we have this great following of people who already know us for our great benefits and pain relief or as a sleep aid, you know, and and say, why don't we just,
00:37:36
Speaker
partner with a great brand and bring a product to market that people also know this running brand with this or this workwear brand with this active ingredient already in it.
00:37:48
Speaker
And so I think that's probably the ah near-term thing that we see that happens within the next five years. A little bit of that is educating those great brands that this brand and this brand could come together and an area that they never saw a collaboration being before an energy drink, made several different energy drink brands you can think of that advertise all the time and that do very well. And then they also have clothing lines that are out there and people wear that brand of clothing.
00:38:19
Speaker
you know, and they're wearing it, but those clothing don't actually have the benefits that they're most well known for, you know, providing the energy. Somebody's going to go get that can and that drink and open it up for a mid-afternoon boost to finish out their shift.
00:38:35
Speaker
And they might be wearing that ball cap or that t-shirt or have the those items that they already are are wearing with that branding on it, but it doesn't have the technology.
00:38:45
Speaker
So really that should be a low hanging fruit for people an energy drink brand, a supplements drink brand to be able to say, wow, we're already building out product with our logos in it.
00:38:57
Speaker
Could we be building them out also with the ingredients? And I think that carries through. That's still, I think those are all things that happen in the next five to 10 years near term.
00:39:08
Speaker
um they're they're The low hanging fruit, it's really about partnerships and people having the vision futurist to say, can we put the the chocolate with the peanut butter and actually have have have have have a candy bar that nobody ever saw before, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:39:24
Speaker
And it's a winner. Absolutely. But it does take, like you said, it does take time to educate brands and bring them on board. um I know you work much more on the yarn development side, but do you know from your business team, what are some of the pushbacks that you might be getting? Because when you bring a new technology to market, it's a Sometimes you think the hardest part is developing the technology, but actually oftentimes it's about telling, helping others understand the technology.
00:39:50
Speaker
So what are some of the challenges you face there?
Innovative Manufacturing and Industry Growth
00:39:53
Speaker
So I think ah ah few key points. ah One being is this is not the commodity product. And so, you know, a lot of um a lot of manufacturers, builders, makers are very familiar with vanilla.
00:40:06
Speaker
Vanilla has been around a long time. So they know how to work with vanilla. Yeah. And you and you're bringing them a rocky road. You know, and and yeah and you're bringing you're get bringing them something the consumer says they want, something very special, but they know how to make, they know how to work with vanilla.
00:40:21
Speaker
And so one of the challenges is um for manufacturers is working with something they haven't worked with before. Working with a yarn they hadn't worked with before. And that could be scary. Manufacturers, we, um as a man, speaking as a manufacturer, we really like the same thing we did before and more of it.
00:40:38
Speaker
Yeah, because we do that well. and And the thing that scares us is something we haven't done yet. We don't know if we can do it. And so i think one of the challenges is getting manufacturers, knitters, um technical designers who are designing these products to work with something they haven't worked with before.
00:40:55
Speaker
And i think ah I think that's one of the challenges that's there is educating the manufacturing side. This is doable. It was built by people who know how to make yarn. And these things can be knit into goods. And for the technical designers to understand um that they can build things maybe slightly differently than they did before so that they maintain the benefits through a finishing process.
00:41:16
Speaker
And so I'd say that's one ah one of the limitations in the market. Would you say cost? yeah and so these things are, Rocky Road costs more than vanilla to make. yeah And um it's more special and it's more exclusive. So there is a value add, there's a value add benefit to the consumer, but it's not free.
00:41:35
Speaker
And so there it does there's a cost aspect. In most of these items, we see, if you were talking, it could it could the actual cost of that one ingredient, because we tend to only make up $5.
00:41:46
Speaker
5% of the finished garment or material as much as 20% really depends on what you're trying to achieve. Because we we talk about a very careful placement of the technology where it can provide the most benefit, it doesn't necessarily need to be in the entire garment.
00:42:01
Speaker
So if you're building socks, it might only be in the toe box, or it might be just in the footbed, or it could just be up the ankle. Or if you're building a calf high stock, you're adding technology just in the calf.
00:42:13
Speaker
So there's a lot of technology and a lot of cost in that one zone, that one area. So I would say probably getting understanding that you may add $10 of value to the finished product.
00:42:27
Speaker
But it does add 50 cents or a dollar to the cost at the front end. And so that's a cost. And we're a very cost based society now. Everybody's concerned about what the cost is.
00:42:38
Speaker
um But there's there's a value add aspect. And so I'd say one of the the challenges will be explaining the value add of something. And. You know, a lot of times we don't think about the things that we buy come in a container, they come in a box, they come in a bottle.
00:42:54
Speaker
And nobody ever asked how much did the bottle cost that my that my pill that my pain relieving pills came in, right? But there there is an aspect to that. In ours, we just we found a way to integrate them into something you were going to use anyway.
00:43:06
Speaker
So the bottle is just something you're going to wear anyway. and so But yeah, I would say... Probably understanding that it's not going to but go into your manufacturing as a commodity product. It's going to go well, but it's not going to be a commodity product. And the same thing on the cost side. so Costing is going to have to be reviewed and understood that this material component costs more.
00:43:26
Speaker
than a yarn would because it's not just a yarn. And so this 5% of your product costs more than you're used to seeing. But from the other side, it adds value far more than that 5% ever would with just a regular yarn.
00:43:42
Speaker
And now to learn a bit more about yourself, Brad, how did you get into textile engineering? Is this been something that you've always wanted to do? How did you discover your passion for this field? I'm glad you asked. um ah I see myself as a ah futurist, a visionary, sci-fi buff.
00:43:58
Speaker
And for me for me, I started in textiles. um at the At the grassroots, I was pulling spools off of machine, putting spools on a conventional covering machine. And and when i when I'd been doing it long enough, I was able to doff yarn off. That's the most valuable portion of it.
00:44:15
Speaker
And so I spent the ah first seven years um working in conventional covering and texturizing, false twist texturing for those that know. And that's where you're adding those properties.
00:44:27
Speaker
was a very large operation. At one time, it was the largest under one roof. in the US. And then um I moved on and spent 17 years with a great company with texturizing equipment and a next generation of air covering equipment where you're able to do it in a one step process. And air covering is when you take a textured yarn and and combine it, intermingle it with a spandex.
00:44:52
Speaker
And so um that gave that gave me an opportunity to see how an innovative process could change the value proposition of a yarn. And that great operation gave me gave me the chance to work on surface modification.
00:45:07
Speaker
And so I was able to work on things like adding moisture moving, wicking, stain release, quick drying, and in some cases, ah particular properties like um maybe a copper or silver technologies. And so I did work in 2008, 2009 through that period with adding some of these technologies that some people have seen along the way, maybe on TV or commercials.
00:45:32
Speaker
um But most of those things were designed around performance applications, you know athletes and things like that. And I really became interested in how can we carry through a surface modifying of yarn into ah next level of benefit.
00:45:48
Speaker
And i was able to see this company Clothing 2.0 ah Founded by Jordan Schindler, Jordan had an idea on how we could have more effective wellness and really target health and patient compliance.
00:46:01
Speaker
I loved it. I saw it as as a way to really carry through beyond those early developments that really benefit, you know, as we'll so we call call it a more common consumer, and then work on and carry through how can we ah could we bring wellness and health and potentially over-the-counter pain relief.
00:46:20
Speaker
And longer term, I see the possibility for ah prescriptions and drugs being applied. A person who has ah real compliance issues, maybe somebody with dementia who doesn't remember to to take their medications?
00:46:34
Speaker
Is there a way that we can um add the the correct prescriptions into their sock? Those patients remember to put their socks on every day. It's just a natural function. could Could we in the long term carry this thing through really that that next generation of solving problems and ah So I see myself and this team as problem solvers.
00:46:56
Speaker
We've heard the compliance issues, healthcare professionals tell us all the time. And I have friends in construction that are constantly explaining what it is that they're suffering through when they're working on a roof or or out in the heat or sometimes the cold.
00:47:10
Speaker
And pain's a real issue, climbing ladders every day. It's hard. Wouldn't it be nice if we can help our friends and co-workers? Tell us a bit about your life, Brad. You said you live in North Carolina. You love to go hiking. can see a beautiful fish tank behind you. That's another passion of yours.
00:47:27
Speaker
yeah Paint a picture of what, you know, what it was like growing up as a 10 year old boy, what you enjoyed doing. We grew up, I grew up here in the Catawba Valley, right at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.
00:47:40
Speaker
And that gives us a ah great opportunity. I chose nearby university, Appalachian State, wonderful school in Boone. It's up in the mountains and it's very easy to go hike a trail, you know,
00:47:54
Speaker
due to rock climb and kayak um Do do these things. and And so growing up for me in this area, we saw this Catawba Valley area is known as makers. They've done a lot of building of furniture, building of textiles. And for many, many years, there was just lots of things that were built. Right now we're known in this area for fiber optic cable.
00:48:15
Speaker
Some of the largest telecommunication companies in the world have their building operations here, and there's data centers all around us. So think of us at a crossroads here between the old furniture making with real wood and and textile making, building the different garments.
00:48:32
Speaker
And so I grew up in an area where you had workers who were used to work in 12-hour shifts, worked long hours. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. We have four seasons. And so you have these workers, and over a period of time,
00:48:45
Speaker
The workers in that strong work ethic have found their way into what are the next generations of technologies. So a lot of businesses migrated to this area to to gather these workers who are becoming displaced as as jobs jobs went offshore. And so we're kind of at it ah a unique crossroads And um so this facility that we that we manufacture our companies built into is is joined closely with the Manufacturing Solution Center.
00:49:11
Speaker
It's an operation located, there's two buildings and the Manufacturing Solution Center is focused on problem solving for manufacturers with ah with an intent of how can this benefit the workforce.
00:49:23
Speaker
how can How can jobs transition from assembly line jobs into next generation building materials, like said, pharma and textiles together?
00:49:34
Speaker
How can companies figure out? how to take a traditional work ethic, combine it with the technologies we have now and grow opportunities, you know not um necessarily looking at those opportunities that have already been offshored.
00:49:51
Speaker
There's reasons offshoring occurred, labor, um capital, sometimes logistics. But let's see if there's a way we can find out how to really create the value add here, meaning in the U.S., be able to create a value add at home and do it ourselves, build these things that we can have an impact across the the entire world, but doing it with what we know how to do well here.
00:50:17
Speaker
Amazing. So do you do a lot of upskilling and training of um employees? Because I'm guessing this is such a unique area. No one's got the skills from, you know, from doing this before.
00:50:29
Speaker
So how do you train them up? I love it. so So what we've done is we've focused on, we've taken traditional textile workers, people who had experience in textiles, and when we bring them me in ah and find find people with textile experience, people who worked in a knitting mill before, or maybe they built yarn before, some of those jobs have gone away.
00:50:49
Speaker
We bring them and then ah we train them with computers and teams and documentation. And so I tell them about 50% of what you're going to do going forward is is traditional manufacturing. You're going to be on a machine. You're going to be building something.
00:51:04
Speaker
But really, then the next 30% is documentation, documentation, regulatory compliance. And then the the last 20% is housekeeping. Because anybody who's worked in in these high-end medical device and medical end use and things with FDA compliance, you understand that really you spend about 20% of your time cleaning.
00:51:24
Speaker
Cleaning, organizing, labeling. And so ah we've been able to take people who had traditional textile background or maybe they worked in furniture, bring them over, train them how to run equipment manufacturing style, but also then give them the education and training around computers, computer systems, how to, you know, smartphone clocking in, geofencing, all the latest generation of what it means to be in a workforce.
00:51:49
Speaker
But likewise, we've taken people who maybe were at home care nurses and they spent their, never manufactured anything, never made anything, but they knew the very strict regimen of prescriptions that somebody would need and the labeling and the documentation and what time they need it and what care they need and be able to do all those to it to a level that's required by the government sometimes.
00:52:12
Speaker
And you bring that person in who has that amount of background and documentation and compliance and teach them how to run a machine, how to how to how to be able to run a coding line, how to be able to take these yarn products and then educate them into yarn terminology. you know We have terms of art in each of our industries.
00:52:29
Speaker
And so we we love marrying that together and bringing in bringing those in from different disciplines and And bringing us together. And it actually creates a much stronger workforce because we have people who were pharma based or textile based, or maybe they were at home care nurses and much different than um manufacturing 20 years ago that I would have been involved in where everybody was in textiles was probably in textiles and their parents might have been.
00:52:54
Speaker
maybe grandparents. um And so you get a much better cross-section, a much more diverse workforce when you're willing to do that, when you're willing to bring people in and train them in the area where they need the training.
00:53:07
Speaker
I think that's been been hugely beneficial to us. This facility, this operation, the areas around here are very focused on that. And I think anybody who does research on the Manufacturing Solutions Center will see They're doing training of hosiery 101, hosiery 102.
00:53:25
Speaker
um Sometimes the the designs that are required for, say, flatbed seamless knitting or maybe how to run actual seamless machines, seamless knitting machines, those training and to the workforce all occurs right here, you know, within walking and distance of where we are.
00:53:42
Speaker
that's That's amazing. Yeah, I'd love to drop a link of this this facility. Sounds really quite an inspiring place that they've created. They've helped make Clothing 2.0 what it is.
00:53:53
Speaker
There's an encouraging of and incubating businesses like this and where where they were instead of no, they say yes or what if. And so for for Jordan and for Clothing 2.0, we are who we are and where we're going.
00:54:10
Speaker
because there are people who believe that there's a different path, a better way. Hopefully lots people are listening think the same They are. They are. That's fantastic. I'd love to draw out a little story from you, Brad. I ask all my guests this question. Textiles, absolutely, it's functional. We use it every day, but it is fun.
00:54:29
Speaker
far more than just functional. I think it has the power to touch our senses, but also our soul. And we have deep connections with certain clothing or fabrics that we've hold on to for years and years and years. We might never fit into that t-shirt again, but it holds some deep memories for us. Is there anything textile related that that you hold on to and that's very special to you?
Personal Stories and Industry Advice
00:54:52
Speaker
i love you're asking that question. um I worked many years ago ah and worked with a ah some great designers in the denim industry. Here in the U.S., nearby and in this area, there was a lot of denim and denim production and um jeans. We love our blue jeans. and And I worked with a great designer, and we built out a new generation of denim jeans that had a cooling property to them and a fast drying property.
00:55:25
Speaker
And in doing that, each of the, they they call them finishes or designs. they They do different things, finishes to jeans where they, where they make them look more faded or more acid washed, or they have a tint to them.
00:55:37
Speaker
And, When we built those products out, the denim, you get these sample swatches that you start with. And that's what's handed out and shown to the different people who are designed, the buyers who are designing.
00:55:48
Speaker
And this um cooling denim had a real advantage over anything else that was out there. And the designer saw it too. And so he shared with me these samples in probably 21 different finishes of how this denim can look. Some look very rustic, some look like something you would wear out in the evening if you were in Texas, and some look like what you would wear when you're repairing the fence.
00:56:13
Speaker
But all of these maybe 20 different finishes, he shared swatches with me, and that was a gift to me when the programs launched. I took those to my mom, who who who I love dearly.
00:56:26
Speaker
ah still have dinner with my mom every Tuesday night. And she sewed those into and together those different finishes made with fabric and yarn, essentially the fill yarn in it would have all been yarn that I helped design.
00:56:41
Speaker
And she put those all together and built those into like a blanket. Oh, beautiful. So that that textile material holds a special sentiment to me. My mom sewed it together.
00:56:54
Speaker
Each of those materials were were given to me, given as a gift from the designer who built the products out. And knowing that our team, the all the people I worked with who had played a role in it, built the yarns that were the fill in that denim.
00:57:09
Speaker
So it's great question. Nobody's ever asked that before. Yeah. Oh, Brad, I love how passionate you are about yarns. I've never met anyone like that. And I wish we had many more hours to to kind of carry on the the conversation. But just a couple more questions to ah wrap us up. One, your experience is incredible and your depth of knowledge in in yarn.
00:57:30
Speaker
What would you tell your 25-year-old self today? what What advice would you give yourself? Everything takes longer and costs more than you think it does.
00:57:41
Speaker
ah think I think patience, probably patience to allow the outcome to occur. That and maybe combined with sometimes no is an answer. And so I think in development, in maturity, I learned that you need lots of examples, lots of trials And that the no trials are just as valuable as the yes trials.
00:58:03
Speaker
And so if you if you're running ah project and you have a design on when it's going to be achieved, don't underestimate the value of running lots of trials. And you'd learn from each of those no's and the yes's.
00:58:16
Speaker
this Because it's like a decision tree. So I think if I went back to my 25-year-old self, i would I would say that because I think I would have attempted a lot more trials and maybe um had more patience with with the no's that occurred. Yeah.
00:58:31
Speaker
you know Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We can be quite hard on ourselves when we get a no, isn't it? Yeah, I love that message. Is there any mentor or a guide or a friend that that you look back and and really see as being quite a critical person in your life who kind turned you down a certain path that you've come down now?
00:58:54
Speaker
There'd be so many that I would be afraid to leave someone else. But I will say been guides who there've been guides who walked me through very experienced people who'd been in the industry, guides who walked me through and taught me a lot of lessons from traveling the Northeast of the U.S. s to different manufacturers to see what it is that these manufacturing mills do because they're quite different. A warp knitter is much different than a circular or a flatbed seamless or a small gauge hosiery.
00:59:22
Speaker
And so I think some of the experience and some of the benefit that I learned the most was when people gave an opportunity to let someone come in their mill, their manufacturing operation, and let a young person see what this equipment actually does. What does a dye house actually do?
00:59:39
Speaker
What does an indigo dyeing process look like? And so I would say as much as many, many individuals who helped me along the way as a mentor, I would welcome people to do that. Don't be don't be afraid to let a young, interested person bright person see how does that work?
00:59:58
Speaker
How does this work? Because what they'll do is they'll learn from that and they'll be able to combine different processes and they will have an impact on the future of the industry to make it run more efficiently, make it run better.
01:00:12
Speaker
And what in so many years we saw closed doors and people didn't want to show anybody anything. And I think we actually stagnated. We kept down innovation because we stifled these young people who didn't know what they couldn't do yet.
01:00:26
Speaker
And for listeners who are interested interested in learning more about medicine embedded textiles, what resources, organizations, podcasts or publications would you recommend?
Conclusion and Future of Smart Textiles
01:00:36
Speaker
Absolutely. ah Obviously, our website, Clothing 2.0, I think um working with associations like the Advanced Textile Association, checking into the Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association.
01:00:48
Speaker
It's a great association and and and a resource. I think the Southern Textile Association is a great group of people. They work with both natural and synthetic fibers. So i'm kind of naming different aspects of groups who work with fabrics and materials.
01:01:03
Speaker
I think groups like seams that are out there that are working together on how to do the cut and sew side are extremely essential in helping us get to this next generation because being able to take things that are made and cut and sew them so the technology is right where you want it.
01:01:19
Speaker
We can't underestimate the importance of of cut and sew We can't underestimate the importance of standards organizations who are out there still creating the test bed of what does home laundering look like? How do we measure it? How do we analyze it?
01:01:34
Speaker
So that everybody can be benchmarked the same. I think Hohenstein and Okutex are very important for setting standards for the industry internet internationally. And so I would say that's a big aspect is how do we support those organizations?
01:01:50
Speaker
um It's much different than it was 50 years ago. And these organizations run as nonprofits to help a large group of companies. We all need to be out there looking into and supporting those groups because that's really what's going to be. the That's what's going to collaboratively help us elevate our industry.
01:02:10
Speaker
from commodity into the next generation of smart wearables. ah What a beautiful conversation. You've just opened up a whole new world for me, Brad, to to explore and go learn more about. It's just been such a wonderful, I really felt like I got to know you very personally as well, Brad, and and your real love and passion for what you do.
01:02:30
Speaker
And your love and passion for people as well. It's not just the technology, it's about the people and the impact that you can make ah both on the end users for the technology, but also the the team that you work with, how you empower and upskill them as well.
01:02:43
Speaker
Great inspiration for all of us. Thank you so much, Brad, for your time. And it's been wonderful to have this conversation. Thank you so much. I appreciate everyone that's interested in this area.
01:02:59
Speaker
It was wonderful to learn so much from Brad today. his work with Clothing 2.0, I guess, offers a glimpse at a future where what we wear truly supports how we live and feel.
01:03:11
Speaker
I could really sense his passion for both developing cutting edge technology and mentoring the workforce of tomorrow. i I love that. ah Brad also highlighted the key role that industry associations and standard organizations play.
01:03:25
Speaker
We tend to overlook them, but they are so important in making sure that innovative solutions are tested and meet the requirements needed to make them safe and ready for consumers. For those interested in learning more about medicine embedded textiles, check out the resources Brad mentioned and please do also reach out to him directly via LinkedIn or at Clothing 2.0 if you have more questions.
01:03:48
Speaker
Thank you again for joining me today. Stay tuned for more episodes and don't forget to subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of textiles, technology, craft and sustainability. A review from you would mean the world to me.
01:04:01
Speaker
ah So please do take just 10 seconds to say hi and let me know your thoughts. And until next time, I'm Millie Therakin reminding you that there's no such thing as ordinary cloth.
01:04:12
Speaker
Every thread has a story to tell.