Uncompromising comfort and flexibility

AWI’s Merino Perform™ Next to Skin fabrics capitalise on the Merino fibres innate natural qualities to provide an uncompromising level of next to skin comfort, natural breathability and elasticity.

• Natural Comfort

Merino is softer than traditional wool because its fibres are much finer, so it feels luxuriously soft next to the skin.  It works in total harmony with the wearer’s body due to the fibre’s excellent natural elasticity. When wet, a Merino fibre can be extended up to 30% without damage.  These benefits make Merino ideally suited to yoga or stretch related activity wear.

• Breathability

When someone says a garment “breathes” they are referring to its ability to dissipate perspiration so that the wearer doesn’t feel clammy or uncomfortable.  The Merino fibre has an amazing capacity to absorb moisture vapour and release it into the atmosphere.  This results in lowering the humidity in the micro-climate between the skin and garment, resulting in minimised sweating.  This ability to release moisture and reduce sweating will reduce the clamminess feeling of the wearer, for increased comfort during exercise.

• Temperature regulation

The more easily we can rid ourselves of excess heat, the better the body’s performance.  The harder we work the more sweat will need to be evaporated.  When the body temperature rises from increased muscle activity a “fail-safe” mechanism kicks in and sweat is produced.  The evaporation of this liquid from the skin’s surface produces a very efficient cooling effect. Merino wool actually speeds up this transfer process, resulting in cooler muscles which are able to work at higher levels without having adverse effects on the body’s finely tuned temperature requirements.

• Permanent odour resistance

There are a number of aspects of the physical and chemical structure of the Merino fibre that makes it naturally more odour reducing than other textiles.  Although sweat itself has no odour, if it remains on the skin, bacteria will develop in time and create unpleasant body odours.  Merino reduces the opportunity for odours to generate because it is more efficient than other textiles at evaporating vapour into the air.

• Anti-static

Merino does not accumulate static electricity because it is a good conductor; synthetics on the other hand tend to be poor natural conductors.   Its ability to dissipate static electricity means that Merino garments have a reduced attraction to lint and fluff.  They also won’t cling uncomfortably to the wearer which synthetics often do during exercise, resulting in a more comfortable work out.

Merino Perform™ Next to Skin product brochure