For Jorge Barreto, Playvest's CEO:

"This project will allow us to consolidate Playvest's positioning as an innovative company and, at the same time, introduce products with differentiated value propositions in the market."

Named Aux_Seamless, this joint-venture culminated, from the use of Seamless technology and auxetic mesh, in the development of 4 prototypes, namely: leggings for running, leggings with reduced transparency, maternity clothing, and personal protective clothing (first layer).

Figure 1 - Leggings for running.

Figure 2 - Leggings with reduced transparency.

Figure 3 - Personal protective clothing.

Figure 4 - Maternity clothing.

 

As for the first prototype, the running leggings are differentiated by the fact that they allow for an increase in the athlete's sporting performance and, at the same time, reduce the probability of injuries occurring. For this, multidirectional compression technology was applied, which, in other words, allows the application of different levels of compression in different areas of the body. The second product, leggings with reduced transparency, as the name implies, prevents the user's privacy from being compromised during movement. For this, Fibrenamics studied the various types of existing raw materials, the type of pattern produced, and operationalization parameters, such as the degree of tightness, and then chose 2 auxetic patterns that best meet the need of the project. Regarding the third garment, the maternity clothing, the use of multidirectional compression technology in this product, a technology also applied in the running leggings, besides helping to support the extra weight, decreased the likelihood of pregnant women having circulation problems in the lower limbs. Finally, as for the fourth and last prototype, the personal protective clothing, given its construction with auxetic material, presents a 38% higher energy absorption than simple Jersey knit, however, in specific areas of the body, the combination of this mesh with STF (shear thickening fluid), made it possible to increase the energy absorption capacity by 114%, in puncture situations, thereby allowing to protect the user against low-speed impacts.

From the point of view of Vânia Pais, Project Manager at Fibrenamics:

"The technological innovation achieved here, besides allowing the increase of Playvest's product range, is an important step for the Portuguese textile industry in the area of advanced textiles. I believe this innovation will contribute to improving the quality of life of the population."