TEL AVIV — Imagine a 100 percent cotton T-shirt that never gets sweaty — no matter how many times someone perspires during the day, the shirt stays as cool, dry and as comfortable as when it was put on in the morning.
That is the claim of RealCool Cotton, whose creator, Israeli textile manufacturer Delta Galil, calls it the ultimate cotton fabric, material that breathes but stays cool and fresh, without absorbing the body’s moisture. The company created RealCool by using nanotechnology applications, the science of making almost anything smaller, sturdier and more effective.
“We were thinking about what would be the ultimate fabric that we would want to make,” said Esti Maoz, Delta’s corporate senior vice president for global development and marketing, “and we knew it had to be cotton because that’s the fabric that everyone loves best.”
Nasdaq-traded Delta is well-known for its intimate apparel. It produces and outsources underwear, bras and socks in 20 countries for private label customers Donna Karan and Calvin Klein; chains Victoria’s Secret, the Gap, Banana Republic, Express and J. Crew, as well as for mass market retailers Target, Wal-Mart and British store Marks & Spencer.
One of the world’s largest private label intimate apparel manufacturers, with $654 million in sales in 2004, the company credits vertical integration — a managerial package of design, textile technology, outsourcing, manufacturing and marketing — as its secret to achieving growth.
But “high-tex,” the local nickname for Israeli technology applied to textiles, is a specialty of the industry. Delta invests millions in research and development annually, creating a range of high-quality, creatively woven knits for its customers.
Last March, after several quarters of declining profits, Delta made a wish list of technological innovations, with a next-generation cotton at the top of the pile. It took eight months and $1.5 million in research and development to create the fabric, which is patent-pending in the U.K.
According to Riki Ghindes, Delta’s design and global development director, the nanotechnology applications used in the company’s laboratories created a special treatment that softens the cotton, increasing the absorption capacity of the fabric. The application allows moisture to be wicked to the surface of the fabric where it can easily evaporate, creating a similar but more comfortable material than synthetic fabrics. RealCool Cotton has been approved by U.K. laboratories after retaining its special properties following 30 washes, the industry standard.
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“It’s the kind of thing that stays fresh all day,” said Ghindes, who spent many hours at Delta’s design studios working on the concept. “A guy who usually puts on an undershirt beneath his button-down shirt will find that his shirt will stay fresh the entire day. It all wicks out.”
The fabric has the feel of mercerized cotton, a thin, soft fabric that drapes easily on the body, but without the weight of the average cotton material. Plans are to use the high-end cotton in all kinds of soft goods, including underwear, bras, socks and bed sheets. For now, several U.S. and European manufacturers have bought the fabric, including mass market and private label retailers, although Delta declined to name the companies.
According to Maoz, products made out of the concentrated cotton will cost about 10 percent more, but Delta expects its customers to be willing to pay extra for the concept, and Delta will profit from its investment within two years.
That will be important for Delta, which reported a loss of $3 million for the first quarter of 2005.
In reporting the first-quarter losses in May, chief executive officer Arnon Tiberg said, “The main causes of the loss were a decrease in sales and the erosion of selling prices to some of our customers, particularly in the European and the U.S. upper-market divisions. We are in a period of major changes in the global business environment. Following the elimination of quotas … the market has been characterized by strong pressure to lower prices, beyond our expectations, from most of our customers. Delta continues to evaluate how to cope with these changes by adjusting its production facilities, reducing cost of procurement and overhead.”
Edna Brenner, an analyst covering Delta at Psagot Ofek, a Tel Aviv brokerage, said the surge of cheap Chinese goods into Europe and the U.S. created a wave of textile industry losses, and a ripple effect at Delta Galil.
Delta’s customers have stuck with the Israeli manufacturer, but they’re looking for price reductions. Now Delta has to work on its expenses, as well as product innovation, said Brenner.
“This fabric won’t solve their problems, but a huge contract from someone like Reebok could definitely help, especially before it gets copied in some corner in China,” she added.