Consultant editor, David Buirski, has been covering the performance textile industry for more than three decades and textiles in general for much longer. After more than six decades of involvement, he remains enthusiastic, still working, so we asked him to reflect on some of the major changes he has noticed since helping to found WSA 30 years ago, just as the magazine rebrands as Sportstextiles. 

The launch of WSA, an abbreviation for World Sports Activewear, took place 30 years ago. The magazine’s mission was, and very much still is, to focus on the textiles technology that underpins innovation and performance in activewear. But the activewear industry has adapted and now covers a broader apparel spectrum. Celebrating our thirtieth anniversary, we see this as an appropriate time to realign our own international brand, and the magazine title becomes Sportstextiles, matching the name our partner news website, www.sportstextiles.com, that first began reporting industry developments online in 2005.

Kilties and crystals

But to return to the beginning. Two middle-aged ladies decided to exhibit their designs. They chose the PGA Show in Orlando, Florida, the longest running and largest global gathering for the business of golf. It was already a big event in the 1990s, but it could also accommodate start-ups, including the two ladies, in a booth measuring just 1.8 by 0.75 metres, with a simple trestle table.

This was enough to display their niche product. They had designed kilties, the fringed decorative leather flaps for golf shoes, hand-decorated with Swarovski crystals. Adding these to her footwear, any woman golfer would be one-up before hitting a ball. She would be two-up if she was wearing a golf glove manufactured by another exhibitor, designed with its special split on the ring finger to allow her diamond rings to flash in the sunlight. 

Those exhibitors were an eye-opener because they were competing for attention with giant manufacturers, such as FootJoy and others who were also vying for attention with their latest designs and technology. While I have no idea how successful either the kiltie or glove maker has fared since I saw them many years ago, there is no doubt that recent decades have seen major changes in footwear.

In sporting terms, golf shoes have changed their grip on grass. Out went metal studs and in came flexible, synthetic, screwable studs. Waterproof finishes have become commonplace and more effective, and the materials used in construction have changed with new foams and linings, all designed for more comfort and incorporating materials that are more environmentally friendly. Over 70 years ago, my stylish leather golf brogues had metal spikes and a thin metal sheet between the sole and the footbed to provide waterproofing, and there were no hooters at the golf club to sound a warning when a rain or lightning storm was approaching.

One size doesn’t fit all

Socks, too, have become more sophisticated in terms of fibres and percentages. Their shape has benefited from advances in machinery. In years past, a pair of socks was just that, two matching shapes. Nowadays, they are produced for left and right feet, and women no longer are forced to wear socks produced for men. Percentages of different fibres can be blended to create socks for specific sports. One size no longer fits all. One of my abiding memories was being shown a 100% polypropylene sock compared with a cotton-nylon one. The salesperson filled both with water, emptied them and, hey presto, the polypropylene was dry as a bone. That was at the giant Super Show in Atlanta in February 1996, when building for the upcoming Summer Olympics was delayed by freezing weather and frozen ground. Despite the snow and ice, the Super Show attracted 104,000 visitors. 

The ability to change the behaviour of fibres has become more commonplace, too. I was given a shirt designed for outdoor trekking in hot climates but made from 100% nylon. It would normally have been uncomfortable and clammy to wear under normal conditions, let alone in hot weather. I was extolling its virtues of staying dry and comfortable to my publisher while having a drink in a Hong Kong hotel. 

To demonstrate, I poured water over the sleeve; the waitress was shocked, thinking she had spilt my drink. Having assured her it was of my own doing, within a couple of minutes the shirt was dry as the finish applied was designed to move moisture away to the next thread of the weave, spreading the original drop until it had completely evaporated. Today, it appears that the properties required by the specifier can be spun into the fibre as it is produced.

Extra performance, but less footprint

Words that are flooding the sports textile and performance landscape, as well as other sectors, are sustainability, recycling, and greenhouse gas emissions. I am sure there are others that spring to mind. Performance enhancement almost seems secondary now, whereas 30 years ago it was performance that seemed to top the table. Net-zero was not part of the vocabulary when this magazine was launched.

One aspect which is now often considered in our arena is upcycling. But, going back, it was not always the case. In our travels, we came across a start-up company based in Cape Town. Like so many other companies in the sector founded by sport enthusiasts, Sealandgear was the brainchild of two enthusiastic surfers, who loved the outdoors but were concerned about the ‘trash and waste’ generated by others that had entered the ocean. Initially, their focus was on spent sails and lost fishing nets. Today, it now also upcycles the ubiquitous promotional fabric of banners and posters as well.

Instead of all this waste going to landfill, they use it to create a collection of tote bags and other travel goods using the end-of-life sails; because the ‘waste’ was unique, each item produced is equally unique. The company has built strong links with those producing banners on lightweight polyester, designed to survive all-weather conditions, and now enjoying a second life as linings for the bags. Used sails that are shipped back to Cape Town from around the world become the stock for more bags and luggage. 

That company has survived, thrived, and become an influencer (a term unheard of 30 years ago) on other like-minded people, including another local company, 30South, that produces sunglasses using 0rCA nylon from recycled fishing nets blended with carbon fibre from Aston Martin car manufacturing. The sunglasses carry a lifetime guarantee with no metallic parts, are non-slip, non-abrasive and hypoallergenic, and, like Sealand’s products, do not require any virgin material.

Look at the lotus

Biomimicry was little heard of in 1995. Looking to adapt aspects of nature today is a matter of serious research. One of the first uses of biomimicry that we came across was Stomatex neoprene, which replicates the physics of the stomata through which plants transpire. It turned a lightweight, ultra-thin, non-porous synthetic rubber into a membrane that is weatherproof and highly breathable. In 2000, Schoeller Textil developed NanoSphere, a water-resistant finish, where its 3D surface imitates the lotus leaf texture, preventing water and stains from adhering to the textile surface. 

Plants themselves, too, have now become sources of new fibres. Thirty years ago, you saw a pineapple as food. What you don’t eat today, often gets turned into a fibre. Who thought that the green algae floating on open water, which could make swimming an unpleasant experience, could be harvested and turned into yet another fibre for commercial use, while helping to clear waterways of pollution at the same time? Turning inedible corn into PLA, or polylactic acid, was not part of the fibre landscape 30 years ago when we launched our title. The yarns and fibres palette of the mid-1990s was very limited by the standards of 2025. The ability to incorporate desired characteristics continues to develop.

The body, too, has become the subject of greater analysis. Research has been invested in how the body moves, not just in terms of the foot but also in how it perspires, and how individual muscles behave during sporting activity. Sportswear is now specifically designed for specific activities. Analysis of the gait has led to an ever-increasing range of footwear, some designed for individual athletes, especially those in the elite group of participants. 

Garments are designed to remove perspiration from specific areas of the body or to compress other parts so that muscle energy is not wasted but focused on enhanced performance. In 1996, DuPont took compression a stage further, improving the performance of the Energywear concept by combining Lycra Power with Coolmax to offer enhanced moisture management. In 1997, Noble Fiber Technologies introduced X-Static, a silver fibre with anti-bacterial, antistatic and conductive properties, able to have a soothing effect by activating blood flow. Phase-change materials from companies such as Outlast Technologies, were another industry innovation in the late 1990s. I confess that I was a poor guinea pig when asked to try a pair of its gloves and have my hands scanned to show temperature changes. For some reason, my left and right hands showed the reverse of what they expected.  

A bit more buzz

The world of electronics has also been a source of differentiation in the sports and activewear sector. Intelligent fibres will no doubt continue to develop. In 2000, using  technology from Philips, Levi’s launched a smart jacket, designed by Massimo Osti, called ICD+, equipped with a network of electric wiring for connecting an mp3 device, a cell phone, earphones, and a micro-phone, operated with a remote control. In Finland, at about the same time, Reima presented Cyberia, a prototype Arctic survival suit, equipped with several types of sensors (an electro-frequency-meter by Polar, hydrometer, thermometer) connected to embroidered electrodes. Some years before, I came across long, winter-weight socks that included a small battery that powered warmth down to the toes. It came with a warning that they were not suitable for people with diabetes.

A trip to Norway in 1997 found me at the headquarters of Helly Hansen. ‘One leg is worth seven years’ was the WSA headline that followed the visit. It highlighted the necessity for companies working in the performance textiles world to devote time to testing products outside the laboratory and that the most demanding real-world testing was essential. The company had supplied one of the teams in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race and had spent two years developing and testing the clothing system, with innumerable on-the-water trials. Nevertheless, after the sponsored yacht completed the first leg of the race, tweaks were needed. The company reckoned that this one leg was the equivalent of seven years of ordinary sailing. 

The company also produces survival suits, which provided me with another memorable image. In testing, the all-in-one suit is placed on a flat surface and pressurised air is pumped into it, to ‘Michelin Man’ proportions, then painted with a soapy solution to see if it blows bubbles or highlights any other life-threatening leaks. It took me back to my childhood and mending the leaky inner tubes of my bicycle tyres.

Clearly, there have been many more milestones and memories gathered along the way. (Why would someone think it sensible to abseil down a building face-forward to the ground, as I saw once at ISPO?) Importantly, sports textiles remain an exciting and dynamic industry to be involved with. Fresh ideas and new research will continue to flow. Entrepreneurial sports enthusiasts will continue to develop new sporting activities, which in turn will require ingenuity on the part of those creating and manufacturing performance textiles.

Sportstextiles will be there to see, listen and report.

Cover time line - 1995 to 2025.
CREDIT: WTP

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