Gymnast jumps in with prize
28/09/2007
The conference organisers decided to award a prize of £500 plus a £500 contribution towards a trip to a European trade show next year to current MBA or PhD students, or people who have graduated in the last three years, with a specialism in performance textiles.
The prize went to Jan-Fahrenheit Betros, a former international gymnast from Sweden, who submitted a design and prototype for a new type of base-layer garment while completing a Masters degree at the University of Derby last academic year.
He said his vision was to make a base-layer garment that was more attractive and more technical, but more simple at the same time.
“Today, everything seems to have sealed seams, zippers and so on,” he said on receiving the prize. “I wanted something uncomplicated. That’s why there are no pockets, because if you have pockets, you’re inclined to put something in them and then it sags. I felt we all had enough pockets with the ones in our jackets and pants.”
His design has a hood, with a high neck, making it, he explained, a combination of hood, balaclava and neck-warmer. When you move your head, the hood moves with you. It’s light, so you could wear it with any jacket and it never, its creator claims, feels bulky.
He has tested it by wearing it to perform some of his own gymnastic routines. Even after a series of backward flips, the garment did not pull, he said.
One of the most important elements of his design is that it uses only recycled and recyclable polyester, an idea for which Mr Betros won and secured the interest of influential industry figures, including Doug Lumb, senior vice-president for product development at Polartec.
“I am very happy to win the prize,” he said yesterday. “This is the first garment I’ve completed on my own.”
He said he hoped to use the prize as a springboard to a career in designing performance apparel. He is now based in his home city, Stockholm.
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