Smartwool: The Science Behind Comfort

As a child I would often spend those valuable summers with my grandparents at their home in Kentucky. It was tucked away down a long and winding road through a massive forest that towered eons over my youthful mind, warmth of sunlight flickering across my curious face as we passed through nature’s cathedral and finally arrived at their home. Many afternoons I would find myself on their little patio, warmed by the same sun and serenaded by myriad birds and a small symphony of wind chimes. These chimes intrigued me. As I lay there drunk with relaxation the chimes greeted me with their unique and subtle differences. The lazy clunk clunk of the wooden chimes in sharp contrast with the reverberating ting ting of the metal chimes. Two identical objects save for the material that was chosen to form them producing such a guttural difference so obvious to the human ear - you form a preference immediately. Our senses are brilliant judges of a product’s character. Smartwool understands how critical this first impression can be and has tailored their unique Merino wool blend to delight customers through touch.?

Keeping you warm and comfortable?

Smartwool was formed in 1994 by Patty and Peter Duke, ski instructors in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They began by producing performance ski socks that keep a user’s feet nice and toasty while allowing sweat to wick away. Over the last 30 years Smartwool has drastically expanded their portfolio beyond socks across various garment categories including hats, underwear, shirts, gloves, and more. One thing ties these all together, the material. The company states, “Merino wool is the key ingredient in almost every item we make. It's soft, manages moisture, regulates temperature, and resists odors. Merino wool is what makes our base layers, hiking socks, running socks, and other outdoor apparel so incredibly comfortable and effective in any condition.” Smartwool uses a specific wool treatment process to augment the attributes of this already versatile material, reducing the itchiness and shrinkage typically found with wool garments. They have owned this unique combination of characteristics, built a strong brand around it, and accrued a loyal following of customers that keeps coming back for more. In 2005, Timberland took notice and acquired Smartwool, the former eventually being acquired itself in 2011 by VF Corporation. This assumed influx of cash investment and scaled infrastructure has helped Smartwool reach 2023 revenues of $24M, according to Rocket Reach. While Smartwool’s competition has tightened due to an influx of challengers in the premium outdoor performance apparel market, they have separated themselves from the pack with a drop of special sauce: attention to material design.?

Material design is driving Smartwool to the top?

To better understand the world of material design, we spoke with Jon Emery, professor of material sciences at Northwestern University. “We always describe [material design] as either adaptive design, where you have a material and you're trying to make it better in one way or another or innovative design, where you might be actually synthesizing something completely new,” explains Emery. Prof. Emery explains how innovative design grapples with highly scientific questions like, “how do I make a connection between where the atoms sit in a material and why they absorb energy in the right wavelengths? Or why or how they convert this energy to electricity?” He goes on to describe how adaptive performance-based design strives to fit a market need like, “a stronger steel that works in rough environments like with exposure to chlorine or needing a polymer that won’t break down in the sun as quickly. And then there’s all the other stuff which comes with marketing: it’s got to look good, you have to be able to dye it, it’s got to last long enough. Then there's product perception - is this friendly for the environment and so on and so on.” These marketing needs are driven by the specific properties of the materials that the end customer will most likely never hear about. Prof. Emery continues, “the mechanical properties or the thermal properties or the corrosive properties are correlated to specific structures in every material that dictates these properties.”?

Smartwool does their homework. They understand their material to the molecule, while it manages moisture, regulates temperature, and resists odors extremely well, it tends to shrink when washed and can be itchy. To mitigate this, Smartwool employs methodologies of performance-based material design and augment Merino wool’s characteristics to meet the specifications that the wearer really wants. Nobody likes itchy sweaters that shrink. In the world of product development, these are external market-facing features that customers look for and understand. They speak the same language. What actually drives these features are internal engineering specifications, requirements that make the consumer needs possible. An everyday example of this is the battery life in your smartwatch (market-facing feature) and the milliampere-hour capacity of the lithium-ion battery combined with the power consumption of the system (engineering specifications). Smartwool has augmented their Merino wool through two unique processes to meet engineering specifications that drive two critical consumer needs: non-itchy and non-shrink. This positions them with an edge over the competition.?

The Steamboat Springs-based brand executes these material features through two processes: fiber filtering and Hercosett. By filtering the Merino wool fibers prior to weaving, Smartwool can “eliminate shorter, thicker fibers that create a more rigid and prickly fabric,” according to Prof. Emery. It all comes down to physics at a microscopic level. Thinner, longer fibers have more flexibility and are more easily bent against your skin, offering a more comfortable feel. The Hercosett process is used to prevent shrinkage when the wool garments are washed. The process was invented in the 1950’s by the Wool Board of the UK to make wool more commercially viable. Prof. Emery explains, “it is a chlorine-based process that smooths down the edges of each microscopic scale that makes up the structure of a fiber. When wet, these scales interlock and stick together, clumping the fibers and then constricting when dried. At the scale of a sock or sweater this causes the entire garment to shrink.” The Hercosett augments the engineering specification of the fibers thereby meeting the consumer need of fabric that does not shrink. Recently, companies like NUI have entered the wool garment market with alternatives to Hercosett that do not require the chemical process. Perhaps this gives a glimpse of where the market is headed, taking Smartwool along with it.?

Living in a material world?

Material selection is one of the initial decisions made with a product that can drive a significant amount of cost reduction for the producer and value to the customer. It can be a reliable advantage when harnessed. Investment into material design puts you in the driver’s seat. Smartwool truly puts this into practice, creating warm, comfy clothes perfect for the winter season and beyond (shameless plug for our 2023 Gift Guide - check out the awesome work from my incredible colleagues).?

A fair amount of PERLab’s work focuses on reducing the unit cost of our client’s products without sacrificing the quality that customers demand. This is where the science matters. Understanding the qualities and specifications of material variations is powerful as the trade-offs truly matter. Knowing that swapping Aluminum 7075 to Aluminum 6063 can have minimal structural impact (in specific applications) but significant cost impact is important in specific scenarios when pitching ideas to a company that spends billions on aluminum every year.?

Combining material selection with how it is processed has even further implications of cost and specification. Knowing that thixomolded magnesium may be less expensive than cast aluminum (in specific applications) may create efficiencies in the part design as thixomolding allows for much thinner wall sections (okay, that’s the last one, I swear). In Smartwool’s case, the Hercosett processing increases cost but the consumer is willing to pay a premium for the outstanding feature of shrink reduction.?

PERL has an incredible culture of sharing this type of knowledge internally. Our economies of experience are tough to beat. We are always on the lookout for innovative materials and processes to keep the advantage in our client’s pocket.?

A huge thank you to Professor Jon Emery of Northwestern University for contributing his extensive knowledge in Material Design.?

Behind every product is a fascinating story that connects to our human world. Every month, our product experts will dive deep into the journey of a single product, bringing that story to life and connecting the dots between purpose, production, sustainability, and how it fits into our chaotic world. Join us as we unravel the exceptional mysteries behind seemingly ordinary objects.

This month’s post was crafted by Ross Brinkman , product expert with Kearney PERLab (Product Excellence Renewal Lab) , and a special contribution from Professor Jonathan Emery of Northwestern University.