More than 60 clothing companies, including well known brands like Adidas, Eddie Bauer and Dockers, are using a material designed by a Colorado company which employs coconut shells to create clothes that dry faster, smell better and save energy while laundering reports 9News.com.
It may sound crazy, but Boulder-based Cocona actually uses carbon from left over coconut shells in clothing products. The company started in 2000, when the company’s founder began looking for ways to utilize activated carbon to adsorb chemical agents, so it wouldn’t come in contact with the users’ skin as part of a chemical defense project.
That process turned out to be too messy, so Dr. Gregory Haggquist began looking for a way to use the carbon to limit smells in sweaty clothing.
As part of the process, he used tiny bits of coconut carbon, which are too small to be used by companies that create water filtration units, and looked for a way to combine the molecules with yarn and thread.
“The aha moment was the methodology was how to put these particles into yarn so they stay in there permanently and still have the added functionality we’re looking for,” Haggquist explained.
The best part is that each of the features Cocona provides to a piece of clothing makes it greener too. Cocona products require less time in the dryer because of their quick drying properties and needs less washing because of its ability to absorb odors.
Photo by Cocona.