Welcome to Talking Points, a series that looks at what makes some products worth talking about, brought to you by Gear Patrol Studios.
Today, it’s no longer enough to slather on the SPF. Instead, more and more consumers are looking for lightweight sun-protective clothing – a category that is only expanding and becoming more advanced.
For the last few years, the sun protection apparel segment has become more competitive, and many high-quality products are now assumed to offer some level of UV protection. Sun shirts have evolved to make way for sun jackets and other similar outerwear layers. But outerwear means more material, especially when layered, and necessitates a way to keep sun-exposed folks comfortable. The answer: cooling tech, which is what makes LifeLabs’ CoolLife Sun Shield Windbreaker so exciting. The piece marries classic sun protection with cooling materials in a 50+ UV-proof cooling jacket. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the piece is – we’ll say it – fashionable.
Last month, I had the chance to test the jacket myself on a twenty-mile bike ride through Brooklyn, ten miles each way. I’ll explain how the jacket’s tech kept me cool during the day and wind-proof in the evening. Hopefully, it can keep you cool on a less grueling, leisurely ride.
The Backstory
Science-Backed Cooling Clothing
LifeLabs is a self-described “materials science company” founded by Professor Yi Cui, director of Stanford University’s advanced materials laboratory, and Meng Sui, a chemist and CEO of the clean energy foundry EEnotech. Cui and Sui offer an ‘unprecedented’ focus on sustainability and ultimately aim to reduce energy consumption with every piece of LifeLabs tech developed. To date, the company has “11 patents designed to allow humans to use less energy.”
In its latest release, the team developed “CoolLife” – the world’s first infrared-transparent fabric. The textile is designed to release your body heat and can cool your internal temperature by 3°F, and more effectively than comparable fabrics. It does so with Polyethylene, a sustainable, recyclable polymer. LifeLabs explains that Polyethylene, “transfers body heat away from the skin more efficiently than any other performance fabric in the world” and adds it’s also “the most sustainable among natural and synthetic textiles in the world, according to the Materials Sustainability Index.”
LifeLabs has harnessed its CoolLife material to launch a full line of cooling clothing for work, sleep or play. Those interested in exploring the full range of cooling clothes (and accessories) from t-shirts ($49) to sleepwear sets ($79) to sheet sets ($169) at the LifeLabs site.