Volt Smart Yarns has launched a new Wearable Tech division to focus on and expand its partnerships with brands seeking to turn their products into smartwear.
Using its proprietary highly conductive smart yarn, Volt Wearable Tech has the ability to make any article of clothing into a smart garment. The company’s recent partnerships with Scout Personal GPS, Lumenus, NuCurrent and Textile Instruments are harnessing the conductive power of its smart yarns to enable GPS and Internet of Things (IoT) fabrics and clothing.
“We created our new Wearable Tech division to provide a one-stop shopping experience for brands looking to enhance their products with the latest breakthroughs in smart technology,” said Matt Kolmes, CEO of Volt Smart Yarns and parent company Supreme Corporation. “Together with Volt Smart Yarns, this new division enables us to further push our innovative capabilities and distinguish ourselves as a leader in the wearable technology space.”
The company said a critical aspect is its ability to provide flexible, washable capabilities for smart textiles containing LEDs, sensors and batteries. Testing in the Wearable Tech R&D lab also has resulted in yarn that can provide heat to targeted areas anywhere on the fabric, which has not been possible before with heat-enabled smart apparel, Volt noted.
“The products we’re creating with our partners are a reflection of our commitment to raise the bar in smart apparel and provide solutions to the obstacles that brands face when they want to complement their products with smart technology,” Kolmes said.
Supreme launched the Volt Smart Yarns division in September 2017. Since then, it has worked to provide solutions to obstacles brands face when adding smart technology to their products. An example is the unreliability and strength of connectivity to a power source, which Volt concurred occurred with the yarn’s four highly conductive insulated copper wires used in commercialized sewing. Current versions of the yarn have up to 16 wires the diameter of a human hair, allowing for increased connectivity and a smaller battery.
Supreme invented cut-resistant composite yarns, and the privately held company, based in Hickory, N.C., currently holds 95 active and 15 pending patents in high-tech yarns and fabrics.