How can Cocona Fabrics technology in Fire in the Gut shirts help you? 

-The Fabric Helps Regulate Body Temperature (As an athlete, you will always perform better if your core body temperature does not fluctuate up or down.)
-The Fabric Is Odor Resistant (You will not smell like a dirty old sock after a workout, which will make many people around you happy.)
-The Fabric Protects your skin from dangerous UV rays – Up to 50 SPF (Your skin will thank you.)

Cocona Fabrics provide multiple benefits to you as an athlete that most other performance fabrics do not offer.  The other performance fabrics in the market that do offer multiple benefits, generally obtain these performance features by applying large amounts of chemical additives to the fabrics.  Over time, these chemicals will come out of the fabric in the washing machine.  Once the chemicals wear out of the fabric, you do not have an article of performance clothing anymore and you have just put harmful chemicals into the environment.

How are Cocona Fabrics made?

Cocona fabrics are made using natural technology derived from coconut shells.    Coconut shells are heated up to approximately 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit.  The byproduct of this process is activated carbon particles.  These particles are then spun into the polyester fibers that are used in knitting the fabric we use at Fire in the Gut.  The carbon particles are permanently embedded into the fiber and will not wear out. 

As a side note, activated coconut carbon is used to filter air, water and also to treat waste water.  It is also used as medicine in Europe for upset stomachs and to remove toxins from overdose victims in emergency rooms.

How does the Cocona technology actually work to provide multiple performance features?

Regulating Body Temperature – Evaporative Cooling
In one Fire in the Gut shirt, there is about a football field (yes – a whole football field) of surface area of these carbon particles.  Cocona Fabrics can absorb enormous amounts of moisture that will evaporate quickly because of the massive surface area inside the fabric.  Imagine taking a wet sponge and wiping it on a chalkboard.  If you spread the moisture from the sponge over a massive surface area, the rate of evaporation will be much higher.  The concept is the same with the carbon particles.  The sweat from your skin is spread out over the massive surface area of all these carbon particles allowing the shirt to dry a lot faster than other performance fabrics.  This is why it also is referred to as “flash dry” fabric.  Flash dry means the rapid evaporation of moisture from a porous or granular solid.

To give you a comparison to other performance fabrics in the marketplace, Coolmax polyester has approximately 20% more surface area compared to standard polyester yarn.  Cocona Technology yarns have over 15 times more surface area.

“Fabrics with high moisture capacity and drying rates will perform the best for these athletes because they can ‘process’ the largest amounts of sweat, meaning moving it off the skin and evaporating it quickly from the fabric.” Dr. Gregory Haqquist, Cocona Technology Inventor

Odor Resistant
The carbon particles are porous.  The bacterium from your sweat that produces the horrific odor is absorbed by these carbon particles.  The result is a shirt that does not smell.  At some point, the carbon particles become saturated and it is time to wash the shirt to reset its performance capabilities. 

Statistics indicate that 82% of the carbon footprint of apparel comes from the consumer washing a garment.  If your Fire in the Gut shirt does not smell, we encourage you to wear it again before you wash it.  You are giving back to our planet by skipping a wash once in awhile and extending the natural life of your garment.

UV Protection
Lastly the carbon particles block the UV rays, which provides up to 50 Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF)

We invite you to check out Cocona Fabrics website at www.coconafabrics.com if you would like even more information.