New Technology Promises Stink Free Clothes
Are deodorant brands going to go the way of the buggy whip?
Odegon Technologies, a company out of the U.K., has developed iron-on fabric tags designed to fight body odor. Yep, forget about white residue on your clothes and your sweat outlasting the deodorant, these babies are touted as being “the only inert, non-allergenic, odorless, long lasting, base neutral, environmentally friendly solution to body odor … free from chemicals” and fragrance free.
DeOdour Tags, as they are known, come available in three sizes and colors, and evidently can be incorporated into the manufacturing process as a selling point for clothing brands. The soft tags are made from “a special nano-porous material that traps odour molecules,” according to the company. They remain effective for the entire life of the garment, regardless of how many times they are put into a washing machine or dry cleaned.
According to a report by Springwise (a RetailWire fave), “Odegon (short for ‘odor gone’) is now seeking established importing, marketing and distribution companies to help promote and distribute its products around the globe.”
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions: How will odor fighting nano technology change the personal care and apparel industries? Do you see other types of nano technologies seriously changing other product categories, as well?
Think about it — if one’s clothes with the iron-on patch are stink free, will that cause one to think they have no body odor and cause them to throw away their Dial soap and to bath less frequently?
Nano technologies will change many industries … but when clothes with the iron-on fabrics are removed the stink will linger on.
I don’t see this as a game-changer; anyone interested enough in “stink-free” apparel is probably already a consumer of deodorants and daily bathing! And the market for other “tech fabrics” has been somewhat limited because of the effect on price points. (Wicking fabrics are widely but not universally accepted.) This looks like an idea with potential but with some roadblocks to market.
Gene’s right. If you care enough to think about these tags, you’re probably already bathing regularly and using deodorant and are very unlikely to abandon either. There are, however, several places where technology could add real value. How about a technology that will sound a “muffin-top” alert or a warning that “this outfit is not age-appropriate.” Now that would useful.
A very interesting concept. Recall the success of Febreze, which in essence is a clothes deodorant. Febreze gave single men the opportunity to wear the same shirt for three days (LOL). Imagine the marketing, sales, and profitability possibilities of having Febreze-like benefits built into clothing.
Eew.
Ok – now we have body odor handled can we do something about sweat and sweat stains? Actually I agree with those that have already written that this is not likely to have the wide success one might think for all the reasons listed. Just curious; was this article selected to run the same day as “Researchers Sniff Out Fake Reviews Online”?
The iron-on fabric tags sounds like a novel idea, and every little bit helps, but body odor is not caused by clothes, it’s caused by the body. Hope consumers will continue to take at least one shower every day, and wash their clothes, and for extra credit, use some deodorant! And besides, that’s good also for the economy and the CPG business!
What percentage of the consumer base owns and uses irons? I am thinking this is a low, single-digit percentage.
With all due respect to my European colleagues, Americans tend to be a little more sensitive about personal hygiene issues than Europeans. I think the U.S. consumer is a long way away from abandoning deodorant and putting their faith in nanotechnology. Technology may someday change the U.S. personal care market, but no time soon.
Body odor carries a very strong negative perception in the United States. I wouldn’t summarily dismiss any product that can solve a problem — real or imagined.
First question: how well is the foot category doing with their ‘no-smell’ socks or inserts? It’s a bit of an indulgence and the application’s probably more than most people would go through BUT the idea of a garment helping you out a little (as the socks do) is not that far fetched. I’m with Christopher; I wouldn’t summarily dismiss the idea. Get an innovative designer to figure out how to already have it in every shirt and you might really have something. (Grandpa, tell us what deodorant sticks were!)
I’ve got a name for the product: Odor Motel – Odors Check In But They Don’t Check Out. Original, huh? This application is for teenage boys who dress daily from a pile of unwashed clothing on the floor. They dress by smell.
We don’t expect people to abandon their deodorants nor antiperspirants. What we are trying to do is tackle the 4 o’clock problem.
It’s getting late, a very heavy day and you’re out in the evening or working on. Maybe you don’t get that shower in the morning. You’re wearing heavy winter clothing but the aircon is too hot. So many different scenarios are there for this product and, of course, the BIG health issues that rear their ugly head every so often with chemicals being absorbed into the body.
The great thing about DeOdorTags — they can be applied in any type of garment to most types of fabric. You have retail packs as well as garment makers’ packs. We are already speaking to some of the largest garment uniform makers. A lot of corporates are interested in this product. Now it’s the turn of the sportswear makers; soon it will reach the consumers in retail packs across most counters.
This week, we have just started to sell in the US to a retail chain as well as a laundry chain who are offering this to clients as a special. We aren’t a large multi-national; we are a bona fide small company that needs as much help as possible to get out there into the big wide world!