High performance: Why Volt Smart Yarns is in demand

A US yarn manufacturer is hoping to ‘push the envelope’ in the burgeoning smart textiles category. Volt Smart Yarns, officially unveiled last September by Hickory, the North Carolina-based Supreme Corporation, drew accolades that same month when the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) bestowed its Show Stopper award on the new product in the Fabrics, Fibers & Films category.

Supreme will observe its 54th anniversary in July. The company, which specialises in covering yarns, has evolved considerably over the decades. It began as an elastic covering operation and changed over the years due to the raw materials used. In the late 1980s, Supreme started working with high-strength yarns, and eventually moved into cut-resistant yarns. It is building its future on its diverse capabilities.

Matt Kolmes, Supreme’s CEO, says at the core of Volt is a highly engineered composite yarn. It has evolved out of work with military contractors, and as a bonded thread product sold for flame-resistant mattresses. It is now moving into a variety of areas, including healthcare and sportswear.

“We realised we know quite a bit about sewing thread,” says Kolmes. “It’s a perfect delivery mechanism for extremely fine copper wires. We started with two of those wires in our sewing thread and learned that the customer wanted more, so we went to four. They wanted a yarn or thread that could send signals.”

It all builds on Supreme’s yarn capabilities. “If you name an exotic high performance fibre, we work with it on a daily basis,” says Kolmes. “We offer ourselves up as an R&D house for other brands. That includes the cut-resistant glove industry, sportswear and regular clothing companies. We see the yarn side of the business really growing and it’s exciting.”

Volt got a huge response from its soft launch from industry, including computer chip, car and clothing manufacturers, and companies in health care and hospitals. Kolmes says there was a feeding frenzy of companies that want this conductive yarn. The subsequent response at the IFAI conference last September was tremendous. The attention garnered there has propelled Volt into many conversations with companies that want to move into smart fabrics and wearable technology.

Supreme is now partnering with several companies that want to incorporate Volt into their product lines for 2020 or 2021. But Kolmes says it’s apparent that companies are missing many variables in the equation, and Supreme is hoping to close that gap.

“There is a huge gap between textile and electronic people,” he observes. “They just don’t speak the same language. That’s why you don’t see a lot of commercialisation of wearable technology.”

Noting that prototyping is costly, Kolmes says Supreme realised it had to blaze a new path with Volt by developing working relationships with companies in the electronics arena.

“The take away I get is that we are going to have to give these companies products that work, and since we are textile people, this has forced us to make alliances that work with electronics as their bread and butter. We have developed a network of companies that we rely on to do prototyping and can see the product from beginning to end. It’s absolutely exciting and has pulled us in directions we thought we would never go.”

The first products using Volt yarns are going into military garments that track the health of soldiers. Kolmes believes the next round will move into the greater health sector with use in hospitals and by doctors to monitor patients, perhaps even alerting them to an epidemic by tracking a spike in body temperature.

Kolmes notes that not much has changed in sportswear using smart textiles since about 2007 with Fitbit. He believes everything since has been ‘bolt-on’ technology.

Kolmes believes the industry is now making big strides and moving toward a point where the sensor is the fabric. “We are making a fabric that can heat you up, but the fabric can be a sensor,” he says. “It’s a heater and a sensor. It’s an exciting moment for us.”

Supreme is now working on nine versions of Volt, with some versions requiring filing of patents. Some of the potential uses for Volt are in automotives, medical devices and police clothing, Kolmes believes.

While Supreme is not at liberty to name many of its partners, one company it is partnering with is Pressure Profile Systems in Los Angeles, which develops tactile sensing technologies. PPS is looking to develop an impact sensor to be used in retrofitting police body armour.

“In sportswear, everyone is interested in data,” adds Kolmes. “The whole world is hooked on high tech and that’s only going to improve and grow. Most innovative companies are using smart clothing to measure performance. If you are a golfer, you can use your clothing as a trainer to measure the rotation of your hips.”

Kolmes says smart clothing is being used to measure a variety of categories, including fatigue, hydration and heart rate.

Volt plans to exhibit at a wearable technology show in Tokyo with the smart vest application it is developing with PPS.

“We are taking baby steps,” says Kolmes. “Two to three years from now, Volt will be a meaningful part of our business. If all the metrics are correct about wearable technology, the market will be $5bn to $10bn in five years. That’s the reason we are interested in being in it. We want to push the envelope.”

Kolmes notes that Supreme’s Hickory location is in the ‘hub’ of the current US textile industry. The company has been growing over the last several years. Employment now stands at 60, up from 36 in 2014. Supreme has expanded its factory twice during the past three years and has added machinery each year.

Kolmes is working to position the company to survive future recessions by diversifying its product line and capabilities. “We are really looking to have a plan in place and have the pulse of the economy,” he says. “We want to be ready for the next recession and we want to be here for another 53 years.”