Keeping your cool in these clothes is easy, thanks to technology

Here’s a different way to turn down the heat: wearable technology — and we don’t mean the latest electronic gadget.

Action adventure wear companies including Columbia and ExOfficio and others are weaving technology into clothes to help keep us cooler.

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FOR THE RECORD

An earlier version of this post misquoted Andy Nordhoff, public relations manager for Columbia. The Omni-Freeze apparel has thousands of tiny blue rings, not thousands of polymers.

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Columbia’s most recent entrant into the field turns sweat into a renewable resource. Omni-Freeze Zero apparel (starting at $20) includes shirts, shorts, bandannas and hats.

Here’s how it works: “Omni-Freeze Zero apparel has thousands of tiny blue rings that absorb moisture,” Andy Nordhoff, public relations manager for Columbia, said in an email. “This synthetic polymer draws heat from the fabric when it rapidly expands and that lowers the temperature of the garment to cool us off.”

The garment “stays cool as long as it’s moist, whether through sweat or water,” he said. “On a really hot hike, I’ll duck my shirt and arm sleeves in a creek to really activate the polymer and it stays cool for hours.”

That ExOfficio shirt or sweater (from $20), on the other hand, uses a more familiar substance to keep you cool: a sugar substitute.

These Sol Cool garments use Xylitol. “Xylitol is actually sugar alcohol,” Lynn Wagner, ExOfficio’s design materials specialist, said in an email. “When in contact with moisture [sweat], it becomes a cooling [sensation] agent.”

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