Loomia Technologies, of Culver City, California, is partnering with Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) to develop highly tactile, heated handwear for both commercial/recreational and military customers.

To make heated handwear a reality, Loomia will provide patented e-textile technology, while AFFOA will lead customer discovery, deliver system architecture designs and produce an interface control unit.

Loomia’s patented e-textile technology is a soft, flexible circuit technology that can be embedded into a wide variety of fabrics and surfaces. The technology can provide lighting, heating and sensing functionalities and boasts customisable components and a lightweight integration. In the past, Loomia has worked with companies such as Hyundai and Analog Devices to create the foundational technology for soft goods products.

“Our soft, flexible circuits can give users high dexterity while in cold environments,” says Loomia’s founder Madison Maxey. “Being able to use your hands in subzero temperatures can be the difference between life or death, so we’re excited to work with AFFOA on such an important application for electronic textiles.”

AFFOA is a non-profit, public-private partnership with the mission to rekindle the US textiles industry and enable revolutionary new system capabilities for commercial and defenve applications. To catalyze the development of advanced functional fibres, AFFOA has assembled a Fabric Innovation Network (FIN) with 140+ members including startups, universities, manufacturers, commercial industry and defence partners.

 “This project brings together members of AFFOA’s FIN to develop next generation product prototypes through an integrated systems approach,” said AFFOA CEO Alexander Stolyarov. “We hope that our collaboration will result in a capability that can not only provide comfort to commercial and military users in cold climates, but can also represent an opportunity to manufacture advanced textile products here in the US.”

www.loomia.com

www.affoa.org