Affixed to the center of the creative board inside Under Armour’s R&D lab was a yellow post-it note with a simple phrase: “Originators of Performance.” The words serve as a reminder of the company’s genesis.
Under Armour’s first product, a moisture-wicking T-shirt, revolutionized the sports apparel industry. Now the company hopes its latest innovation, Rush, will have a similarly seismic impact on performance. Naturally occurring minerals woven into the fabric capture a body’s own heat and transmit that energy back via far infrared radiation. That process aims to dilate blood vessels and improve oxygen delivery, and is designed to offer athletes a small boost in competition and training.
“This one is so pure to what our brand’s mission is, which is making you better, that we really didn’t need any other fancy slogans or missions behind it,” said Dan Leraris, Under Armour’s GM of men’s training.
He added, “We’ve always made products that you can do things in, but I don’t know if we’ve made products that do things for you as well. That’s a subtle difference, but a key difference, in what I think is Under Armour creating a new frontier, being the originators of performance apparel.”
Under Armour began exploring bioceramics in earnest on the input from one of its marquee athletes, six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady. The company released its TB12 recovery sleepwear last year, with the energy-returning material printed on the inside of the fabric. UA’s Recover series of products followed, designed for use after activity. With Rush, the minerals are blended into the fabric for the comfort of an athlete wearing the clothes as a base layer during competition or workouts.
As with the recovery apparel, Under Armour has partnered with Hologenix to produce these textiles. Hologenix makes the Celliant fabric brand that pioneered this specific blend of minerals The FDA designated Celliant a medical device and general health and wellness product in August 2017. (Outside the U.S., Celliant is considered a Class I medical device in Canada, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand.) The proprietary, mineral-infused fiber acts as a vasodilator, widening blood vessels to improve circulation and increase oxygen delivery to tissues.
“Oxygen is the single most important ingredient athletes need to recover, sleep, and perform,” said Paul Winsper, Under Armour’s VP of human performance science and research.
Under Armour’s stable of athletes has had access to Rush apparel for the past eight months. Notre Dame football wore Rush during its College Football Playoff run. All NFL draft prospects were given Rush performance wear for February’s scouting combine. Eagle-eyed observers, in hindsight, can see Rush’s signature hexagon logo in photos of the event. Warriors superstar Steph Curry, heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, U.S. women’s national team soccer player Kelley O’Hara, and Chinese volleyball player Zhu Ting are all Rush brand ambassadors.
Select media members in New York City were invited to meet with Under Armour’s team last month for an embargoed demonstration and trial of Rush. And given some Rush sportswear to test at home.
On first impression, Rush products feature a unified look of muted colors. They don’t stand out as being different or special.
“It has a look to it that was very intentional, and that look is consistent across men and women,” Leraris said. “Now, more than ever, men and women are working out together.”
The clothes fit comfortably and retain all the moisture-wicking properties of prior UA clothing lines. But even after four weeks of working out in Rush apparel, discerning an exact benefit was impossible. That’s doubly true for a writer whose workout routine is not structured in any coherent way. After a few tough workouts, I felt less sore than expected, though I can’t tell if that was just a placebo effect or some other variable at play.
The body of science supporting the benefits of infrared energy is less conclusive than other disciplines. That said, Celliant has undergone nine clinical trials and, most notably, received its FDA designation in 2017.
Several studies have tested the efficacy of far-infrared textiles and found positive results, albeit with small samples. One such paper in the Photonics & Lasers in Medicine journal used Celliant products, and concluded “If it can be proved that non-heating [far-infrared energy] has real and significant biological effects, then the possible future applications are wide ranging.” The co-authors, Fatma Vatansever and Michael R. Hamblin, both have dual appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Wellman Center for Photomedicine. (Notably, Hamblin is also part of Hologenix’s scientific advisory board.)
The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology discovered that far-infrared garments are “associated with an improvement in exercise performance and a delay in anaerobic metabolism.” This type of textile technology is unlikely to become part of Under Armour’s entire catalog of apparel, but this genre will play an increasing role in its future.
“I believe that the idea of responsive textiles is really big,” Leraris said. “Do I believe that it’s all going to be energy return that Rush is delivering? Not necessarily. But I believe we’re going to get to a space where you’re going to want to know what the product’s doing for you instead of just what you’re doing in the product.”
Under Armour’s new line of Rush sportswear will be available to the public on Apr. 11.