Lululemon wants to change the way you sweat with its new fabric

Activewear has a come a long way—remember your all-purpose cotton tights, worn until threadbare, with nary a functional element in sight? Now, key pieces like leggings are seen as a means for optimizing workouts, whether it be through the addition of results-enhancing elements such as weights or experience-improving ones like sweat-wicking fabric.

The latter absorbs liquid off of the skin and allows it to evaporate into the air, thereby relieving you of a slip-and-slide situation and making intense workouts infinitely more comfortable in the process. These types of textiles aren’t new in relative terms, but Lululemon has taken the concept behind them to the next level with the invention of an entirely new material, Everlux.

“We challenged the traditional belief that sweat-wicking alone is enough to provide adequate moisture management properties for an hour of studio practice.”

“In developing Everlux, we challenged the traditional belief that sweat-wicking alone is enough to provide adequate moisture management properties for an hour of studio practice,” explains Tom Waller, senior vice president of Whitespace, Lululemon’s research and development lab. “The fabric is engineered to specifically perform in the low-airflow, high-humidity, and high-sweat environments common to indoor cycling, hot or power yoga, and the gnarliest of CrossFit boxes.”

To achieve this, Waller and his team knitted two fabrics together—”cool-to-the-touch yarns next to the skin and buttery soft, quick-drying yarns on the outside,” he says. The intent is to manage moisture via a two-step process: “The skin-side surface increases the movement of moisture away from the skin—it’s extremely efficient at wicking between the two sides of the fabric,” explains Waller. “Meanwhile, the outer layer spreads moisture across the surface to maximize evaporation as you work out.”

In other words, products made from Everlux will work to expel moisture rather than trap it, so you can minimize the distraction of swamp-like sweat pools and instead focus on the specific fitness challenge at hand.

Other intel on Lululemon you’ll want to check out: their best fall leggings on sale right now and the story behind this sports bra that’s blowing up on Pinterest.