Kid-tested jeans get adult upgrade

Kids are tough customers.

As any parent of young boys can tell you, picking up your kid after school can often be cause for mild alarm. The clean clothes he was wearing at drop-off a few hours earlier are now masked behind a mosaic of grass stains, milk spills, trace evidence of arts and crafts, and — wait — is that ravioli? meatballs? transmission fluid?

In any event, after you get the kid home, the filthy outfit gets stripped in mudroom and tossed right into the washing machine, bypassing the hamper to prevent contaminating your other dirty laundry.

The problem with repeated washing and drying is that the fabric in any garment begins to deteriorate with time. All that agitation, rinsing, spinning, tossing and tumbling takes its toll. A lint trap tells no lies.

But Kontoor’s innovation team has come up with a fix for that problem: a new technology that bolsters clothing’s resiliency to withstand a long day of activity, plus the evening torments of the washer and dryer.

The first iteration of Kontoor’s durability-enhancing clothing technology hit the market last year, when Wrangler released its abrasion-resistant jean for boys. The product was so popular, the same kid-tested technology is now being applied to adult clothing — Wrangler jeans and workwear and Lee jeans — with additional adult product hitting the shelves later this year and next.

“This technology makes the jeans much more resilient,” says Dhruv Agarwal, vice-president of sustainability, innovation and development. “This new technology starts as a superior product and stays stronger, wash after wash, compared to conventional jeans and pants.”

The secret formula, which Kontoor started developing in its innovation lab in 2019, is a combination of better fiber technology, new spinning and weaving techniques to reduce friction, and a proprietary topical application that enhances the abrasion-resistance and the tear strength of the fabric. Now in its third generation of development, the technology has improved and become more readily available, allowing Kontoor to scale-up production and apply it to a wider range of products for all ages.

The durability-enhancing technology is providing a promising antidote to fast fashion.

“Wrangler is already famous for its durability, and now this technology allows us to further enhance that durability,” Agarwal says. “When the consumer sees these kind of proposition — a jean that is going to last longer and give them better bang for their buck — they're going to choose these products.”

Adds Akash Pardeshi, innovation manager at Kontoor, "Stronger, longer-lasting clothes mean better value for consumers, more wear and less hassle. True durability never goes out of style.”