10/20/2022 | Product News

ISPO 2022: Kuraray presents several new high-tech materials for sportswear

The Japanese specialty chemicals company Kuraray will be exhibiting at the ISPO Munich for the first time this year, participating with two booths focusing on different topics. 

Booth B2.430: Innovation Networking Center, Segment Team Sports & Outdoors
At booth B2.430, the Sports & Outdoors segment team of Kuraray’s Innovation Networking Center (see info box) will focus on the perspective of an innovative future. Visitors can find out which new materials the company is currently working on. The booth will showcase – among other things – a smart gloves system powered by a unique conductive textile that AI SILK Corporation has developed using Kuraray fibers. The fiber provides a homogeneous conductivity that is ten times better than the one of Kuraray’s previous products. It is antibacterial and antiviral. One of its potential use cases is its use in smart bike gloves systems that allow for measuring vital signs such as pulse and cardiovascular activities (electrocardiography) via textile sensors integrated into the glove. The values measured can be displayed on a tablet or smartphone in real-time, thus optimizing the training.

In addition to a shock-absorbing yarn which is produced in an eco-friendly way and can be used in the production of sports socks, and a new, robust, and unbreakable fiber allowing for durable, robust athletic shoes, Kuraray will also showcase several more innovative and sustainable concepts for sports manufacturers. 

INC

The INC – the Innovation Networking Center – is a global unit piloted by Kuraray and committed to driving innovation and growth in a new way: close to customers and fulfilling unmet market needs. INC is driven by dedicated, global cross-business and cross-functional teams to speed up and improve innovation capabilities and deliver solutions to the market. The INC also promotes external networking and explicitly involves Kuraray's customers and partners. The bundling of all these new perspectives in the INC allows co-creation that provides answers to customers' problems – and to challenges society is facing as a whole. Further information on the INC can be found in the Kuraray showroom.

Booth C2.405: Business Unit Clarino/amaretta

In hall C2, booth number 405, Kuraray will be presenting use cases of its man-made leather product CLARINO™. CLARINO™ is a luxurious and extremely fine polyester- or polyamide-based microfiber developed as an alternative to leather. The sustainable nonwoven has an almost identical structure to leather in its cross-section and is used in numerous applications. Its main application areas are bags (luxury), footwear, automotive, apparel, accessories, and sports equipment. Furthermore, Kuraray will showcase application examples of how CLARINO™ is used, for example, in shoes, insoles, gloves, breeches, and balls. 

The focal points of the Kuraray booth are comprehensively influenced by the topic of sustainability, as CLARINO™ technology allows for solutions based on recycled resources and performance materials that are produced in a waterborne production process. Furthermore, visitors can gain an overview of current trends and cast a glance at Kuraray’s future developments. One of the important goals of the sports industry is to have sustainable sport products. Recycled and bio-based materials are setting the stage for this: they will considerably reduce the environmental impact.

CLARINO™

Under the umbrella brand name CLARINO™ Kuraray processes and sells the world’s finest man-made leather specialties for the application in various highly innovative fields. CLARINO™ suede type man-made leather is characterized by being both light-weight and highly durable. In addition, it is color-fast, breathable, water repellent and weather resistant, stain resistant, washable, and easy to clean and to care. CLARINO™ fabrics are produced without fluorinated hydrocarbons and do not contain any environmentally harmful additives.
For more information on CLARINO™, please visit https://www.clarino.eu.

About Kuraray

Established in 1991, Kuraray Europe GmbH is based in Hattersheim, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 2021 the company generated annual sales of EUR 1.1 billion. 

It has more than 820 employees in Germany at its sites in Hattersheim, Frankfurt and Troisdorf. Kuraray is a global specialty chemicals company and one of the largest suppliers of industrial polymers and synthetic microfibers for many sectors of industry. Examples are Kuraray Poval™, Mowital^®, Trosifol^® and Clearfil™. Kuraray Europe also has around 215 employees at six other European sites. They are also working on the development and application of innovative high-performance materials for a wide range of sectors, including the automotive, paper, glass, and packaging industries, as well as for architects and dentists. 

Kuraray Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Kuraray Co., Ltd., which is based in Tokyo, Japan, and has more than 11,330 employees worldwide and sales of EUR 4.8 billion.

Press contact:
Dr. Bettina Plaumann
Head of KEG Communications & Marketing
Kuraray Europe GmbH
Philipp-Reis-Straße 4
65795 Hattersheim am Main
Phone: +49 69 305 85797
Email: Bettina.Plaumann(at)kuraray.com 
Internet: www.kuraray.eu 

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The smart gloves system powered by a unique conductive textile, which is developed by AI SILK Corporation on the basis of Kuraray fibers can be used for smart bike gloves that can measure vital signs. (Source: Kuraray)

Kuraray sneakers with CLARINO™ as upper material. (Source: Kuraray)