ridiculous

What follows is the most ridiculous explanation of what a material can do because it can’t!!!

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06/12/2023

Already in use in adidas exercise apparel, a composite thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) called Rheon has now gone into the brand’s clothing for runners, providing, in an unusual way, dynamic support to key muscle groups.

Sports brand adidas has begun using material from Rheon Labs in shorts and tops in its Adizero Control apparel collection for runners. This is a follow-up to its use of the material, Rheon, in exercise leggings, tights and tops earlier this year. London-based Rheon Labs has patented Rheon, which it describes as “a reactive superpolymer” that can help athletes improve their performance by reducing energy-waste.

They are suggesting that their “superpolymer” will recognize and cause a reduction in “energy-waste”. I have never heard of energy-waste when exercising. The concept makes no sense. All athletes can not recognize what of their energy is being wasted.

It works by helping muscles stay in “the most efficient position so that more energy is directed into performance”, according to the companys commercial director, Simon Huntsman. Material made from Rheon is breathable and soft but becomes tougher in periods of high-intensity movement; pieces of it, placed in the right position on a garment, can provide extra support and reduce energy-waste to boost athletes’ performance.

Somehow the “superpolymer” helps muscles stay in “the most efficient position so more energy is directed into performance”. Do they suggest that during the exercise our muscles change their natural position so the “superpolymer” realigns them into a more efficient position? Another concept that makes no sense.

We are now beginning to learn more about this material. It is “breathable” like so many other materials, and soft but becomes tougher when you are aggressively active. We now learn the “superpolymer” material is only pieces placed in the right position on the garment where it provides extra support, and we now learn it now reduces energy-waste and helps boost the athlete’s performance.

The Rheon polymer is a composite thermo- plastic elastomer (TPE) that undergoes change when strain-rates increase.

Interesting information for the reader, but what it means and its reference to the use of the polymer is unknown.

Designs for garments such as the products that adidas has made so far can incorporate the right amount of Rheon from the outset, placing it in exactly the right place on the surface of the textile that the rest of the garment is made from. The London-based start-up can then produce the composite TPE in the form of film and cut out the shapes required using laser-cutting technology. Brands and their partners can then use heat to apply the pieces of Rheon to the garment, with the application of heat causing a permanent bond to form between the film and the fabric; no glue is required.

We now learn that the superpolymer is a composite called TPE and it is in the form of a film which can be cut and placed in the proper position on the fabric and then bonded to the fabric via heat and pressure.

If you lay down your fabric and trace the pattern on the fabric and you cut your pieces you can then put this film on those pieces wear the muscles fall. Say around the biceps or calf muscles. This would be a manufacturing nightmare. Adidas probably manufactures in Asia someplace so it would be cheap.

After all is said and done the end result is nothing more than an advertising campaign that represents a bogus non-functioning product.

I believe this company and others like it supplying manufacturers’ such Adidas who are always looking for an edge over their competition will jump on anything regardless of if it is credible or not, “superpolymer” is not credible.