Is the base layer that promises "instant cooling upon wearing" a tax on people's IQ or real technology?
The sweltering heat is unbearable, and many parts of the country have refreshed the highest temperatures in the same period of history. Our intimate clothing has also begun to "rebel" silently: sweat - soaked, stuffy and sticky, with marks from tight clothing, unpleasant odors, see - through issues, and the inexplicably loose edges of underwear... These troubles are not something people would talk about, but they actually make daily life less comfortable and decent.
After the "sanitary napkin and disposable underwear incident" in 2024, consumers realized for the first time that the clothing that stays on the body the longest may actually have the least transparent information. Many base layers and underwear on the market have no labels or test reports. E - commerce pages are filled with labels like "cool - feeling black technology" and "bare - skin - like and skin - friendly", but it's almost impossible to see the actual test parameters.
Many consumers even have anxiety about replacing inner - wear: the fibers of base T - shirts harden after three washes, the total number of colonies in the tested antibacterial underwear priced at one hundred yuan exceeds the standard, and the pH value of the popular cool - feeling vests on e - commerce platforms is weakly alkaline... The information black hole of intimate clothing is deconstructing modern people's sense of control over life.
As the most intimate "second skin" for consumers, intimate clothing is the type of clothing that should ensure safety and quality the most. Consumers are willing to pay more to buy more reassuring and higher - quality intimate clothing, but they still can't clearly know how to choose the "right" intimate clothing. Recently, consumers have also launched a heated discussion on social platforms around the topic of "how to choose intimate clothing".
So we decided to conduct a rigorous actual test of summer intimate clothing. From natural styles, popular styles on social platforms to popular cost - effective options, we selected base layers and underwear from 3 brands. We don't listen to the gimmicks or look at the labels, but only focus on the actual test results: who can really live up to the word "intimate"?
What you think is "comfortable" may just be a label
Words like "cool - feeling", "breathable", and "quick - drying" have dominated all the recommendation pages of intimate clothing, but what do they really mean? After browsing the product details page, how many people can really tell if the materials are safe enough, the performance is stable and long - lasting enough, and if it can bring a truly comfortable wearing experience. Will it give you the sense of security of a "second skin"?
When choosing intimate clothing, consumers have some commonalities: following the crowd blindly, judging by the touch in hand, or having an inherent brand impression. Is there a specific standard that can help consumers make a choice?
We discussed with clothing fabric engineers and dermatologists and also deeply understood the professional testing methods and national standards for intimate clothing. In the process, we found that the factors that determine the comfort of intimate clothing are not just a few words that seem to have little to do with wearing comfort, but a whole set of coordinated mechanisms. These mechanisms together determine whether you can have a truly comfortable wearing experience when wearing intimate clothing.
For example, it must be cool enough to relieve the body's heat as soon as you go out; it should be smooth and skin - friendly, otherwise you'll want to take it off as you wear it; it should have elasticity but not be too tight; it should be breathable to let the sweat out; it should dry quickly after sweating, otherwise it will be as uncomfortable as wearing a wet cloth; it should also be able to control odors, after all, no one wants to emit "information" on the bus. These seemingly "mysterious" feelings can actually be quantified by standard methods.
Cool - feeling, smoothness, elasticity, breathability, quick - drying ability, deodorizing ability... These standards may have an "expertise" that is difficult to understand. For example, you may not be able to name the "thermal conductivity", but you can clearly feel if "this piece of clothing is cool". You may not have paid attention to the "stretch ratio", but you must have experienced the trouble of tight marks or underwear shifting. In fact, each item can be traced back to consumers' real pain points.
Based on this set of logic closer to the real experience, we set up a set of evaluation dimensions and selected base layers and underwear products from three popular brands for actual testing. Through 6 visual experiments, we cracked the technological truth of functional intimate clothing.
Don't listen to anyone talking about "black technology", see who can really last a whole day
An actual horizontal comparison of intimate clothing under high - temperature conditions is not about whose parameters are more fancy, but about which piece can be worn comfortably throughout the day in real - life scenarios. We simulated a full - day usage cycle from commuting to exercising, from the hot streets to the air - conditioned rooms, and re - examined the actual performance of each product through six core experience dimensions.
PART1 - Cool - feeling test
When wearing clothes, the first thing you feel is the touch, which is what we often call the "cool - feeling" in summer. In this experiment, we first put three sample clothes into a pre - prepared refrigerator at a temperature of 16 degrees and let them stand for 10 minutes to fully cool them down.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
Then we took them out one by one and placed them on the arm (body surface temperature is 33 degrees) respectively. Immediately, we measured the surface temperature of the clothes:
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
From the test results, after the clothes were placed on the arm, the temperatures of the three products were 25°C for AIRism Airwear, 28.8°C for the domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing, and 30.5°C for the natural brand's base layer.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
After staying on the arm for 5 seconds, we measured again with a thermal imager. The measurement results were 28.6°C for AIRism Airwear, 29.1°C for the domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing, and 31.2°C for the natural brand's base layer.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
Through this cool - feeling test, we can see that AIRism Airwear has the highest value in absorbing skin temperature, which means it absorbs more body heat. Actually, in our experience, the performance of AIRism Airwear is impressive. It can be said to have a "cool as soon as you put it on" experience. As soon as you put it on, you can feel the body's heat being absorbed, and you'll feel cool instantly. This cool - feeling is especially important in midsummer.
Perhaps this is the reason why AIRism underwear is so popular on social media. Many users describe it as "paradise underwear", saying that the cool - feeling experience is like being in paradise. This is enough to prove that the cool - feeling of intimate clothing can bring sufficient comfort.
The principle behind it is actually very simple. The finer the fabric fibers, the smoother the fabric surface, and it will take away more heat when in contact with the skin. The product itself will also heat up faster, which is the second dimension we will test later: smoothness.
PART - 2 Smoothness test
In this test, we prepared a 50g weight. We placed the three pieces of clothing on a 60 - cm - long slope with a 25° gradient and also had a timer.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
After starting the timer, we released the three weights from the top respectively and recorded the time it took for the weights to slide from the same starting position at the top to the bottom.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
From the sliding data, we can see that AIRism Airwear took the shortest time, only 1″58 to slide to the bottom. This means that AIRism Airwear has the least sliding resistance, which means the fabric is smoother. This makes us curious why there is such a big difference in "smoothness" among base layers.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
For this reason, we used a 1200 - times electron microscope to observe the fabrics of the three products microscopically. We can see that in the same area, the fabric of AIRism Airwear is woven more densely. Relying on extremely fine fibers and high - density weaving, it forms a smoother surface, and the skin - friendly and smooth feeling when wearing is particularly obvious. According to official data, the fibers of AIRism Airwear are only about 1/10 of the thickness of a hair. No wonder it has such performance.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
PART - 3 Elasticity
The elasticity of the fabric is also a very important consideration when we wear clothes, especially for base underwear products. So elasticity is set as the first test index for underwear products. Better elasticity means that we can have a more comfortable experience in the waist, abdomen, and thigh areas when doing different sports.
(Control group A: A domestic brand's "cold - skin - like" clothing; Experimental group: AIRism Airwear; Control group B: A natural brand's base layer)
In this experiment, according to the national standard test plan, we cut the base layer and underwear fabrics into 10cmX10cm samples respectively. We fixed the clothing samples on a board marked with a ruler using clips.
