November 4, 2021 |  By Jilli Cluff

Performance fabric giant Polartec levels up its green practices with ‘Fresh Face,’ a peppermint-based odor-resistant treatment.

Polartec added another arrow to its sustainability quiver this week with the launch of a Bluesign-certified alternative to chemical and metal-based odor solutions. And get this — it’s an odorless peppermint oil-based treatment. The fresh treatment technology will make its debut in Polartec’s 2022 runs of Power Dry, Power Grid, and Delta performance fabrics.

Why turn a new leaf on current odor-resistant practices? There are a few good reasons.

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Polartec began looking for longer-lasting and biodegradable odor treatment options as part of its years-long Eco-Engineering initiative. Polartec touts its peppermint oil odor-resist treatment as a renewable, sustainably harvested, and biodegradable solution.

Plus, peppermint oil possesses antimicrobial properties that effectively mitigate the growth of odor-causing bacteria. And that’s particularly useful information when dealing with activewear. Perspiration isn’t just water — it’s also composed of fatty acids and proteins that are expelled as part of our metabolic processes. All that sweat is a buffet for microbes, which produce that familiar “B.O.” stench.

So, Polartec ran some R&D trials on peppermint oil derivatives and found that not only was it 99% effective in microbial reduction initially, but it also maintained 99% effectiveness after 50 standard wash cycles.

And the odorless peppermint oil treatment passed the sniff test, too. In garment use trials, appointed “sniff judges” compared peppermint-treated, soiled performance fabrics against those treated with metal-derived antimicrobial treatments.

“This new odor-resist treatment [which uses] responsibly sourced, all-natural peppermint oil, aligns with our overarching Polartec Eco-Engineering mission,” said Karen Beattie, Polartec’s marketing manager. That mission is “to develop performance materials based in sustainable science.”

Learn more at Polartec.com.

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Jilli grew up in the rural southern Colorado mountains, later moving to Texas for college. After seven years in corporate consulting, she was introduced to sport climbing. In 2020, Jilli left her corporate position to pursue an outdoor-oriented life. She now works as a contributor, gear tester, and editor for GearJunkie and other outlets within the AllGear network. She is based out of Austin, Texas, where she takes up residence with her climbing gear and one-eared blue heeler, George Michael.

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