Too hot for clothes? These brands don’t think so

It’s hot — too hot — and thanks to climate change, it’s only getting hotter.

During the summer, that’s made doing anything outside more physically intensive than simply existing increasingly unbearable. Especially running (which is bad news for all the people who’ve suddenly made it their personality).

To beat the heat, runners usually just wear less clothing. But activewear brands are betting that the best solution to staying cool might actually be layering up with “active cooling tech”: textiles and constructions engineered to lower the skin’s temperature, per The Wall Street Journal.

Dripped out from head to toe

• Omius’s $234 Cooling Cap is embedded with patented graphite stones with a hydrophilic coating that absorb water and spread it evenly across your forehead, promoting faster evaporation and helping you feel cooler.
• East Peak’s Ice Bandana is a neoprene bandana with a zippable pouch that can hold two pounds of ice that slowly melts through the perforated fabric.
• Mission’s $20 Cooling Sun Sleeves are made from a chemical-free material that the company claims can cool to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below the average body temperature when activated by water.
• For $150, you could have less than a full shirt: Nike’s lightweight ACG Radical AirFlow top has gaping holes in the armpits and forearm area and tinier holes throughout to provide ventilation.

Many athletes swear by them — ultramarathoner Viktoria Brown credits Omius’s hat with helping her break world records — but one expert told WSJ that stripping down is still the best way to keep cool (not to mention free).

But the rest of us are hot, too…

… and being half naked isn’t always an option, a fortunate thing for fashion designers, many of whom are now spinning up their own cooling apparel.

• Some wedding dress designers are using zinc oxide to create fabrics that are cool to the touch, so that summer brides don’t faint on their way down the aisle.
• In recent years, brands like Rick Owens, Junya Watanabe, and Anrealage have debuted inflatable tracksuits, jackets, and dresses with built-in fans that seem well-suited for the Michelin Man.

The global air-conditioned clothing market is currently valued at ~$2B and expected to hit $4.6B by 2034, per the Financial Times, but the true cost of comfort is still style.

Brands like Japan’s Hidesign are working on making cooling clothes more fashionable and functional — but for now, good luck trying to pull off this fit.