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Comment by kathomuth | Hacker News Reader

That's a great market idea. Hadn't considered it, but can see a lot of overlap with what we are doing. Will definitely keep it in mind for our product roadmap!

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High-end cycling kit is absurdly expensive. A pro-level jersey from Assos, Rapha or Giordana retails for well over $200. The market isn't huge, but the margins are tremendous.

And it has the 'one-up value', very strong in its market demographic;

"Did you see Bill's new garment?"

"yeah thats bad-ass!"

"im getting one!"

---

And you should have a service that allows people to upload their graphics to the garments they order....

Tee-Spring for cycling gear that is protective and they can choose from D30 padding options....

One more athletics market: martial arts. If you train judo/jiujitsu, your existing uniform is a heavy cotton or cotton/poly weave that is built to last through the abuse of training partners gripping and yanking it every which way - and the existing stuff works, but it's bulky to carry and hard to wash. A modernized uniform that can retain the same strength at a lighter weight would be of practical interest.

Do you train jiujitsu? I don’t really see existing uniforms being replaced with something lighter and potentially much thinner.

A much closer application in Jiu Jitsu would be replacing the rash guard that many people wear under their gi, or in nogi. Or replacing a surfer's rash guard, for that matter. Tons of applications for this.

But this is stretchy, which would be mostly an annoyance in training.

I used to practice taekwondo but I just don't see this material being used to replace a standard uniform.

Figure this might be the best place for you to hopefully notice this.

I see that 1000-denier tights do exist (TIL). Could a sport/compression-specific fabric blend be produced that has extremely high compression and also high abrasion resistance?

Compression clothing is notoriously fragile; it all-too-happily shreds itself at the slightest tug or snag. That keeps "big sport compression" in business, but these items are $150-$400 retail...

There's a very big demand vacuum for solutions in this specific space at the moment as far as I can see.

I definitely see opportunities in the sport market now. I don't personally have a pain point here so it wasn't where my mind immediately went - but it has been great to see interest in new variants for people who seem to have the pain of wearing through their sports tights!

You should definitely make sports compression gear with the material you have, I'm pretty sure people would easily pay 400-800 dollars per pair (myself included).

It's also interesting that the material is lighter than water. "Tactical" life vests and shark-resistant wetsuits come to mind as possible products too. If you could get the Navy SEALs to trial it, that could be a big win.

PS - the crooks in the video made me lol :D

Athletics in general seems like a prime market. I go through way too many pairs of tights in ballet and aerial.

Same for motorcycles. Even a bit of anti-abrasion in regular clothes and exposed things goes a long way. People are dumb, and will wear normal clothes on bikes and motorcycles, if you can weave something into normal relaxed wear, not just skin suits that wanna be pro-cyclists wear, you'll probably have something for the casual market too.

Hell, if you just sold me the material I'd sew it into my clothes anyway so I could do the above. I've been trying to hand knit kevlar thread into such a weave, and it's not the most fun material to work with. And kevlar mesh you buy otherwise (batting) is too thick for this purpose in some casual clothes.

It's not true safety gear but it's better than your tshirt or shirt melting on the pavement.

Have you checked out the Draggin' Jeans liners? They're basically full-coverage aramid long johns, much better coverage than their (and most other American) kevlar-lined jeans.

I wear them under regular jeans for casual riding (I always wear an armored jacket so no need to wear the upper liner) and would trust them in a low-to-freeway speed getoff about as much as any other mesh gear. You can stuff d3o armor into them pretty easily too.

It's not precisely what you're trying to achieve, but it's more versatile and generally looks better than full-coverage (Hood, etc.) riding jeans.

I like draggins, but like most other motorcycle clothing they are still quite heavyweight. In hot climates, you will overheat, or just opt for shorts. :(

It'd be great if new materials could be used to make protective wear that is thinner and more air permeable.

So it is then obvious that they need to stress test their material against Draggins to see how they compare....

I did not know about their new stuff. I had real issues getting anything from them that fit in the past which is wierd because most cruiser riders aren't well known for their trim figure.

Ugh, just looked, the same problem... they don't have a height option. The shirts are too short for my torso (and gut), and the pants are too tight in the thighs :(

So, I have the same problem as you buying moto jeans and shirts. I'm pretty apple-shaped and have a largish waist and short legs. Anything I found either didn't fit right (fitting my waist meant legs several inches too long) or was laughably inadequate (kevlar shorts inside thin denim jeans sorts of stuff) which is why I went for a separates solution. That way I could wear standard Levi jeans that I knew would fit over them.

The long john style liners are, well, long johns. They're stretchy, so they adapt well to body shape. The leg liners aren't cut particularly long--they have stirrups. You could choose to ignore or remove the stirrups and flip up the leg cuffs to make them a few inches shorter and they'd still work under boots. I haven't tried the shirt but it's the same material. My guess is if you match with the size you'd wear in standard long underwear it'd be fine.

The other respondent to me was correct, though--like all long johns these are fairly warm. I'm fine in them spring, fall and winter, but summer is a different story. It is an uninsulated open-weave mesh, so breathes well enough and it does a great job of creating air channels under your jeans, but I tend to just take my chances for a couple of months of the year rather than add more layers.

Edit: to make sure we're looking at the same thing, I mean the ones reviewed here, https://www.webbikeworld.com/draggin-liners-review/

My concern there is that they might pull up or down. I guess down is inevitible but up can be prevented with the stirriups. Same for the short shirt. But I guess that might be me being paranoid. I know from experience that denim doesn't hold up to even 40mph falls, where interestingly enough, Linen does.

I'll take a look again tho. I live in seattle where it's pretty cool most of the time.

It's a legit concern, and I had the same. I wouldn't rate these above ballistic motorcycle pants, but I think they'll compare well with most kevlar jeans short of something very full-coverage (and bulky) like Hood.

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