Comment by mazumdar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mazumdar | Hacker News Reader

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SilverAir - An athletic shirt that doesn't smell and designed to be worn at the gym and for everyday wear. demo@ http://www.yathletics.com

It's cool because:

It's made using pure silver which kills the odor-causing bacteria in your sweat, so you can -wear this shirt for your entire day and feel fresh, -reuse the shirt more often (i do).

The fabric is completely new and something I made with my manufacturers from scratch. Without letting cost be a factor, we sourced some of the best performance yarns you can buy and achieved a feel that is super comfortable while being lightweight and breathable. To manufacture, we use seamless knitting machines meaning the body of the shirt does not have any stitches on it. (trust me, the silver is what sells but the most loved feature by our test customers is the material and how you feel as if you're not wearing anything - in a good way)

I'm building this company single-handedly over the last 10 months, and I had to teach myself bits n pieces of everything: apparel manufacturing, design, coding, law, filmmaking & editing. The product is launching in 4 days on kickstarter and I'm now in lockdown mode with tons of progress to make. Your feedback on anything is welcome.

The online shopping experience for this brand will be fresh: there will be no choosing from tens and hundreds of products because we make just one per category with superb design, quality, and finish. Shoot me an email if you're curious about anything.

Well, I'm already sold on it, looks like a solid product; however my only questions now are:

- How much? - International shipping? How much?

Thanks so much! The validation means a lot.

How much? $54 Retail, but when we open on kickstarter next week, we want this to reach as many people as possible and are going to give it out at (almost) cost:

1 shirt for $34.

2 shirts for $64.

3 shirts for $90.

US shipping included.

International shipping: Add $20.

Happy to answer any other questions you have.

Why so much for international Shipping? Seems a lot to me for such a little package

Hey Jack. You'll be surprised how expensive international shipping can be. We've done our research and it comes to a minimum of $25 for most countries.

Since domestic shipping is included in the shirt pricing, we've subsidized the international shipping by $5 to be fair to all customers.

Nice. I think the price you're charging for the shirts is overall quite reasonable. Keep it up, ill keep my eye on the kickstarter.

Wow I'll be purchasing this.

This definitely looks awesome, I'm in for a couple for sure.

How long does a shirt stay non-stinky? The video said silver is weaved into the fabric, but I'm assuming it doesn't coat the entire thing. So eventually bacteria will start to collect, correct?

Also, when is underwear coming out.... :)

Thanks! I appreciate the support.

How long a shirt stays non-stinky varies between person to person. Most of our test customers have worn it for between 3-5 days without any problem. Needless to say, they were impressed.

The other benefit is that it keeps your shirt fresh for its lifetime. You'll notice that in regular synthetic shirts, there is a permanent smell after a few months of wear. That problem goes away with the silver.

And yes, you are correct that silver is knitted into the shirt. But it's actually not a coating at all because the silver is inside some of the yarns; so it's permanent and the bacteria will not collect over time.

Underwear is in the works :)

You should market the environmental factor also. I saw a youtube thing a while back that pointed out the majority of energy usage in clothing is from washing, not from manufaturing. If this shirt neds washed half as often, that should be a major bonus.

Spot On.

We mention this in the detailed description/features of our product page (it's not on our website as yet). For the video, we tried to focus on some key features instead of all.

Non v-neck option?

Cool concept. The video mentions musty smell persists after washing clothes. Wrong detergent choice or washing habits? I've never had that problem even after running 24KM in gym clothes.

Thanks! The first batch will be produced in either V-Neck or Crew-Neck. When we launch our kickstarter, we will see which one is more popular. But If we exceed our initial funding goal, we will offer both options.

As for the musty smell, that's a problem I personally face and I've validated that problem with a lot of my friends, peers, and customers. It doesn't happen on cotton but it happens mostly on the 100% polyester athletic clothing (which is the majority of all sportswear).

You're right though. Not everyone has this problem and maybe wrong detergent choice or washing habits play a part in that phenomenon. We just wanted to make sure we have the best anti-odor performance and the silver technology is the best in the industry. If you end up getting a shirt from us though, what you'll find to be the best feature is the feel and performance of the material we developed with the anti-stink part being the cherry on the top. That has been the case with 100% of our users so far.

This sounds good, there should be more shirts like this around. I'm curious if you are aware of Silverescent fabric, which is much the same idea, and if your have made additional unique improvements?

Hey Robert. I definitely know Silverescent as that's made using the same technology. I really admire Lulu because they make some great products.

The improvements we have made are in the feel, finish, and performance areas. You'll find a slightly higher percentage of silver in our fabric, it is lighter in weight, and the feel of the fabric is improved.

If you like Silverescent, you'll love what we're making.

Cool, sounds like your pricing is good too. I wish you luck with it in any case; it sounds like you're doing the right things.

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