| A new national survey reveals that the majority of Americans are now looking for more versatile clothes that have added performance. Results from the survey commissioned by Nano-Tex, a leading provider of textile-enhancing treatments to apparel companies, show that 82 percent of Americans want more performance features - including stain, odour, wrinkle and/or fade resistance and perspiration control - in their clothes. According to the survey of 3000 people, the majority of American closets already have clothes with added performance: - 70% of Americans have wrinkle-resistant clothing, the oldest everyday performance treatment in the market
- 27% of wardrobes include stain and spill resistant pants, shirts, ties and/or suits
The survey showed that even though some performance everyday-wear garments are in most people's wardrobes, Americans want more. Interestingly, men and women differ in their beliefs of who needs clothes with extra performance - stain and spill resistance, moisture control, odour control and wrinkle resistance. Sixty-five percent of men say that men's clothes most need extra performance, while women were virtually evenly split in thinking that men's, kid's and women's clothes all need the extra performance. In addition, when asked about interest in odour-control clothes, 51 percent of men say they'd buy an odour-control T-Shirt for themselves but only 31 percent say they'd buy one for someone else. Women aren't quite so shy: while only 39 percent of women indicated that they would buy odour control for themselves, 51 percent say they would buy one for someone else. One of the last things people think of when they're starting a family is how their wardrobes will change. Parents of young children learn the hard way that they need to take extra steps to keep little hands from making a big mess on their clothing. Indeed, 11 percent of working moms and dads even go to the extreme of avoiding their children once they are dressed for the day. Over half (56 percent) of men and women change some part of their wardrobes after they become parents. Men in the South West or New England make the least wardrobe concessions to parenthood - 65 and 62 percent of men in these regions say they have made absolutely no changes to their wardrobes since becoming fathers. The biggest change parents make is eliminating "Dry Clean Only" garments from their wardrobes: over 36 percent of mothers and 34 percent of working men and women eliminate dry clean clothes once they have children. At 40 percent, Midwestern women are leading the charge in reducing the hassle and expense of Dry Clean Only clothes. When asked about how often people spill or get spilled on, 91 percent indicated that spilling on their clothes happened either never or once a month. Yet, 56 percent of all respondents admitted that spills and stains get in the way of their days, and they have to either walk around all day long in stained clothes or change their clothes unexpectedly. When looking for performance-enhanced clothes, men and women rank "How the clothes feel" as the single most important factor, distantly followed by price. NANO-TEX treatments - spill and stain resistant, quick drying and naturally soft synthetics enhancements - are engineered to provide superior performance by attaching nano-scale particles one million times smaller than a grain of sand to textile fibres, so they don't compromise the look and feel of the fabric. The survey was conducted by Greenfield Online in April, 2004. The research firm collected data from 3000 respondents, ages 18 and older, with a 60/40 female/male split from across the country. Over half of the respondents have children. |