The nano technology behind Uniqlo's Heattech down jacket.

The Japanese textile industry once enjoyed unlimited glory, but faced the impact of Chinese companies entering the market in large numbers during the 1990s, with production plummeting to just a quarter. While most companies chose to withdraw or downsize, Toray (東し) stood firm against the trend, relying on deep technical cultivation and cross-domain applications. Today, Toray's sales amount to approximately 2.5 trillion yen, achieving the milestone of surpassing one trillion yen. Toray is no longer just a traditional textile company but has become a key player behind the functional clothing craze of Uniqlo. Toray's quality is highly recognized by Tadashi Yanai and has become a fixed partner for Uniqlo as it moves towards global expansion.

Walking into UNIQLO, various products focusing on lightweight, warmth, wind resistance, or UV protection are almost updated every year, attracting a large number of consumers. From warm jackets to foldable sun-protective hoodies, consumers can always feel the evolution of items becoming lighter and more comfortable. The core of these evolutions comes from the material technology support from Toray.

The most representative example is Heattech. It has now launched three different levels of warmth, with the high-end version being said to have more than double the warmth effect of the basic version, making it an essential item for many during the winter. These fabrics can achieve extreme thinness while providing highly efficient warmth, relying entirely on Toray's years of accumulated fiber technology.

Tianli's technical foundation: high-performance nanofibers

After more than a decade of research and development, Uniqlo has launched a brand new goose-down-free down jacket. This type of synthetic fabric combines lightweight and durability, becoming a new alternative to down. The technology behind the popular synthetic fiber down jacket comes from Toray. Toray's innovation can be traced back to its early days of producing “Lyocell” from plant cellulose, later expanding into nylon and various synthetic fibers. Upon entering the factory, containers filled with raw material fragments are first heated to nearly three hundred degrees, melted under high pressure, and then extruded into fibers from ultra-fine nozzles. The shape and arrangement of these nozzle holes will determine the final shape and properties of the fibers. Toray's most representative technology is its ability to design fiber cross-sections with nanometer precision. In the microscopic images demonstrated by researchers, a fiber the size of a needle tip is composed of black and white blocks made of different resins, allowing the fiber to simultaneously meet requirements such as moisture absorption, reflection, heat retention, or weather resistance. These technologies have led to the birth of the new fabric and have become the core source of high performance in Uniqlo products.

Uniqlo and Toray: Over a decade of deep collaboration

In 2006, after establishing a strategic partnership with Toray, Uniqlo and Toray promoted product development in an almost collaborative manner. Toray even set up a dedicated base near Uniqlo's headquarters, allowing R&D personnel to communicate quickly with brand designers and shorten the development cycle. In the regular weekly meetings, both parties discussed everything from cutting, materials, and textures to wearing experience, as if they were in the same company. This in-depth collaboration on details enabled many ideas to quickly transform from concept to mass-producible products. To respond to consumer demands for “thinner,” “lighter,” and “warmer” products, Toray and Uniqlo jointly developed a finer and lighter Heattech material, making the new version more comfortable to wear.

The carbon fiber revolution from clothing to racing cars

Toray's technology is not only applied in clothing; the developed carbon fiber has become an indispensable material in industries such as racing, automobiles, and sports equipment. Professional racing cars are built using carbon fiber from the chassis to the driver’s seat. The toughness of carbon fiber is ten times that of steel, yet its weight is only one-fourth that of steel, providing several times the strength, capable of protecting the driver during severe impacts. Toray's carbon fiber technology allows many drivers to safely exit their vehicles even after accidents.

This article about Uniqlo's Heattech down jacket and the nanotechnology behind it first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.