Mystery Material Receives $14.5M to Bring ‘Engineering Feat’ to Insulated Garments
OROS today announced a round of series A funding that it will use to ‘usher in a new era’ for insulated outerwear.
With an infusion of more than $14 million, OROS today teased a never-before-seen innovation in technical outerwear it will bring to market in 2022. While details of the new material remain vague, the Portland-based outdoor apparel brand hinted that it aims to reduce bulk in cold-weather garments without sacrificing warmth.
“Since day one, OROS has endeavored to transform insulated apparel, using only the best materials and technologies — some of which have been developed with exclusive access to NASA intellectual property and have been used for their most demanding applications in space,” said OROS chief technology officer and VP of product, Jeff Nash.
“I’ve been in the industry for decades, and OROS is completely doing things differently. I strongly believe we’re on the cusp of something groundbreaking: recreating the category of insulated products for the industry.”
OROS hit the outdoors scene in 2015 when it patented its SOLARCORE insulation, which utilized a then-unheard-of material called aerogel. Today, multiple outdoor brands use aerogel in everything from parkas, to shoes, to laptop cases, and more.
Today’s announcement appears to portend OROS’s next iteration of that technology. In a press release, the brand said the series A funding — led by Elizabeth Street Ventures and Enlightenment Capital — would help it develop a “first-to-market insulation technology to transform advanced thermal materials into technical fabrics.”
OROS also said it will create “streamlined silhouettes” to replace the “bulky layers typically associated with the warmest outerwear” that perform in below-freezing temperatures.
The brand also announced that in conjunction with the new material, it will build a new state-of-the-art factory in the U.S., outside of Boston. OROS said it needs this new manufacturing facility to build custom machinery, equipment, and engineering processes — all because this proprietary technology has never been manufactured in this particular form before.
OROS noted that the facility will convert recycled fibers into “novel thermal performance fiber” and will create garments with 3D knitting.
Stay tuned to GearJunkie, as we will be among the first to test and report on this new tech when more information becomes available.
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