The Influence Of Fibers And Knitting Structures Of T-shirt On Perceived Comfort During Running Activities

With the rapid development of competitive sports in modern times and the public’s increasing interest in fit-keeping activities,jogging has become a very popular sport throughout the world and has many benefits for both physical and psychological health.In this context,sport clothing has gained development in various aspects,from the materials to the color and the style,etc.The consumers are becoming more and more demanding when they buy sport clothing.In direct contact with human skin,the running shirt has great influence in the sportive performance,especially for the professional athletes,who participate regularly in long-term special trainings.In particular,repetitive friction of male nipples against a wet shirt can result in eczema of the nipples,a condition that has been named "jogger’s nipples"(JN).On the one hand,the cyclic dynamic movement of body during running can increase the friction between skin and shirt; on the other hand,jogging increases sweating of human body,which will further strengthen the adhesion and thus the friction force between skin and a wet shirt. Therefore,the fabric is an important factor in improving the comfort and functionality of the sport clothing.Until now,most of the existing studies on clothing comfort concern the thermal and moisture-related aspects while the role of textile in the formation and prevention of skin irritation has largely been unexplored,and little research effort has been devoted to skin-textile interactions in its pathogenesis.Initialized with these current needs in mind,the project combined the objective and subjective tests to evaluate the wearing comfort of T-shirt in running conditions,aiming to find a better association between fibers and knitting structures which will help reduce the nipple-shirt friction and improve jogger’s comfort. Firstly,objective tests,including the friction test,moisture management test and drying test,were conducted to explore the influence of fibers and knitting structures on the frictional and moisture-related properties of running T-shirt under low pressures.The Principle Component Analysis was used to study the correlations between different objective parameters.Secondly,subjective tests were conducted in a climate chamber to have an overall view of the wearing comfort of T-shirt made of selected fabrics in running conditions.Physiological parameters were measured and comfort ratings were obtained through a questionnaire.Furthermore,correlations between subjective comfort ratings and measured objective parameters of the shirt fabrics were also studied.The results of objective tests showed that,the skin-side fiber compositions have more influences on the mechanical frictional properties of shirt fabrics while the moisture-related properties are more affected by air-side fiber compositions. The friction coefficient between skin and shirt fabrics are positively correlated with the fabric’s air-side wetting time,and negatively correlated with the fabric’s drying speed and air-side spreading speed.By comparing the comfort ratings from the subjects and the objective parameters of concerned fabrics,we found that fabrics with good moisture-related properties are more comfortable when worn by the subjects.The subjective comfort ratings come more from the tactile properties of the fabric,and fabrics made of X cross-section fibers at skin-side are more easily to cause skin irritations.