25 YEARS AGO DRYARN® WAS BORN. SPORT WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME

Sport involves passion, dedication, effort, adrenaline and training. It’s pushing yourself beyond your limits to keep constantly improving, day after day. Anyone who plays sport at the competitive level knows that having good equipment is the first step to achieving great results, and clothing that is technical, practical and comfortable at the same time is a big advantage.

It was from this awareness that 25 years ago Dryarn® was born, a unique and innovative yarn that would go on to revolutionise the world of textiles and sportswear.

Dryarn® was developed in 1997 from an idea and an ambitious vision of the president of Aquafil, Giulio Bonazzi. At that time, there was still no product on the market that fully met the needs of athletes in terms of performance and comfort. The options available were mainly cotton and wool, along with polyester and nylon, but none of these fibres offered the ideal combination of thermoregulation, practicality and well-being that would become essential requisites for technical sportswear in the years that followed. Hence the idea of creating a yarn that could improve athletic performance while simultaneously ensuring maximum comfort. Starting with the polypropylene already used by Aquafil’s yarn division for its textile flooring, Giulio Bonazzi mobilised the Research and Development laboratory to create a microfibre that combined the qualities of polypropylene with a sensation of softness and lightness. The goal was to create a “second skin”, pleasant to wear and suitable for a wide range of clothing applications including underwear, sportswear, and fashion.

In 1999, Aquafil made a great leap forward in yarn innovation by launching Dryarn®, the lightest microfibre in the world and the only one of its kind on the market, able to combine technology and comfort in a single product. This fibre offered, and continues to offer, a series of extraordinary benefits that include lightness, practicality, thermoregulatory stability and bacteriostatic properties. This made it a revolutionary choice among the yarns then available, still partly restricted to 1960s technologies like polyester and nylon.

The introduction of Dryarn® marked a significant turning point in the industry. First to adopt Dryarn® were sportswear manufacturers, who saw in the yarn the ideal characteristics to make technical and high-performance garments for a wide range of activities including running, motorcycling, cycling, sailing, and alpine sports. Over the past 25 years, Dryarn® has established itself as the material of choice in many sports sectors for its ability to deliver superior performance and optimal comfort.

In these 25 years many athletes have tested and used Dryarn® in training and competitions, recognising its unique characteristics. Top athletes have achieved extraordinary results wearing garments made with this microfibre, for example winning the Marathon des Sables, crossing Australia by bicycle and climbing the highest peaks in the world.

Among the most illustrious names who have helped to make known the qualities of Dryarn® are Marco Olmo, Aldo Mazzocchi and the BMW Oracle Racing Team, which in 2010 triumphed in the America’s Cup wearing technical clothing made with this revolutionary yarn. These successes have confirmed Dryarn® as a winning choice for athletes, helping to cement its reputation as one of the best microfibres available on the market.

One of the distinctive features of Dryarn® is that it is already dyed, eliminating the need to dye the fabric during the production process. In everyday use, Dryarn® is an eco-friendly fibre: it requires the use of less electricity during production, and once the garment is made it offers several advantages. It does not need ironing, can be washed at low temperatures, and dries quickly thanks to its ability to retain no moisture, thus reducing the consumption of water and mild soaps. Thanks to the yarn’s resilience and colour stability, Dryarn® garments also maintain a fresh and “like-new” appearance even after numerous washes, guaranteeing a long lifespan.

For 25 years now these characteristics, with the ability to combine comfort and practicality with performance and innovation, have made Dryarn® the perfect ally for athletes.