By John Winston | 30 May 2013
Full Story at: Just-Style.com
A fast-growing company that is a spinout of a North Carolina State University incubator is experiencing rapid success with its line of antimicrobial and stain resistant clothing for infants and toddlers.
Spitter Spatter’s first line of products, which includes T-shirts, bodysuits, dresses and outerwear, was introduced in March.
Co-founder and CEO Angela Hollen developed the idea as a graduate student at NC State’s College of Textiles in Raleigh. She says she became interested in performance products while working on her senior project as an undergraduate student.
Hollen says the process involves the use of a hyper-green polymer, which is EPA certified. It’s one of the few active antimicrobial ingredients that have never been the target of a controversial lawsuit or negative studies.
The technology permanently bonds, or polymerises with the substrate and will not leach or diminish over time, Hollen says. The active ingredient forms a colourless, odourless, positively charged polymer that molecularly bonds to the treated surface.
The technology relies on the coating remaining affixed to the substrate, killing micro-organisms as they contact the treated surface. The finish is a permanent antimicrobial that when applied becomes part of a new surface.
Spitter Spatter products are treated at the garment stage to avoid waste in the cutand sew process. The company currently sources its garments from manufacturers in Indonesia and Honduras, but Hollen hopes to soon find a producer in North Carolina.
Spitter Spatter garments are currently sold online only at the company’s website. Hollen plans to broaden that approach later this year by moving into children’s boutique stores along the Eastern Seaboard. By next year, she hopes Spitter Spatter clothing will go national with some mass-market retailers.
Business is going well so far online and is getting a boost from partnerships with “mommy bloggers” in the US, Canada and the UK.
