High-tech fabrics and materials blow my mind
Back in high school I briefly flirted with the idea of being a biotechnologist since I find biology interesting. Then I found out that I sucked at chemistry. I didn’t get it because I couldn’t visualize interactions at the atomic level. And so that answered any question of me ever being a scientist or electrical engineer. But all of that only increased my appreciation for scientific advancements and fine engineering because it seems so magical.
That’s why I’ve been so impressed by the fabric and materials technologies that I’ve noticed creeping into products over the past couple of years. Some of my favorites are those used in sports and performance clothing. From the spandex woven into t-shirts and jeans to give it stretch, to running fleeces that are impossibly warm for their weight, to jackets that block wind, repel water like it’s coated with oil, and still breathes at the same time. These all seem to impress me because of their seemingly magical properties.
I think my favorite material has to be bamboo. I remember having backyard fencing matches with my brother Asian style with bamboo stalks. The stuff is supposedly renewable and fast-growing like some miracle weed. None of this really matters if the performance sucks but I’ve found it exceeds cotton and wood in some cases. The NY Times had an article saying bamboo is overdone and bashing bamboo sheets. Apparently the author has never slept in the ridiculously soft bamboo sheets from The Company Store. The bamboo towels they have are also the softest towels I have ever encountered. This stuff is far better than Egyptian cotton. I also tried bamboo towels from CB2 but they came nowhere near.
Bamboo is also useful for things like salad bowls and platters. I like its earthiness, cleanliness, and durability. Case in point for bamboo is the company Bambu. Although I’m wary of bamboo cutting boards since Alton Brown mentioned in his knife episode of Good Eats on the Food Network that bamboo is harder than wood so it dulls knives more quickly than hardwoods. Eh. This stuff is still the best thing since…bent plywood.