BARCELONA, Spain – Unwashed jeans that reek of sweat could be a thing of the past, thanks to a new type of denim that can be worn without washing for a year. “We have used 99.9 percent pure silver bonded polymer in our fabric to permanently kill the odour-producing bacteria for the life of the denim,“ Salman Choudhry, CEO of Odo Inc, told Rudaw English at Premiere Vision, a biannual international exhibition of top denim makers in Barcelona. Perspiration is the leading cause of smell in clothes, said Choudhry, explaining that sweat itself is odourless and that it’s the bacteria feeding on it that causes other people to hold their noses and move away. “We have also used nanotechnology in the trousers to create the same effect that you find in the leaves of certain plants, which always stay clean because dirt can't adhere to their finely-structured surfaces,” said Choudhry, who developed the first prototype in the US and now is producing his jeans in Pakistan, where he is originally from. The start-up Odo Inc began selling the jeans last December through kickstarter.com, a US website, racking up pre-orders of $310,000 dollars in just two months, according to Choudhry. Odo’s jeans currently sell for $115 a pair, but Choudhry said the plan is to drop that to below $100 dollars, “to make it more affordable for everybody.” The jeans are more environmentally friendly as well, said the maker, because the self-cleaning properties reduce the need for frequent washing and water waste. “The result is that our jeans do not smell, do not get dirty if something is spilled on them and they are more sustainable in relation to water consumption ones,” Choudhry said at this month’s edition of Premiere Vision. Water or substances such as oil or ketchup simply run off the jeans and residue can easily be rinsed off with a little water, he explained. “In production and after production a pair of jeans needs the equivalent of 15,000 glasses of water. Forty per cent of this water is spent in production and we want to focus on the sustainability of the jean when it goes to the buyer,” Choudhry pointed out. The company already has distributors in Germany, Brazil and the United States and is in talks with a company in Italy. Odo Inc was among exhibitors at one of the most important denim shows around the world. Premiere Vision attracts some of the biggest names – and newest innovators – in the world of denim. Exclusive collections, creative inspirations, specialized and technological innovations, expertise and original developments were at the fair, where manufacturers unveiled their autumn and winter collections for 2017-2018. A total of 95 exhibitors representing 23 countries took part, among them weavers, manufacturers, accessory makers, fibre producers, technology developers and promotional organizations. Some of the most important companies in the denim industry present at the exhibition were from Turkey, Pakistan, China, Italy, Morocco, Japan, Spain, Brazil, the USA and Thailand.
