Ep. 144: Advancing aerogel insulation

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Ep. 144: Advancing aerogel insulation

In this episode, we are joined by Martin Bentz, CEO at Outlast Technologies. Outlast won the Material Innovation Award for its Aersulate fabric, a high-performance insulation. Aersulate textiles combine its high-performance material aerogel with various textile carrier materials.

WTiN: Hello, and welcome to Textile Innovation, hosted by WTIN. My name is Abi, and I'm the Features Editor and your podcast host. In this special series, I will be joined by the winners of the WTIN Textile Awards 2025. The awards recognize and celebrate excellent leadership innovation in the textile industry. And throughout this series, we will delve deeper into the challenges, successes, and possibilities of these industry leaders.

In this episode, I am joined by Martin Bentz. CEO of Outlast Technologies. Outlast Technologies won WTAN's Material Innovation Award for its Aersulate fabric. Within this episode, Martin speaks through the development of the high -performance insulation, detailing what makes it unique. He delves into how it sets new benchmarks for performance materials.

Hi Martin, thank you so much for joining me on WTiN's Textile Innovation Podcast and congratulations on Outlast Technology's Material Innovation win. Please could you share with me the story behind your winning innovation and what inspired its development?

Bentz: Sure, sure. Yeah. I mean, we have started development using aerogel particles to include that somehow into textiles. And aerogel is the lightest solid material. And we started that development actually something like six years ago, where we tried to incorporate these particles into textile. actually not in a fiber like we just recently did but we started with including them really in a fabric yeah and that was like a sandwich construction where these particles were included but now this is development, that was basically a continuation of the first development because we tried to integrate these particles directly into a fiber.

And these aerogel particles, the interesting thing of that technology is it's a high porous material. It's a very, very high porous structure with tiny little pores. These pores are so small that they're always filled with air. And they're so small that not even water or vapor molecules can go into these pores and push out the air. This means we'll always have air included in this aerogel structure. That means air is a very, very good insulation. So the plan was to include these particles into a fiber And that was basically what we developed, and it took us a while. I think it was a very, very good idea to do that, and after hard work, we finally did it. And of course, then the fiber, you can do all sorts of things with the fiber, but let's say the initial goal was to make out of these fibers a wadding and a felt. With the final goal to have a material which gives you a high, high insulation, a very high insulation with a very thin layer. That was the background of this entire innovation. And that was what motivated us to get it done.

WTiN: Amazing. And just kind of leading from that, what challenge or gap in the textile industry does your technology and your innovation address?

Bentz: Well, the challenge actually, again, it's a high tech insulation. based on a very, very simple algorithm. layer. Today, every insulation is based on air, trapped air. Like if you have a down jacket, for example, the down creates a gap between two textile layers, and in this gap, you have air, and air is a fantastic insulation. The challenge is, if you compress the layers, you push out the air, and that means there is no insulation. Or if your down jacket is wet, it will not give any insulation. And the nice thing about this technology is we can have a thin layer, we can compress it and still have the air in it, even when it's wet. we still have the air in it and it still gives in a wet condition the same level of insulation. So, and I think this is, there's nothing similar in the market so far. So independent of compression, of humidity, the material gives a very, very good insulation.

WTiN: Fantastic. And how do you see your installation disrupting the industry or even how have you already seen it impact the textile industry?

Bentz: Well, so far, we just started a couple of months ago to show this in the market on a betting fair, but also in a lot of visits with customers. And the interesting thing is, and this is really what makes that technology very, very interesting in the industry, is you can have an extreme light and thin layer. which gives you full insulation, like for example in the bedding industry, and we were just at a time text fair in Frankfurt, you can make a very thin duvet, like a summer duvet, but it still gives you the insulation of a winter duvet. So it's thin, it's light, it's packable. And I think this is, again, this is something which was not there yet in the industry.

WTiN: And just kind of going off that, winning the Innovate Textile Awards is a huge achievement. What does this recognition mean to you and your team at Outlast?

Bentz: Well, you know, for us, for us in general, it's always it's always important to come up with innovation yeah and then of course it it's also our DNA to talk about the innovation yeah we positioned the brand the brand outlast next to our to our technologies which we typically also where we typically also file a patent for but then of course an award like this one always helps for communication and you know it's always a good a good signal which you can send into the market and it's something which we as a team we love to have and we're really proud about that innovation and of course we use it in marketing that's important you have to talk about these things.

WTiN: No, you do. And it's such fantastic. It's fantastic to see what you are doing, what you're achieving. And I know you've already touched upon, obviously, what inspired the development, how it tackles challenges. But could you maybe expand on what maybe one of the biggest hurdles you faced while developing the technology was and how you overcame that?

Bentz: I mean, there were a lot of technical hurdles, honestly. And I can't give you all the technical details because I'm not a technician, but nevertheless, you know, there were a lot of technical hurdles and certain points, you know, you question yourself, was it really right to invest so much time and money into this thing? But no, we were convinced that we'll make it happen. And we have some smart guys in R &D and they always had good ideas together with our manufacturing partners and suppliers of this. I think the key was really some technical challenges, because again, there is nothing similar like that. And I think one of the most things was, you know, the aerogel particles are highly hydrophobic. That means they hate water. You know, hydrophilic means it loves water, but hydrophobic means it hates water. So, you cannot just mix it into a fiber, into the fiber goop. So, you need to find a way how you can match these things, like oil and water. doesn't go together. And it was the same in our case. But also here, we found ways to overcome that and found ways how to make it happen. And I think the technical hurdles, and then also the fairly long time, how long it took, that was a hurdle. But nevertheless, we were convinced that we'll make it happen. And we did, because I always say, easier things, everybody can do simple things. We're looking at the challenges. And you have to invest some time and money into it. But then if you get it done, the chance is very high that you also can file a patent on this. And that's what we did. So patents are still pending, but we're protected. And that's, again, that's part of our DNA, bringing out innovation, but then also matching it with a brand and with a message to the market.

WTiN: Thank you so much. That's really exciting. Does Outlast Technologies look at sustainability or circularity in your approach to what you're creating? And if so, how is it important to you?

Bentz: Absolutely. I mean, sustainability is one of the key things you have to fulfill these days. The market is super sensitive about that. Also, the consumers are sensible. Now, in our case, this technology, you know, the fiber which we took to integrate these aerogel particles, it's a viscose fiber. Viscose is based on wood. So, the raw material is wood, it's a renewable material. The aerogel particles themselves, the raw material is silica, and silica is basically sand. Sand is the raw material, it's the same raw material as you use for glass, so it's also a natural product, that means we're combining two real sustainable technologies and putting these together. So the viscose fiber and the aerogel and put that together in one fiber. And again, it's also part of our message because it's a green material. It's based on renewable resources. Of course, the manufacturing process requires energy, of course. But I think we are in a very, very good position in terms of sustainability in this case. That all sounds fantastic.

WTiN: And did you collaborate with any key partners, institutions or brands while you were bringing this innovation to life? And so how did those collaborations shape the final product?

Bentz: So, of course, we don't have an own lab, we have no R &D team, but still for some things, We have cooperations with institutes, with research institutes, but of course also very, very much with our suppliers, with chemical suppliers, but also with the producers of the fibers. So it was really a teamwork out of several parties and we had the lead and it's important to have experts in the different fields which work on the same project. And that went very, very nice.

WTiN: I agree. I hear so much about collaboration, cross -collaboration, how it really is the way forward. And just kind of leading off that, you mentioned obviously customers wanting sustainability and stuff before. But what role did the customer or industry feedback play in refining your final product and your innovation?

Bentz: The feedback in general was extremely positive. I mean, the very first version which we showed, and that's a little while ago, that was not yet fit for market. Yeah, the hand feel was too harsh. It was not ready to be used. And that was a little bit of throwback. But then we took another round. We continued the development and now the The version which we have now meets all requirements in terms of hand -feel, in terms of costing, in terms of story, of course, and performance. Again, the feedback which we had from the recent trips to customers, also exhibitions, was 100 percent perfect, really, and that's extremely encouraging.

WTiN: That's fantastic. I have one final question for you, Martin. What would you like the broader textile industry to understand about the importance of innovation in textiles today? And perhaps what advice would you give any aspiring innovators?

Bentz: I could probably talk hours about this, but I think today, if you want to survive, you need to come up with innovation, because everybody can do standard. And for standard, there will always be somebody who is cheaper, no matter what you do. from Europe, from Asia, from South America. If you do standard, what everybody can do, you can be exchanged very, very easily. So I think innovation is the only way. especially as a European textile company, innovation is the only way to survive, and not only innovation. Our DNA, and i'm really a fan of combining innovation with a brand, with a story, because just imagine your product is in retail and it costs a little more because there's an innovation in there, but if you don't talk about Why is this product different or what is better? If you don't do that, why should anybody buy it? Because it's more expensive. So therefore, I think it's super important if you have an innovation, talk about it. Create a brand, position a brand, protect the brand, and then make the combination technology, high -tech, and brand, and then go out to sell. Of course, you always need to meet certain price points in retail, but it's always easier to do that if you have a very, very strong story, which you can position at the point of sale and approach directly the consumers with a simple message so that they can understand. What is the difference in this product and what is the benefit which you as a consumer get if you buy this product? That was the short version. Again, I could continue forever.

WTiN: No, that was brilliant advice. Thank you so much. And thank you so much, Martin, for joining me today. And congratulations again on Outlast Technologies' Material Innovation win. I'm so excited to see what happens in the future.

Bentz: Thanks a lot, Abigail. Thanks a lot.

WTiN: Thank you so much for listening. If you have any questions or want to learn more, you can follow us on LinkedIn at World Textile Information Network, or you can contact me directly at content at wtin.com. If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the podcast, please email sales at wtin.com. We look forward to you joining us next time for the next winner in our special series.