Under Armour teams with NC State textile researchers to spin fibers into green
In a corner of a noisy industrial room on North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus, Under Armour is working on something it can’t talk about.
Since last May, the Maryland-based athleticwear company has operated a three-story Italian-designed spinning machine on the research campus in West Raleigh. Amid a clattering din, plastic pellets are fed into the machine, melted down, and then run through a pasta maker-like device that produces fine spools of fiber. The final yarn is then tested for potential use in future apparel.
“If we process it different, does it make a better product? Will it make the athlete better?” said Will Barnes, a principal of materials and manufacturing innovation at Under Armour, while giving The News & Observer a tour of the facility Wednesday.
Barnes was tight lipped about what the company is testing in Raleigh; like the athletes it serves, Under Armour seeks an edge over its competitors. But one thing the company will readily discuss is the role N.C. State will play in its future.
In December, the school announced a five-year, multi-project agreement with Under Armour to “accelerate bringing new discoveries to market.” The deal gives the company access to N.C. State’s facilities and talent — the school boasts one of the nation’s highest ranked textile programs — while the university receives Under Armour’s financial investment and greater opportunities for students to work on real-world fabric research and development. Citing confidentiality, N.C. State said it couldn’t divulge how the partnership divides ownership of any future patents stemming from the collaboration.
The two sides’ collaboration dates back to 2018 when Under Armour sponsored a class project at N.C. State’s Wilson College of Textiles. Under the current partnership, Wilson students conduct performance tests on Under Armour fabrics while students at the university’s Nonwovens Institute (NWI) work with the massive spinning machine to develop fibers. Under Armour is among 75 companies with a presence on Centennial Campus.
“If you think about design as an art form, what N.C. State does differently is we embed technology into the fashions that our students are working to design,” said N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson. “Anything from functional material that helps to wick moisture away to functional material that prohibits a mosquito from biting you.”
Under Armour isn’t the athletic apparel provider for N.C. State (that would be Adidas), but its becoming more intertwined with the school off the field. In terms of research, N.C. State is the apparel provider’s “closest partner when it relates to universities,” said Kyle Blakely, senior vice president of innovation at Under Armour. “That’s measured in the number of projects we have together, the breadth in which we partner, and certainly from a funding perspective.”
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A Wake County native, Blakely graduated from N.C. State with a degree in textile management in 2007. He is now among 30 N.C. State alumni employed at the company.
This year, Under Armour has pledged to invest $1 million in nonwoven textile research and development at the university, and its involvement will grow, Blakley said, with the biggest investments taking shape in 2024.
While neither he nor Barnes would share what the company is specifically working toward in Raleigh, Blakely did say the company is “spending most of our efforts on that upfront ingredient component section” — the pellet materials that make the fiber that eventually gets woven into apparel.
“Obviously, sustainability is another big area, and those are two things the universities really focus on,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a bedrock of the relationship is that we have similar focus for the future.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Under Armour teams with NC State textile researchers to spin fibers into green."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the area of Raleigh where Centennial Campus is located. The campus is in West Raleigh.
