The term "mammary gland patency" has been popular on social platforms for a while, and the popularity is still unabated.
"Netizens' mammary glands are also mammary glands", "It's really smoothing the mammary glands"...... Behind the ridicule, breast health has been widely valued by people.
Especially for women, they are more likely to be affected by breast health. More and more people are aware of the intrinsic relationship between emotions and breast health, and in order to actively reduce the impact of negative energy, they decisively take "living transparently and refusing internal friction" as their life creed. On social media, many people also regard this way of living as sobriety in the world. Women are not only more concerned about their physical and mental health, but also pay more attention to their inner feelings and the emotional value they receive, which also reflects that Chinese women love themselves more.
If we project this change into our daily lives and express it more concretely, we will find that underwear, which is most closely related to women, will naturally become the object of innovation. "I am in charge of my breasts", wearing underwear is not to please anyone, in the face of sexiness and fashion, it is necessary to give way to "comfort".
Surveys also confirm this change. According to iiMedia Research's research, comfort is the first factor that female consumers consider when buying bras at this stage. The categories of the underwear market have also quietly changed in line with the needs of women.
There are more and more brands that sell comfort
Is women's underwear really more comfortable?
The girls born in the 80s and 90s may still remember that gathering and supporting were once common keywords in the field of women's underwear, and underwire underwear also firmly occupied the main position in the market. Until recent years, underwear has knocked on the door of comfort, and there are more and more underwear brands and styles on the market with "comfort" as the main selling point.
According to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 3,000 women's underwear brands in China. Open the Taobao underwear store, focus on keywords such as "women's underwear" and "comfortable" to search, and as far as the eye can see, words such as breathable, traceless, size-free, and sports underwear appear in different conspicuous positions on the screen. The women's bras on the market make consumers pick and choose when buying, is women's underwear really more comfortable?
In order to answer such doubts, in March this year, the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission purchased 30 women's bras with high brand awareness and top sales through three channels: online e-commerce platforms, e-commerce live broadcast rooms, and offline physical stores.
Comparison of the breathability of 30 bras Image source: Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission
Judging from the published test results, the safety performance indicators such as formaldehyde, decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amine dyes, PH value and odor in 30 bra fabrics are within the range specified in the standard, and consumers can buy with confidence.
However, when it comes to breathability, which is closely related to comfort, the test shows some differences. According to the comparison of the breathability of 30 bras by the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission, the breathability rate of the tested bras ranged from 76.0mm/s to 414mm/s, all of which met the standard requirements of sports bras.
However, if it is divided by air permeability higher than 200mm/s, there are 12 brands that meet the relevant conditions, and the air permeability performance is better. It is worth mentioning that in the comparison of the air permeability rate of these 30 bras, the air permeability rate of the bra of the cat man brand once again exceeded 400mm/s, which is much higher than that of other brands.
As one of the important indicators affecting the wearing comfort of bras, breathability is affected by comprehensive factors such as fabric material, product technology, style and padding design. As far as the test results are concerned, Chinese women's underwear brands have indeed put a lot of thought into product comfort and other aspects, so what is the secret behind the comfort upgrade?
Better underwear is inseparable from the support of technology
At present, with the acceleration of the penetration of technology into all walks of life, the underwear industry is no exception. For the seemingly simple requirement of comfort, in fact, it also involves a series of black technologies such as the research and development of new materials and manufacturing processes.
With the blessing of science and technology to help upgrade comfort, it is not new in China's underwear industry. Taking the air permeability of cats is significantly higher than that of other brands as an example, as early as 1998, at the beginning of the brand's establishment, it embarked on a road of focusing on R&D and scientific and technological innovation, and will learn from each other's strengths and complement each other's advantages to the extreme.
For example, Lycra cotton is very comfortable, but many consumers report that it will lose its elasticity and warmth after wearing it for a long time. In order to solve this pain point, the R&D team of Cat Man compared the self-developed fabric with Lycra cotton, and found that the warmth effect of Cat Man fabric is better, but the air permeability and comfort are not as good as Lycra cotton. In the end, Cat Man "married" the weaving technology developed by Cat Man with Lycra cotton to maintain its advantages and improve its warmth, and this fabric technology was later widely used in Cat Man's home wear and thermal underwear.
According to You Lin, the founder of the Cat Man brand, Cat Man's annual investment in R&D accounts for 5%-8% of its annual revenue, which is 3 to 4 times the industry average. Over the years, this emphasis on R&D has continued unabated, prompting the emergence of innovative products for Cat People.
In 2023, the world's newest generation of technology bra products released by Cat Man - Cat Man Honeycomb Cup, has attracted wide attention in the industry. This product is developed by Cat People to focus on women's needs and pain points for underwear comfort, as a representative work of the brand leading the technology underwear track, which contains many black technology attributes.
For example, in the development of honeycomb cup underwear, the R&D team used the liquid foaming technology manufactured by automobiles to replace the traditional mold cup making technology. In the R&D process, in order to find the most suitable liquid sponge ratio, the R&D team of Cat Man has gone through hundreds of debugging of foaming raw materials and made thousands of adjustments to the mold. The final mold cup weighs only 12.8 grams, and the air permeability is 5 times that of the national standard. Restore the feeling of wearing to the greatest extent. Consumers' demand for comfort is escalating, which means that brands cannot stop on the road of technological innovation. Nowadays, cool technology has become one of the key research and development areas of cat people, and its scientific and technological achievements will also be applied to related spring and summer products.
The bottom of the honeycomb bionic breathing vent
In addition to injecting new ideas into the comfort of underwear with the help of technology, high-quality fabrics are also a key factor affecting the comfort of underwear. Today, Cat People have established cooperative relations with Mitsubishi, Toray, Itochu of Japan, DuPont of the United States, Hyosung of South Korea, Lenzing of Austria, etc. Even though these partner companies already have a good reputation in the industry, when introducing fabrics, they still strictly control the aspects that customers value such as sweat absorption, warmth, and skin-friendliness.
Judging from the word-of-mouth and consumer "buy, buy, buy" data, Cat People's insistence on scientific and technological innovation and excellence in details have indeed been recognized by the market. For example, even in today's emerging underwear brands, Cat Man, which has been established for more than 20 years, still maintains a considerable activity in the underwear market. In 2023, the GMV of Cat Man will exceed 11 billion, becoming China's first 10-billion-level technology underwear brand.
However, the Cat People brand doesn't stop there.
When cool technology meets underwear
Underwear is the most important item in contact with people's bodies, and comfort is not only the physical touch, but also the feedback from the psychological level when wearing underwear. The ultimate comfort experience will bring a sense of physical and mental satisfaction to both body and mind.
For a long time, Cat People has been constantly digging into the entry point that can bring consumers this ultimate physical and mental experience. In the past year, Cat People found from the feedback of background data that consumer searches for cool bra products have increased by 310%.
On the occasion of the coming of spring and summer, based on people's demand for breathable bras in the hot summer, as well as their attention to women's breast health, Cat People have applied "cooling technology" to products through scientific and technological innovation, and added scientific and technological cooling factors to the fabrics to create a new generation of bionic breathable cooling bra - Honeycomb Cup 2.0.
In addition to the cooling experience, compared with the first generation of honeycomb cups, the honeycomb cup 2.0 adjusts the thickness of the coaster to one-third of the 1.0 version, and the weight of a single mold cup is less than one-third of that of ordinary flowers, making it lighter to wear.
According to the official website of the cat people, the current cat people underwear category has covered thermal underwear, bra underwear, home clothes, leggings T-shirts, socks, children's underwear, sunscreen clothing, home life, etc. "Cool technology" is not only applied to women's underwear products, but also widely used in underwear, home clothes, sunscreen clothing and many other products, and related products will be officially launched after the 2024 Cat People Spring and Summer New Product Launch Conference.
Author: Jin Yan
Editor: Ma Min