Solve All Your Summer Worries with 5 Functions at Once! Mizuno's Comfortable Wear "Anti-Sweat"

In seasons when you sweat a lot, it's almost impossible to go without functional fabric clothing. I've tried a variety of products, but among them, Mizuno's "Anti-Sweat" not only has "moisture-wicking & quick-drying," but also packs in five revolutionary features, including "sweat-stain reduction," "UV cut," "heat shielding," and "low transparency," all in one garment. Not only is it a hot topic as a next-generation functional fabric, but it will definitely be a reliable ally to help you survive extreme summer heat every day.

So, we visited Mizuno Corporation and asked Shinji Yamamoto from the Global Apparel Product Headquarters, Global Planning & Design Office, to talk about the five excellent features of "Anti-Sweat" and the technology that makes them possible.

Wearing clothing with "moisture-wicking & quick-drying" properties in the summer has essentially become standard practice. Compared to wearing cotton garments, these dry faster even after sweating heavily, making them much more comfortable and healthier—especially as they also help prevent getting chilled by air conditioning.

"In both traditional functional materials and natural fibers, sweat stains during wear have always been a problem. Our desire to develop a garment that could prevent this was the starting point for 'Anti-Sweat.' Many people worry about sweat stains under the armpits, sweat traces in the shape of a backpack's shoulder harness, or even a horizontal sweat line across the chest from heavy sweating.

"If you search online, you'll find various products for sweat-stain prevention, but most of these use water-repellent coatings on the fabric to keep sweat stains from appearing. However, when you add a water-repellent treatment to a moisture-wicking fabric, it reduces its ability to actually absorb sweat, leading to discomfort. As a sports brand, we wanted to create clothing that truly maintains moisture-wicking abilities while reducing visible sweat stains."

So how can you give moisture-wicking, quick-drying wear the ability to suppress sweat stains, using a technology different from water-repellent processing? The idea was that if moisture is absorbed and rapidly dispersed on the inside of the garment, the drying process becomes less visible on the outer side. They explored combinations of yarn and knitting that could make this effect possible.

"The fabric used in 'Anti-Sweat' is constructed from a single sheet using different yarns on the face and the back. While it's technically one piece of cloth, the front yarn is a stretchable, complex PTT fiber, and the back yarn is what we call Super Full-Dull—an extremely low-transparency version of Full-Dull yarn. Both are polyester at a broad level, but their properties differ.

"For sweat-stain performance, the Super Full-Dull yarn on the back provides rapid absorption and diffusion, while the low transparency of this yarn makes sweat much harder to see from the outside. What's more, the core of the Super Full-Dull yarn is blended with high-density ceramic particles. Too much ceramic can weaken the yarn, but they've used the highest possible concentration to maximize its effect."

At the outset of its development, in pursuit of a material suitable for "sweat stain suppression," a unique fabric combining polyester yarns with different properties was created—this is how "Anti-Sweat" was born. Among the elements of this fabric, the high-concentration ceramic particles kneaded into the core of the backing yarn deliver added benefits including "UV cut," "heat shielding," and "see-through prevention."

"Initially, we were considering materials to make sweat stains less noticeable, but at the same time, we wanted a material offering high UV protection and heat shielding—so we chose to use super full-dull yarn in the backing yarn. The high-concentration ceramic particles in the core of the super full-dull yarn block sunlight, granting effects like UV cut, heat shielding, and see-through prevention. Each function passes product tests to meet certain standards, qualifying to be visibly listed as features of our products."

Regarding UV protection, it easily meets the highest UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) standard of 50+. The other features, though measured against Mizuno’s in-house standards, also rise to a level where they are recognized as product functions—Mizuno, as a sporting goods manufacturer, maintains stringent criteria.

"Although we cannot disclose specific benchmark values, we have a company culture where unless a certain level is achieved, we do not declare a function as a product feature. For example, the PTT composite polyester used as the face yarn is lighter and offers more stretch than polyurethane, so we believe it feels comfortable when worn. However, if the degree of stretch does not reach our internal threshold for the ‘stretch’ label, we do not list ‘stretch’ as a feature."

While "stretch" is not advertised as a sixth formal function, the fabric clearly does have noticeable stretchiness and is lightweight and comfortable—another understated benefit, a merit of "Anti-Sweat" you can feel even if it isn’t shown as a numerical value.

Functional Material for Wearing Alone "Anti-Sweat": The Comfort of Layering

Some quick-drying, sweat-absorbent functional materials use mesh to enhance their effects, and their value is well recognized. However, it's hard to wear mesh garments on their own—these typically end up being used as underwear or base layers.

"Because 'Anti-Sweat' also has a see-through prevention function, it can be worn as a single layer. Wearing just one layer discreetly provides sweat-absorbing, quick-drying, sweat stain suppression, UV cut, heat shielding, and see-through prevention functionality—this is a huge plus. The comfort remains even when layered, making it useful for daily life, and as a manufacturer, we highly recommend it for outdoor wear as well."

With the severity of heat waves and extreme summer heat getting harder to predict, it might be a good time to consider "Anti-Sweat" as part of your own personal protection strategy.