"Wearable Taping" Born From Human Body Research! What Is the Technology Behind Wacoal's Sports Tights "CW-X"?

Many people imagine sports tights as something that simply squeezes your legs. However, what Wacoal's conditioning wear brand "CW-X" aimed for was not mere compression, but applying the concept of taping to apparel.

How do CW-X sports tights, often described as "wearable taping," transform a person's running and movement? We spoke with Michiko Ito of Wacoal Corp., who was involved in their development, about the design philosophy and technology behind them.

How Does "Wearable Taping" Differ from Compression Wear?

When you think of sports tights, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the feeling of them tightly squeezing your legs. They serve to support the body during exercise while suppressing muscle vibration. I thought I understood that functionality.

However, running in CW-X actually changed that impression. Rather than pinning down the legs with intense pressure, it feels as though the movement of your pelvis and legs naturally stabilizes. As you run, unnecessary movements decrease, and your body posture effortlessly comes together. When I shared my impression during the interview, Ito replied:

"CW-X isn't about constricting the body or forcefully pulling out strength. Our goal is to support joints and muscles while following the body's natural movements, guiding you into a state where it's easier to move."

The idea originated when a researcher's family member injured their knee while skiing and was able to safely descend the mountain thanks to emergency taping. Inspired by this experience, the concept was born: "We want to enable many people to easily experience the principles of taping without needing specialized knowledge." That marked the start of the tights' development. After approximately three years of development, CW-X was launched in 1991.

"In CW-X, 'CW' stands for Conditioning Wear, and 'X' represents the unknown and infinite possibilities. Although the word 'conditioning' is becoming commonplace now, we have been crafting products with that philosophy since 1991."

Functional Design Closest to the Body, Made Possible by Wacoal

Translating the concept of taping into activewear. What makes this possible is the extensive human body research and innerwear manufacturing expertise that Wacoal has cultivated over many years.

Driving this research is the Wacoal Human Science Research and Development Center, established in 1964. The center conducts morphological research—having collected data from over 45,000 human bodies to date—as well as sensory physiology research pursuing beauty, health, and comfort, and kinesiological research analyzing physical movement.

Through kinesiological research, the team analyzed movement from both angles: external movements like actions and posture, and internal movements such as the skeleton and muscles. These research findings have been directly applied to the development of CW-X.

"Wacoal possesses advanced craftsmanship in creating girdles (shapewear). The unique expertise of an innerwear manufacturer—such as developing stretchable materials, applying targeted tension to different areas, and sewing in a way that minimizes skin contact for maximum comfort—is fully utilized in these tights."

A Holistic Approach to the Lower Body: The Technology Behind the Generator Model

The "GENERATOR MODEL" highlighted here is a model that provides full support from the waist to the legs.

"At CW-X, we believe the hip joints are the most crucial element in lower-body movement. With the hips as the core, this model supports not only the thighs, knees, and calves, but also the waist and glutes."

What CW-X calls "wearable taping" isn't about applying uniform compression across the entire fabric. Instead, support lines are built directly into the garment along the paths of muscles and joints. Lines along muscles suppress unnecessary muscle vibration during exercise, while lines strategically positioned around joints improve joint stability during movement. Together, these features work to reduce physical strain and lower-body fatigue during exercise.

Running, stopping, kicking, and pivoting. By supporting the gluteal area, the Generator Model assists the gluteus medius to stabilize the lower body during quick direction changes. Furthermore, by interconnecting support for the hip joints, glutes, thighs, knees, and calves, it is engineered to handle a wide range of sports—from repetitive motions like running to multidirectional movements in court and field sports.

When actually running in them, there is a clear sensation of the glutes and pelvis becoming naturally stabilized. Instead of just the legs moving forward, the movement flows directly from the pelvis through the legs. Even without feeling tightly restricted, your core body axis stays remarkably steady as you move.

Furthermore, the featured "GENERATOR MODEL COOL" is specifically engineered for warm-weather wear. Utilizing mesh fabric throughout, it releases heat and moisture, allowing for comfortable wear even during hot seasons.

Creating a model using mesh fabric that is thin, lightweight, and highly breathable—yet capable of ensuring comfort during warm weather—was a major engineering challenge during development.

"Providing full lower-body support with a mesh fabric poses significant challenges, starting with fabric strength. Creating sufficient support force and differentiating the compression levels between the base fabric and the support lines is extraordinarily difficult.

We put a tremendous amount of effort into balancing coolness with functional performance."

The breakthrough came from "VISCOMAGIC®(*)", a processing technology developed by textile and material manufacturer SEIREN Co., Ltd. Its key feature is the ability to vary tension levels across different areas within a single piece of fabric.

"With VISCOMAGIC®, we first knit a high-tension fabric and then apply a special processing technique to create targeted areas with reduced tension. In other words, because tension levels can be varied within a single fabric, support lines can be created without having to sew on separate pieces of fabric."

Additionally, by limiting seams to key structural areas, this model minimizes bulk and stiffness. This design approach contributes directly to its smooth, superior fit when worn.

Conditioning Philosophy Backed by Science

When commercializing products, in addition to testing the physical properties and functionality of the fabric itself, we conduct step-by-step verification down to the support performance during actual wear.

"First, at the fabric stage, in accordance with our quality standards suitable for sports, we evaluate physical properties such as dimensional stability and bursting strength, alongside functional aspects like sweat-absorbing, quick-drying properties and UV protection.

Since this fabric incorporates variable power zoning into a single layer, we also set power levels, including stretch recovery. After that, we create the actual garment and have people wear it while running to conduct objective and subjective evaluations, confirming whether knee load reduction and fatigue reduction are truly achieved."

CW-X looks beyond just competitive sports settings. It is expanding its reach as conditioning wear that supports "everyone who moves their body."

"High-strain situations aren't limited to sports. We want people who rely on their bodies for work—such as in delivery services, caregiving, agriculture, and fishing—to use our products too. In fact, the number of users working in these industries is steadily growing."

Not compression wear, but strictly conditioning wear. CW-X's concept of "wearable taping" combines human body research with material technology, creating conditioning wear that integrates support functions directly into a single piece of fabric.