2023.05.25

The Development of "Body Care Inner" that Solves Posture Problems for Desk Workers Just by Wearing: TENTIAL

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The wellness brand "TENTIAL" opened by TENTIAL announced the development and May 26 general release of its posture-correcting innerwear "Body Care Inner."

"Body Care Inner" is a product comprehensively supervised by physical therapists to solve the posture issues faced by desk workers by wearing it every day.

We spoke to Kazuya Aikawa, who led the product development for "Body Care Inner" at TENTIAL, about the development process, product features, and future plans.

Focusing on "Innerwear" for Posture Correction

Before the general release of "Body Care Inner," a crowdfunding project was launched, which garnered significant attention. Due to higher-than-expected orders, additional production was necessary, delaying the general release by one month.

Previously, TENTIAL had been gaining attention for its recovery wear. Why did they choose to focus on "posture" this time?

"Our company operates with the mission of 'creating a society that positively approaches health and unleashing humanity's potential.' We aim to support health and encourage challenges through our products by focusing on functionality.

"Additionally, through our various surveys and feedback from users, we found that posture issues are a significant concern, especially for desk workers. Many were aware that their productivity was decreasing due to posture problems. This led us to develop a product to solve these issues."

The newly released items are available as innerwear, specifically T-shirts and pants. While other companies have developed and sold various items for posture correction, TENTIAL's choice of "innerwear" was due to its "continuity."

"Regarding posture correction, cushions and support wear are the most common items.

"However, for example, cushions are difficult to carry around, only providing benefits when used at home or the office. Support wear can be challenging for desk workers who often wear suits. Thus, both options faced high hurdles for continuous use.

"The reason we chose innerwear is that it is worn daily. By changing the innerwear, users can benefit from posture correction without effort, enabling continuous use," says Aikawa.

"Our goal was to balance support and comfort to make it easy to wear as innerwear.

When adding support functionality to clothing, the usual approach involves layering fabric to strengthen support. However, this can make the garment uncomfortable by increasing thickness and restricting movement.

"To avoid deviating from the concept of reducing barriers to continuous use, we focused on changing the pressure feel through the fabric structure.

"We also held an internal long-term trial, where employees wore samples for about three weeks to gather data on the effects, feelings, and before-and-after changes, allowing us to make further adjustments."

Advantages of Comprehensive Supervision by Physical Therapists

The major feature of this "Body Care Inner" is the comprehensive supervision by physical therapists. What specific advantages did this bring to product development?