Have you ever Febrezed your jeans? Maybe when you’ve reached peak comfort a week or so post-washing, but they’re starting to smell a bit funky. You could try to repel the smell with a spritz or two — or just go for odorless jeans.
Odo Denim is supposedly just that. Since freezing your jeans just doesn’t work, financial analyst Mannan Malik and co-founder Salman Choudhry created denim that repels stains and odor-causing bacteria. Woven into the fabric, silver threads release positively charged ions that “penetrate the surface of negatively charged bacteria and disrupt the cell division,” according to the company’s site. It sounds similar to Dow Chemicals’ Silvadur, a “microbial control technology that provides long-lasting freshness and reliable protection against unwanted bacteria in clothing, uniforms, home textiles, industrial fabrics, and more.”
As for stains, Odo’s fabric has billions of “microscopic peaks” bonded into it that don’t allow liquids to soak in. Instead, red wine and ketchup slip off like water off a slicker. No smell and no stains? That would mean you pretty much never have to toss them in the wash again. “You can wear it for months without a wash,” Malik tells Fast Company. It takes a lot of water to clean your jeans, so Odo sees its denim as an H2O-saving alternative.
The Kickstarter campaign for the jeans has been so successful, it’s already raised more than five times its $10,000 goal. It’s now releasing an Odo T, a shirt that similarly repels stains and odors. The shirt is available for a $35 pledge, and there are still a few early-bird options for $99 jeans. If you’re a fan of slim-fitting jeans, there are a few fits to choose from. (No bootcut styles yet.) Both the shirts and jeans should ship in July 2016, if all goes according to plan. (Normal Kickstarters beware as warnings apply.) Odo hasn’t mentioned if it will eventually move on to socks and underwear for a fully odor-free ensemble.
