You Cannot Stain This Shirt No Matter How Hard You Try

BY THE ENGINEER - DECEMBER, 24TH 2013

Don’t you hate it when you spill the drink on your favorite shirt? While some are least bothered with this issue, some people face this problem on a daily basis. Then there are parties where someone might accidentally spill the drink on you. Wouldn’t it be nice if your shirt repelled the drink and remained stain-free? No more will you have to worry about how to tackle tea/coffee stains, for there is one such shirt that is being funded via Kickstarter and is known as Sillic.The amazing feature of Silic is that it is able to repel liquids. Aamir Patel is the brains behind this invention and has designed this shirt so that its fabric is coupled with microscopic silica particles which basically get attached to the fibers, forming an air barrier around it. This is the reason why any liquid which falls onto the shirt transforms into beads and falls off the fabric without damaging it. This means there will be zero bacteria growth and apart from that the shirt is anti-microbial.

The video hosted at Kickstarter shows the liquid ‘bouncing off’ the fabric without leaving any stain. So what’s the secret behind this shirt? It is nothing but wonderful engineering folks. The shirt has been woven by using a hydrophobic silica; silicon dioxide. Aamir Patel is the brains behind this invention and has designed this shirt so that its fabric is coupled with microscopic silica particles that basically get attached to the fibers, forming an air barrier around it. This is the reason that when any liquid falls onto the shirt, it transforms into beads and falls off the fabric without damaging it. This means there will be zero bacteria growth and apart from that, the shirt is anti-microbial.Kickstarter calls it as ‘Self Cleaning Clothing with Hydrophobic Nanotechnology’.
However to validate the claims; retaining properties up to 80 washes and the feel of the shirt will obviously require a closer look. But it has been designed by the person who used to do designing for Vera Wang Collection, so we are keeping our hopes up and hey, it still looks better than a stained shirt!