The Shirt on Your Back

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I Was Recently Sent a Sample of a New Kind of Flannel Shirt. It Was Magnetic.

While Rock Products will never be considered a high-fashion magazine, we do get sent work apparel to try out every now and again. Everything from welding helmets to steel-toed boots, lined trousers and protective gloves have been sent our way.

I was recently sent a sample of a new kind of flannel shirt. The traditional fit, 100-percent cotton brushed flannel shirt incorporates something called MagnaReady patented technology.  

The shirt features magnetized closures down the front and at the cuffs for ease of dressing. I asked the company about the ease of dressing thing. While their products were actually developed as adaptive clothing for people with disabilities, they also envision the construction and quarry industries a potential market, presumably to help tough, thick-fingered foreman and equipment operators forego the tedious task of getting those tiny buttons through the buttonholes. Just slap the two sides of the shirt together and you’re on your way.

I tested out the shirt on a particularly cold and snowy Ohio morning. My initial thought was that the two sides would never stay together, resulting in an embarrassing gap through which everyone could see my white undershirt and snow flurries could penetrate.

I headed up to Marie’s Café for breakfast, removed my coat and took a seat. No, the two sides did not come apart. Interesting. I did not spill coffee or egg yolks on it either. Wore the shirt all day, and the shirt maintained its stability.

Surely the magnetic effect would dissipate after washing it a few times, right? So I washed it several times and wore it again. Nope. Magnets worked just as advertised.

Additional features include a rounded breast pocket, magnetized barrel cuffs, side pleats at the back yoke, and a magnetized pieced placket.

Kudos to company CEO Maura Horton for developing this product. While the original concept came about in order to help her husband, who has Parkinson’s Disease, the idea has other applications as well.

If you want your own magnetic shirt, go to www.magnaready.com. The company also sells other kinds of “adaptive clothing.”

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