Everline Studio Sweden: Odor-Free High-Waist Leggings Built on Silver Ion Antibacterial Finish

Everline Studio is a Sweden-based activewear label whose leggings programme sells directly to consumers and through selected retail partners. The team asked us to rebuild the fabric from scratch because the garment smelled stale after a single session even straight out of the wash. The target was a fabric that stayed neutral through repeated wear between washes.

Everline Studio: odour-control swatch set for the leggings programme

The challenge

The smell built up at the inner thigh and the waistband, where sweat sits longest during a session. The previous fabric was a standard synthetic knit with no odour strategy, so bacteria broke the sweat down on the fabric and the smell became permanent after a few weeks. Rising returns with smell listed as the stated reason made the problem urgent: the brand needed a fix before the next bulk booking, not a new supplier search.

The fabric solution

We built the programme around Silver Ion Antibacterial Finish on a nylon/spandex knit base. The mechanism matters: silver disrupts bacterial metabolism so the bacteria that create body odour cannot multiply. Keeping the base at interlock knit with 22% elastane and 240 GSM meant the hand, the stretch and the cover stayed exactly where the design team wanted them, because odour control changed the chemistry and the construction rather than the silhouette.

Wear trial and fit approval of the nylon/spandex knit fabric

Development and implementation

• Week 1: brief agreed, sweat zone mapped, target set as bacterial reduction above 99% after 10 washes by ISO 20743.
• Week 2–3: laboratory knits produced and tested; add-on level adjusted until the target was met with margin.
• Week 4–5: wear trial on finished leggings, assessed after eight hours of wear.
• Pre-production: wash durability confirmed at 30 home washes, care wording written as wash at 30 degrees without fabric softener.
• Bulk: fixed recipe, consolidated dye lots, ISO 20743 repeated on every lot.

Specification delivered

Results

Smell-related returns fell by 71% inside one season, and the style moved onto a fixed repeat recipe with test reports issued per lot. The odour value was re-measured on bulk fabric rather than on the approval sample, so the result reflects what customers actually received. The programme is now on its third repeat with the same recipe.

“The fabric still smells clean at the end of a double training day. That is the comment we get most often now.” — Everline Studio Product Team

Inline inspection and packing before the leggings shipment

Key takeaway

Odour control has to be engineered into the fabric, not sprayed onto it at the end. Defining the mechanism first and the test method second removed most of the risk in this programme. For Everline Studio, that turned a recurring complaint into a feature the brand could sell.