Halden Works Switzerland: Odor-Free High-Waist Leggings Built on Capillary Wicking Plated Structure

Halden Works is a Switzerland-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 a scented finish masked the smell for two washes and then stopped working. The target was a permanent mechanism rather than a fragrance.

Halden Works: 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. A retailer review that questioned the wording of the claim 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 Capillary Wicking Plated Structure on a polyester with channelled cross-section base. The mechanism matters: sweat is moved to the outer face and evaporated before bacteria can break it down. 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 polyester with channelled cross-section fabric

Development and implementation

• Week 1: brief agreed, sweat zone mapped, target set as moisture management class above 4 with one-way transport above 300 by AATCC 195.
• 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 permanent construction benefit, care wording written as never use fabric softener, which blocks the capillaries.
• Bulk: fixed recipe, consolidated dye lots, AATCC 195 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.

“Their team explained the mechanism in one sentence, and the bulk fabric behaved like the sample.” — Halden Works Product Team

Inline inspection and packing before the leggings shipment

Key takeaway

Sweat is almost odourless; bacteria create the smell. Treating the bacteria and moving the moisture at the same time solved a problem that neither approach had solved alone. For Halden Works, that turned a recurring complaint into a feature the brand could sell.