Pulse Meridian Norway: Odor-Free Tennis Dresses Built on Zinc-Based Deodorant Finish
Pulse Meridian is a Norway-based activewear label whose tennis dresses programme sells directly to consumers and through selected retail partners. The team asked us to rebuild the fabric from scratch because the existing fabric passed every laboratory test yet still failed in wear trials. The target was a solution validated by wear panels rather than by a certificate alone.
Pulse Meridian: odour-control swatch set for the tennis dresses programme
The challenge
The smell built up at the built-in short and the chest band, 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 negative review thread on the brand's own product page 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 Zinc-Based Deodorant Finish on a polyester/spandex knit base. The mechanism matters: zinc binds the fatty acids in sweat before bacteria can convert them into odour. Keeping the base at bonded knit with inner shorts and 210 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/spandex knit fabric
Development and implementation
- Week 1: brief agreed, sweat zone mapped, target set as odour reduction above 80% for ammonia and acetic acid by ISO 17299-2.
- 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 tennis dresses, assessed after eight hours of wear.
- Pre-production: wash durability confirmed at 20 home washes, care wording written as wash at 30-40 degrees and dry away from direct heat.
- Bulk: fixed recipe, consolidated dye lots, ISO 17299-2 repeated on every lot.
Specification delivered
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Product | Tennis Dresses |
| Base construction | bonded knit with inner shorts, 210 GSM |
| Odour-control system | Zinc-Based Deodorant Finish |
| Performance target | odour reduction above 80% for ammonia and acetic acid |
| Test method | ISO 17299-2 |
| Service life | 20 home washes |
| Added cost | USD 0.32 per garment |
| Certification | OEKO-TEX Standard 100, REACH compliant inputs |
Results
The compliance team cleared the fabric for all three sales regions, and one fabric could now serve the whole range instead of three. 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.
“We stopped apologising for smell complaints. The test report answers the question before it is asked.” — Pulse Meridian Product Team
Inline inspection and packing before the tennis dresses 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 Pulse Meridian, that turned a recurring complaint into a feature the brand could sell.
