The StAirS system turns everyday movement into pneumatic airflow, offering a novel approach to thermal management in protective workwear.
Protective workwear is being pushed beyond passive protection toward active physiological performance management, with German researchers developing a textile-based climate-control system that uses the wearer’s own movement to reduce heat stress.
The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF), in collaboration with Hero Textil AG, have developed StAirS, a smart textile climate-control system designed to improve thermal comfort in physically demanding work environments. The innovation will be showcased at the 2026 SME Innovation Day in Berlin on June 11.
Turning movement into cooling power
The core challenge in protective workwear is heat and moisture accumulation. Workers in industrial, logistics, emergency response, and high-exertion environments often face overheating because conventional PPE limits efficient sweat evaporation and heat dissipation.
The StAirS concept addresses this through flow-optimized textile air channels integrated directly into garments, enabling targeted airflow across the body to support natural thermoregulation.
Its most distinctive engineering feature is its energy source: the worker’s own movement.
A specially designed compressible insole acts as a pneumatic micro-compressor, generating compressed air during normal walking. That airflow is transferred through an integrated hose network embedded in protective trousers and directed into air-conducting structures in the upper garment.
This creates a self-powered wearable climate-control loop without requiring batteries, fans, or external compressed-air infrastructure.
Designed for industrial practicality
The developers also focused on usability. A custom belt-buckle interface allows workers to disconnect the trouser and upper-garment airflow connection quickly during the workday without removing the full system.
According to project findings, combining pneumatic pressure generation with textile airflow structures significantly improved heat and moisture management, reducing overheating risk while improving wearer comfort and potentially sustaining productivity during prolonged physical work.
Why the industry should watch
The development reflects a broader shift toward functional smart textiles with industrial utility, particularly in PPE, workwear, and occupational safety markets.
Unlike many wearable technologies that depend on electronics, StAirS uses a mechanically simple textile-pneumatic architecture, which may improve robustness, washability, and deployment economics.
The project was funded under Germany’s Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM) by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
For workwear manufacturers, this points toward a new product category: protective garments that actively manage worker physiology rather than merely shielding against hazards.
