Home Textiles Writes About brrrº Pro
Cooling Fabric Company Chills Out with Latest Innovation
brrr° Pro, with enhanced cooling fibers, is aimed at the athletic and fitness market
Atlanta – A new advanced performance cooling fabric has been developed by brrr° under the brrr° Pro label.
According to the company, brrr° Pro has enhanced cooling fibers embedded with micro-cooling minerals, along with hyper-wicking and performance drying to elevate its cooling effect. brrr° Pro polyester scored 0.194 in Qmax testing, which measures the cool-to-the-touch sensation of fabrics. That Qmax score was 81% better than another brand of cooling fabric and 53f% better than the score for comparable performance polyester.
“We are thrilled to bring the cooling performance power of brrr° Pro to the athletic market so hard-working athletes can feel their best when they train, perform and recover," said Mary-Cathryn Kolb, founder and CEO. The company, which holds a provisional patent on brrr° Pro, noted the product has been under development for three years.
brrr° licenses it cooling fabric technology to home goods and technical apparel companies such as Sheex, Southern Tide, Mizzen + Main, Kit and Ace and Forloh.
Original Article here
brrr° Introduces Advanced Cooling Fabric, brrr° Pro
The leader in cooling fabric technology creates new performance cooling textile aimed at the athletic and fitness market.
Athletes, trainers, coaches, and anyone with an active lifestyle deserves to wear better fabrics that help them perform their best as they compete, recover, and play.
Many garments on the market say they are “cooling” but they’re really just good at wicking — they don’t actually draw heat and moisture away from the skin.
We created a new advanced performance cooling fabric called brrr° Pro that works harder than ever to keep you cool.
brrr° Pro Polyester uses enhanced cooling fibers, hyper wicking, and performance drying to elevate the Triple Chill Effect® that instantly and continuously draws heat and moisture away from the skin.
We’ve been working on brrr° Pro for more than three years, and we experimented with dozens of formulas that were tested on more than 1,000 kgs of yarn before choosing the best combination.
For the past three years, we’ve been working on a new concentrated cooling technology that harnesses the power of micro-cooling technology and advanced dispersion techniques to intensify the cooling power of brrr°.
We have a provisional patent for brrr° Pro, and we’re excited to introduce it to the athletic and fitness apparel industry. Like all brrr° products, brrr° Pro is independently lab tested by globally recognized third-party labs and proven to outperform other brands.
We think athletes, trainers, coaches, and anyone with an active lifestyle will love the way brrr° Pro keeps them cooler, drier, and more confident so they can perform their best at work and at play.
Interested in being cool? Click here to connect with a cooling expert from brrrº.
Give the Gift of Cool Comfort
This holiday season, show that you care by giving someone special the gift of cool comfort.
Products made with brrr° cooling fabric feature natural cooling minerals, active wicking, and rapid drying to instantly and continuously draw heat and moisture away from the skin for ultimate comfort all day long.
Here are a few of our favorite products made with brrr° that would make excellent gifts for someone you love.
Sheex Midnight Label Sheet Sets are the perfect gift for anyone who gets hot or moves around frequently during the night. Made with brrr° cooling fabric, the sheets are ultra-smooth and have a silky hand feel for an unrivaled sleep experience.
For the fashionable ladies in your life, consider the Chill Out Blouse or the Cool Down Crop from ADAY. Both are tailored to fit in all the right places for a flattering silhouette, and they will help keep her cool and comfortable as she does it all.
There are also some fabulous finds for both men and women from Kit and Ace, the Canadian apparel retailer known for making both wardrobe staples and fashion-forward pieces. Their Stay Cool Shirts for men have back darts for a trim fit and hidden front buttons, while the Keep It Cool blouses for women have button cuffs and a curved hem for effortless styling.
These Southern Tide men’s polos and dress shirts got a major upgrade from the cooling power of brrr°. From office wear to a casual weekend look, both shirts will wick away sweat and heat for ultimate confidence.
Another great performance sport shirt that’s nice enough to wear to the office yet perfectly casual for the weekend and work-from-home activities is the Gulf Plaid Performance Sport Shirt by startup apparel brand Genteal. They also have some super soft polos, a long-sleeve T-shirt, and a vented shirt.
Men with a muscular physique would love the Pro Series Dress Shirt by Atlas Menswear, which marries performance and refinement. Atlas Menswear cuts their garments to accommodate wider shoulders and a narrower waist for a better fit on muscular bodies.
Don’t forget to pamper their tootsies! Say goodbye to hot sweaty feet, and say hello to cool comfort with Bigfoot Socks featuring brrr° cooling fabric. Available in loafer and no-show heights, they’re a great gift for someone who’s tricky to buy for.
To help the ones you love stay safe and healthy this holiday season as the coronavirus pandemic continues, check out these cooling face masks by MacBick that are made with brrr° cooling fabric. They are machine washable and are available in adult and children’s sizes.
We hope you find joy and comfort this holiday season. Happy holidays from our brrrº family to yours.
Why Harry Higgs’ Deep-V Might be the Best Polo in Golf
Harry Higgs is the owner of golf’s most relatable brio. His affinity for naps and quick meals is only matched by that of his buttons-undone, beard-unshaved, shades-on attire.
Frankly, in a sport defined by trim figures and meticulously crafted style, Higgs is a breath of proletarian fresh air. As for his golf game, that’s rounded into form nicely over the last few weeks. At the Safeway Open on Sunday, his best shot was his approach into the par-5 16th. Higgs hit a boomerang hook around a tree from 240 yards out and left himself two feet for eagle.
“Yeah, that was sick,” he said after a final-round 68 put him at 18 under for the week. “Kind of at the moment I needed it. I’ll remember that one for sure.”
After Sunday’s second-place finish at the Safeway Open, Higgs found himself with his second top-20 finish in three starts — and his most visible PGA Tour performance to date. With that in mind, it’s worth digging a bit deeper into his look, particularly his unbuttoned, deep-V Greyson polo.
This three-button polo from Greyson might appear simple, but inside the collar is some of golf’s most comfortable material. Greyson’s trademark “brrrº” technology is built for days in the sun and heat, combining natural cooling minerals, active wicking, and rapid drying technologies to create a shirt that stays in peak performance (and peak comfort), no matter the elements.
Whether you’re popping the color and undoing the buttons in your best Higgsian interpretation, or simply looking to invest in a look you know can withstand the elements, look no further than Greyson.
If Entrepreneurs Processed Risk Like Others, There Would Be No Startups
By: Allen Clary
What was it like to be on the ground floor of Toms Shoes, part of the early team at Spanx, and then leave to start your own textile technology company while a mom and raising a family? Well, that’s been the adventurous and inspiring life of Mary-Cathryn Kolb and in this interview, she talks about her journey and the pursuit of big things. She shares advice and learnings from her career and talks about risk-taking and the insatiable, inescapable entrepreneurial mindset. 
SPONSOR: Executive Launch - from corporate executive to startup founder. https://execlaunch.com
Full Episode at https://youtu.be/wSTtsjTMMyI and additional episodes at https://planyourstart.com/podcast.
0:07 Allen and Mary-Cathryn are both from the state of Georgia - Mary-Cathryn from Thomasville, Allen from Savannah.
3:47 She lives in Atlanta now and has pitched and developed key relationships at the annual Venture Atlanta conference - https://ventureatlanta.org.
8:50 How do natural-born entrepreneurs see risk? Mary-Cathryn says “we don’t”. It excites and energizes us.
10:35 If someone had told her how hard it was going to be and all of the things that would go wrong - she wouldn’t have believed and would have kept going. That says it all about the way natural-born entrepreneurs process risk.
12:17 She lost a co-founder and most doubted the company could or should move forward. She never considered stopping.
14:00 Are you wired to be an entrepreneur or can you learn to become one? Mary-Cathryn has always known she was wired to be one. It’s her “north star”.
14:47 There’s a spectrum of entrepreneurship, the moderate risk end and the massive risk end of the spectrum.
16:55 If you go for high risk, high reward, you must be mentally tough and a little lucky. There’s either win or lose on that end of the spectrum, no in-between.
17:45 If you think you can be happy working for others, then by all means do that. There is too much romanticism in entrepreneurship as viewed from the outside.
18:40 If you are wired this way, to be a risk taking entrepreneur, then you probably don’t have a choice but to pursue it.
21:40 She explains how, since she was a little girl, there was never a question that she wanted to do big things and was always enterprising.
22:30 Allen & Mary-Cathryn discuss ‘failure’ and how it’s often celebrated in entrepreneurship but in fact ‘fear of failure’ is a strong motivator and failure should be avoided at nearly all cost.
26:28 Mary-Cathryn talks about growing up with a twin, her college experience at SMU, graduating and going to Los Angeles, then New York to pursue an acting and vocalist career - her childhood dream.
31:34 But it was feast or famine and it’s where she learned about ‘financial runways’ and frugality. She was offered a position with a major designer, so she relocated to New York - her first project was with Beyoncé!
38:35 While in NY her college friend from SMU, Blake Mycoskie, called and asked her to work for Toms Shoes on the ground floor.
40:45 Later, Spanx called, recruited to be one one of the first 30 employees. So she relocated to Atlanta, her husband enrolled at Georgia Tech for his MBA.
42:15 She explains how special the experience and culture was in the early days of Spanx - an amazing sisterhood amongst that early team.
47:10 But with time came new leadership and change. She didn’t feel the changes were best for the team and customers. She felt she had to speak up and take a stand. She knew she’d either be heard or be let go. She was let go. It was her Jerry Maguire moment.
51:20 Discussion on how hard it is for those with intense entrepreneurial mindsets to last very long inside of someone else’s company. And when she took that stand, she had no idea what was on the other side, no backup plan.
55:00 There was an intense emotional hangover after leaving, she needed a break to reboot, but knew immediately that she would start something of her own.
56:50 So brrrº was born and with a strong commitment to product, company culture, and shared ownership.
58:50 Working with a polymer scientist and textile engineer, a ‘cool to the touch’ fabric (not just polyester moisture wicking) was developed - patented “Triple Chill Effect”.
1:05:45 She explains brrrº is an “ingredient” brand - embedded into fabric of major brands you already know.
1:06:45 Initially designed for women but now brrrº is embedded in menswear also. Bed, Bath, & Beyond now carries ‘cooling sheets’ powered by brrrº. Her newest project is bringing a much needed cooling effect to children’s car seats!
1:10:00 What advice for someone creating in the clothing or garment space? Mary-Cathryn says make the business as lean as possible and go big on social media!
1:14:00 Take the risk of entrepreneurship if it’s for you but know that it’s lonely, will take twice as much money and time that you imagine - so get a support system.
1:15:30 This is a personal journey, she has three young daughters and wants them to see up-close what a successful woman entrepreneur and working mom looks like and that family and career can coexist if that’s what you want.
Full Episode at https://youtu.be/wSTtsjTMMyI and additional episodes at https://planyourstart.com/podcast.
brrr: https://brrr.com
Plan Your Start: https://planyourstart.com
Original Article on LinkedIn
Mary-Cathryn's Response in "15 biz leaders predict effects of the remote work trend"
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, many businesses were forced to set up remote work arrangements. While some companies have returned to the office, many others intend to retain full or partial remote work arrangements well into the future.
The shift toward telecommuting is bound to change the business landscape in a big way. That’s why we asked 15 members of Business Journals Leadership Trust what they foresee happening as a result of the growing trend toward remote work. Here’s what they believe some of the long-term impacts might be.
1. Expect cross-state tax implications.
Adopting a remote workforce can expand your pool of applicants outside your HQ state. But businesses may not realize they could be expanding their sales tax obligations by doing so. The same could happen for employees who live across state lines and now work fully remotely. States are being lenient for now, but we can expect them to want registrations for the newly added states if this becomes the standard. – Robert Dumas, TaxConnex
2. Remote work may be a catalyst for better diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Remote work can be a catalyst for better diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Recruiting the best talent — not just the closest — offering flexible scheduling and relying more on results instead of who best navigates office dynamics is a win. A remote model can lead to significant gains in bringing more underrepresented groups to the table. –Natalie Ruiz, AnswerConnect
3. Companies will have the opportunity to earn employee loyalty through flexibility.
Companies that offer more flexibility in terms of working arrangements have the opportunity to earn the loyalty of their employees, who in turn will work more productively and want to contribute more to the company. A negative is the lack of serendipitous connections between co-workers or employees from different divisions who form relationships, which can spur innovative improvements. –Andrew Duffell, Research Park at FAU
Trust is the foundation of any healthy team, especially those that are remote. On top of the pandemic, political division and civil unrest have left many of us shaken. Incorporating trust-building practices into your wellness offering will help employees feel safe with their colleagues so they can bring their full selves to work, enabling the team to perform at its highest level. – Deni Tato, Corporate Consciousness
5. Corporate culture will be more important than ever.
Pre-Covid-19, partial or full remote working was a differentiating employee benefit. The pandemic leveled that field. Those companies that didn’t offer it before do now, and many of them find employees are happier and, often, more productive. As a result, corporate culture will become more important in attracting and retaining talent, as staff will expect the same level of interaction and professional development as they had onsite. – Daniel Serfaty, Aptima, Inc.
6. Businesses will need to give teams the ability to interact socially.
As businesses embrace remote work they need to remember that people want and need social interaction with their team. It’s important that each team determines what that means to them and that they have the ability to be flexible about when and how those interactions take place. – Laura Doehle, Elevation Business Consulting
7. Remote workforces will escape the ‘speed of paper.’
Escaping the “speed of paper” is a key benefit of embracing a remote workforce. Remote workforces teach teams to produce, share and store content in one effective step. In addition, electronic data is easier to update and easier to analyze or mine for actionable insights. Often, paper content cannot be found or deteriorates and information needs to be re-keyed to perform analysis. – Kirk W. McLaren, Foresight CFO
8. Flexibility will provide a better work-life balance.
I think the flexibility that remote working provides will, in the long run, make the balance between work and personal life better. It will most likely be an employee-by-employee decision on how much if any remote working will take place. –Daniel Wilson, Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation
9. The quality of work and training may suffer.
On the negative side, I predict two things. The first is poor quality work from those who are not efficient or effective in a remote setting. Second, poor training can arise in difficult remote interactions when accountability for “actual” teaching and learning is not measured clearly enough and competency in a given topic is simply not realized. –Joy Frestedt, Frestedt Incorporated
10. Remote meetings could create a more intimate experience.
There are bursts of productivity because people aren’t commuting or spending as much time in meetings. But many people also struggle with child care, distance learning, isolation or financial worries. Although Zoom can’t replicate in-person meetings, it’s a more intimate experience in some ways. You get a peek into someone’s home office or dining room, and their kids or pets sometimes make cameos. – Mary-Cathryn Kolb, brrrº
11. Maintaining company culture will be a challenge.
Most successful businesses have a distinct culture that defines who they are and how they operate. Maintaining that culture presents new challenges for businesses with remote workers, particularly when they hire new staff members. Leaders would be well-served to think proactively about how they will onboard new team members and instill the company’s values in them in a remote working situation. –Kieran Shanahan, Shanahan Law Group, PLLC
12. Corporate communication will continue to improve.
As we look for silver linings in the benefits of remote work arrangements, we certainly see families having more time together. Surprisingly, corporate communications have improved as we focus on regularly scheduled connection meetings and both personal and professional information shares — “Show and Tell” has gone corporate. What’s missing? The basic human need for socialization. –Brent Maugel, Maugel Architects
13. Companies that haven’t researched labor laws may face consequences.
We’re seeing a lot of risk in labor and employment. There are too many employers out there running remote teams without having gone through a thorough evaluation of how changes in employment law and applicable regulations impact their policies and remote work. Unless this is done, we foresee an avalanche of cases that will cost employers dearly. – Robert Newland, Newland Associates
14. Investment in office real estate will decline.
Increasing acceptance of remote work arrangements devalues traditional office real estate. Logically, investment in traditional office real estate will likely decline relatively, both in existing infrastructure and new construction. –Jason Dunn, CFA, DACS Asphalt & Concrete
15. Businesses may be able to grow more quickly.
Working remotely will reduce overhead costs and allow for considerable growth without having to increase the office footprint. This may save business owners money and allow them to grow more aggressively. –David Wescott, Transblue
Original Article: Biz Journals
Get a Better Night’s Rest With SHEEX Featuring brrr°
Overheating at night can diminish the quality of your sleep, causing you to toss and turn all night long or wake up between sleep cycles.
Those interruptions can prevent you from falling into the deep, restorative part of the sleep cycle that helps you feel recharged and rested when you wake up in the morning, according to SleepFoundation.org.
This new line of premium cooling Midnight Label sheets from SHEEX can help keep you cool and dry while you slumber so you can get a better night’s sleep.
Made with brrr° cooling nylon fabric and a touch of spandex for stretchy comfort, the SHEEX Midnight Label bedding features natural cooling minerals, active wicking, and rapid drying that work together to create a “Triple Chill Effect” that supports thermoregulation.
brrr° fabric instantly and continuously draws heat and moisture away from your skin, which helps you stay cool and comfortable all night long so you can get a more restful night of sleep. Deeper sleep also supports your body’s efforts to stay in tune with your natural circadian rhythm.
The SHEEX Midnight Label sheets come in four colorways (Mist Gray, Porcelain, Spa Blue, and Stone) to complement any decor, and they have helpful top-stitch flatlock seams to make bedmaking easy. The sheets are machine washable, the cooling effects of brrr° are a permanent part of the structure of the yarn so they won’t ever diminish or wash out over time.
SHEEX Midnight Label sheets would make a delightful gift for your sleep partner, or anyone in your life who would benefit from a more restorative sleep.
brrr° is also proud to partner with another woman-owned business.
SHEEX was co-founded by Susan Walvius and Michelle Brooke-Marciniak, who both formerly coached and played collegiate basketball, while Marciniak played professional basketball in the WNBA. They started the company with a vision of bringing technologically advanced performance fabrics into the bedroom to help people get better quality sleep so they can perform better in their everyday lives.
Similarly, Mary-Cathryn Kolb founded brrr° to develop cooling technology that could improve the fabrics we wear and touch each day by keeping us more cool, dry and comfortable.
We are so excited to work with another company whose innovative mindset mirrors our own. Like a good night of sleep, it’s very refreshing.
brrr° featured in WTiN's Twist magazine
Cooling effects
The Triple Chill Effect fabric technology from brrr° is being used in a growing range of products and the company is planning to enhance the technology through further development of its cooling minerals. Fiona Haran finds out more.
Busy, active lifestyles coupled with the ongoing climate crisis that continues to dominate the headlines are driving the demand for innovative cooling solutions in all aspects of our daily lives. And, as textiles are omnipresent, they naturally make a great vehicle for administering such solutions. Feeling cool and comfortable in whatever activity we’re doing heightens our overall wellbeing and performance. So, with this in mind, the American company brrr°, based in Atlanta, Georgia, set out to explore how textiles can be enhanced to meet this need. Founded in 2014 by Mary-Cathryn Kolb, a retail industry expert who has worked for apparel brands such as Spanx and Von Dutch, brrr° developed a proprietary cooling fabric technology that can be integrated into any existing fabric to bring immediate and continuous cooling. To do so, a secret blend of natural minerals is embedded into the yarn itself to become a permanent part of the fabric that, unlike coatings or sprays, doesn’t wash out over time.
Explaining the process in more detail, Mary Jane Credeur, a spokesperson for brrr°, says: “We begin by adding our secret blend of minerals into the nylon or polyester pellets, which are extruded as yarn that is then turned into fabric. Our cooling minerals are permanent and part of the structure of the yarn. Under a microscope you can actually see the little mineral speckles.” The cooling feature is combined with wicking and rapid drying technology to form what brrr° calls the Triple Chill Effect. For instance, brrr° nylon and brrr° polyester are described as ‘cool to the touch’ with more chill than comparable competitors, according to the company, which adds that the wicking technology moves moisture away from the skin, for ‘non-stop comfort’, and the quick drying capability rapidly releases moisture into the air, cooling the fabric and providing a ‘fresh and crisp’ experience. To realise the potential of the technology, brrr° has several ‘go-to’ mill partners in Taiwan which are considered a part of its R&D team. All brrr° products are tested by independent labs to prove their effectiveness. For instance, tests conducted last year by Intertek found that brrr° nylon and polyester fabrics consistently outperformed numerous other comparable products in lab tests that measure Qmax (cool to the touch feeling), wicking and dry time. “For years, a lot of the apparel manufacturers claimed that their products were cooling but they were just wicking, they didn’t actually draw away heat per se,” says Credeur. “Some products you have to get wet before they cool, and that’s not very practical. The science behind it, that’s our pedigree. It’s not just a gimmick that’s going to wear out over time like sprays or coatings do.”
An obvious application for the technology is activewear and outdoor wear, where users are prone to working up a sweat, but the end uses span various elements of a consumer’s wardrobe and lifestyle. And, as an ingredient brand, brrr° has garnered interest from a range of retailers and manufacturers looking to integrate the cooling fabric technology into their collections. Products featuring the technology include women’s blouses from ADAY, performance socks from Bigfoot Sock Co., Bermuda shorts from Coral Coast Clothing, the Guide workout T-shirt from Greyson, technically advanced shirts for commuters from Kit and Ace, men’s blazers from Mizzen+Main, caps and hats from The Game, and a range of casual clothing from Southern Tide, such as women’s dresses and men’s polo shirts. In addition, retailer JoS. A. Bank uses brrr° suit liners. Credeur says: “A lot of our launches have been casual polo shirts, so not just outdoor wear, but also casual weekend wear, office wear, dress shirts, linings of suits, and undergarments. We’re really starting to get traction with national and international retailers, and we’re in talks with a few co-branded partners. Plus, we have a new line launching with CAT Workwear from Caterpillar – an outdoor, rugged apparel line.” Home textiles are another key end use, particularly bed sheets. “There tends to be more demand around things you actually touch and interact with,” says Credeur. “Sheets are an obvious one, as memory foam mattresses make you sweat a little bit more. Women who are menopausal or pre-menopausal tend to appreciate that a lot. We think that someday we’ll get some demand from sofa material coverings and fabric for upholstery. And we have been in talks with auto manufacturers for car seat materials.”
The company has also integrated its cooling fabric technology into denim, with successful results. It states on the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC)’s fashion blog that independent lab tests show brrr° denim feels 38% cooler to the touch than comparable traditional denim, dries up to 47% faster and wicks 2.5 times better. And aside from this, brrr° has taken steps in the energy harvesting field, having received a patent using piezoelectrics technology. “Somewhere down the road you may be able to stick a device in your back pocket and charge it from your clothing,” says Credeur, who adds that the company hasn’t actioned the patent just yet but considers it a “cool technology to explore.” Micro minerals of any kind are bound to raise questions over their safety to human health and the environment, but Credeur assures that the minerals used by brrr° are safe. “Our proprietary mineral blend is not reactive and absorbed by skin at all,” she says. “It’s an organic material but it’s combined with a man-made one, blending into this master batch as it gets produced. Its behaviour is no different to any other polyester or nylon or base material.”
The technology has also found itself being used in recycled fabrics. “We do have GRS [Global Recycle Standard] certified suppliers of recycled yarns,” says Credeur. “We buy yarn that has recycled material in it and integrate brrr° technology into it as part of the manufacturing process. There’s a lot of talk and interest in recycled material and, with some brands that are very forward thinking, they tend to be hungrier for that technology. They’re also willing to pay more as it’s a premium product.” Credeur reveals that brrr° is planning to enhance the technology to increase the surface area of the minerals effectively and amplify the cooling effects. “We’re exploring some new dispersion technologies, how we blend the minerals, and how we integrate the minerals with the actual yarn in the first place,” she says. “If you can increase the surface area, you can directly improve the effect of the cooling minerals.” She adds: “Down the road there will be additional hiring and additional fundraising to grow.” This is particularly important as there are educational hurdles to overcome with brrr° technology to explain to retailers and consumers how and why it’s better than previous generation technologies that claimed to be cooling but were ‘really just wicking.’ “The challenge is being able to capture the attention and articulate the benefits quickly in a way that people can understand how it’s different and why it’s different, and how the science works,” says Credeur. “It’s about getting our name out there,” she adds. “People want clothing that does something more for them – they want comfort, they want it to wick and to dry quickly. We see ourselves as part of the solution – the planet is not getting any cooler.”
Original Article: Wtin
Mary-Cathryn's Response to "Made a work mistake? Seven smart things to say to your boss"
Even the best employees will make mistakes at work from time to time — it’s part of being human. Leaders want their team members to come to them quickly and honestly acknowledge the issue. However, many may hesitate to do so out of a fear of punishment or damage to their reputation.
Trying to hide a mistake is never the way to go; if you share the mistake with leadership and let them know you want to help make things right, you can work together to quickly resolve the issue and minimize — perhaps eliminate — any negative consequences. To help, seven members of Business Journals Leadership Trust share things you can say when you’ve made a mistake at work to calm the anxieties that may arise on both sides.
1. ‘Here’s exactly what happened.’
An honest explanation is what is needed from someone making a mistake. We are all human; we make mistakes. Owning a mistake is something that some people avoid. I always say, “I do not know what I do not know,” and that runs true with mistakes. If someone makes a mistake and I do not know about it, then it cannot be fixed. – Brandy McCombs, IBC
2. ‘I made a mistake, and I won’t make any excuses.’
Honesty is always the best policy. If someone makes a mistake, proactively brings it to my attention and admits to making the mistake without making excuses I will almost always work with them to find a solution. Doing this shows character and should be rewarded, not punished. Everyone makes mistakes. –Brock Berry, AdCellerant
3. ‘I need your help.’
They should say, “I have made a mistake. This is what I think we should do, and I need your help.” As a leader, you should create an environment where everyone feels safe to let you know that they have failed, and now we all get to learn from it. Fail forward fast! –Paul Herring, 101 Solutions LLC
4. ‘I want to do what I can to fix this.’
I appreciate team members who are genuine and take responsibility for their actions. Stating, “I made a mistake, but I want to do what I can to fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future” is important. –Christen McCamie, Nesta Real Estate Consultants
5. ‘Here’s what I want to do to correct it.’
“I made a mistake” is half of the discussion. The other half of the conversation should include, “and here is what I can do to correct it.” Accepting responsibility is important, but so too is accepting your role in correcting the problem. Having solutions already considered lessens the anxiety associated with the original mistake. – Paul Weber, EAG Advertising & Marketing
6. ‘I have ideas to keep this from happening again.’
Acknowledging the error and taking responsibility for what happened is of first importance. Then the employee should offer potential solutions to the problem and action steps that will ensure that the error does not reoccur. They should come in with these solutions prepared. This shows management that they really care and know how important it is to avoid this error in the future. – Zee Ali, Z-Swag
7. ‘I have learned from this.’
Encourage a culture of honesty, integrity, and forgiveness. We’re all going to make mistakes, so confess it right away, take ownership of it, do everything you can to correct it and make it right, and then learn from it and move on. It’s important that employees see the bosses behave this way too because that will show them the company’s values in action. – Mary-Cathryn Kolb, brrrº
Original Post: Biz Journals
How Fabric is Changing Our Lives
The textile industry has made leaps and bounds in recent years by developing numerous performance fabrics that are changing our lives in ways large and small.
Major advances in performance fabric include the use of cooling technologies, wicking and drying capabilities, recycled material, organic plant material, and even components that were adopted from industrial applications such as carbon fiber and other abrasion-resistant materials.
Many retailers are remaking their most popular exercise, casual and office attire clothes with cooling fabric that draws heat and moisture away from the skin to keep people more comfortable as they go about their day.
We especially like these lines by ADAY, Atlas Menswear, Southern Tide, Kit and Ace, Coral Coast Clothing, Mizzen+Main, that feature brrr° cooling fabric.
Cooling technology is also making its way into everyday wardrobe staples such as these socks from Bigfoot Sock Co.
Another great example of advances in fabric is the uniforms and other apparel that Nike designed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Nike created a windbreaker jacket and matching pants made from recycled plastic bottles, and its Air Vapormax sneaker is made with 75% manufacturing waste. Drawstring cords, zipper pulls and the Nike swoosh logo are made from recycled waste rubber that was melted down and refashioned into functional pieces. (The Olympic Games were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and were rescheduled for 2021.)
Some companies are taking a cue from industrial technology to add rip-stop technology and abrasion resistance to their fabrics for garments made for hiking, biking, and other outdoor activities. Ceramic and other carbon fiber technology is similar to the materials used in automobiles, jet planes, space shuttles, and the International Space Station.
We look forward to being part of the next cycle of development in performance fabric, and we are committed to being a leader in making cooling fabrics even better than they are today.
brrr° is constantly pursuing advances in chemistry, dispersion techniques, raw materials, recycled content, manufacturing and other elements that can make our cooling fabric even cooler.
To learn more about how brrr° can improve your fabrics, please reach out to us here.