The wearable infrared performance clothing brand wants to make the interaction with recovery and performance technologies as simple as getting dressed.
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KYMIRA, on the other hand, would like to turn such thinking on its head, as its Founder and CEO, Tim Brownstone, tells the Leaders Performance Institute.
“We’re creating products that can be taken anywhere,” he says while pointing to a selection of KYMIRA’s products on a rail over our shoulders. We are onsite at the 2022 Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Twickenham Stadium in London where KYMIRA are exhibiting.
The rail contains a range of KYMIRA’s sweatshirts, leggings and tracksuits. All are designed with the company’s infrared-emitting fibre technology which is designed to enhance performance, accelerate recovery and reduce injury risk. It is a small selection of KYMIRA’s apparel, which is medically certified – an important detail given that those certifications prevent potential conflicts with a team’s contracted kit supplier – to assist athletes with recovery and rehab.
“Because it’s clothing; whether the athlete is sleeping, on a flight or a bus, they can gain the physiological benefits. They can also be used in the practice facility too,” Brownstone continues. “Our core ethos is making the interaction with bio-responsive technologies as simple as possible.”
KYMIRA’s sweatshirts, leggings and tracksuits are designed with the company’s infrared-emitting fibre technology which is designed to enhance performance, accelerate recovery and reduce injury risk.
KYMIRA’s sporting clients include numerous teams from across both NFL and NCAA colleges covering 15+ sports and counting in North America as well as elite soccer and multiple international rugby union teams in Europe. All these teams are tapping into a well of expertise born of ongoing medical research and certifications.
Just days earlier, KYMIRA completed a fitting with an English Premier League team, which turned into an education session for the players. “The club identified the products that they want to make available to their athletes, we visited their training centre, and set up a pop-up KYMIRA area. We also had a microscope so we could demonstrate some of the biological effects to help the athletes visualise what is going to happen and we were there to answer questions such as ‘what does it do for me? Does it fit? What colours do you have?’ Some had already been using our products, been on the website, and come with some scientific questions. But the important thing for us is getting that face time with the athletes, so that they can ask their questions, they can be curious.”
Brownstone is a biochemist who specialises in photobiological wound healing. He is also a former competitive rower and is well-placed to explain to athletes how KYMIRA’s clinical research translates for their benefit.
“It’s reducing injury probability, it’s making sure that you’re more available to be in more games and help your team win,” he continues. “It’s extending your career; we have a big population of aged athletes and I think we’ve given the biggest an extra five seasons. Their agents like that, their families like that, and they’ve been able to keep doing the sport they love for longer.”
Such visits as the one described above are a valuable opportunity to build rapport with athletes and practitioners. One individual, an NCAA performance director, reached out with a series of questions. It is also not uncommon for athletes to post online about their use of KYMIRA products. “They’ll post something on Instagram, we’ll share it saying ‘thank you’ and then we use that chance to engage. Then when athletes are buying directly through our website, we’ll typically follow up and say ‘we’re pleased to see that you like the product. We’d like to know more’. Building that rapport enables us to collect honest feedback.”
Brownstone again points to the rail of KYMIRA clothes. “Each of those has been developed because teams and athletes have said ‘hey, I sleep in my recovery tights but I’d rather be in pyjamas – can you do pyjamas?’ or ‘I don’t really want pyjamas – can you do bedsheets?’ or ‘can you do tracksuits, or tights, or loose-fitting garments?’ We’ve evolved that range with demand and that close back-and-forth during the developmental period to make sure that fit and style is on point.”
KYMIRA has developed a range of sleepwear that can improve sleep quality by 15.8%.
Functional and applied benefits
Brownstone divides the benefits of using KYMIRA into the functional and the applied, with data drawn from case studies with the company’s clients.
“From a functional standpoint, they will stimulate nitric oxide production, which will increase circulation,” he says.
“There’s a pain relief response, which is actually the same pathway as taking an opiate. Not as potent as morphine, for example, but it can help with chronic pain relief, which is where we get that 25% reduction in pain scores coming from. There’s an improvement in sleep quality of 15.8% based on research that’s been conducted on the products. Cells respire more efficiently so they’re consuming less oxygen to achieve the same work output; that, plus the circulation, you’ve basically got an increased supply and a reduced demand, which yields a 20% increase in tissue oxygen levels, which means there’s more oxygen there for the cells to use from a recovery and performance standpoint.
“From an applied benefit, we have an ecosystem. So preparation, performance, recovery, including travel and sleep, and rehabilitation. The ring around all of that is injury mitigation. So from a preparatory standpoint, wearing the products before a game setting, for example, allows you to accrue some benefits. So if you wore a KYMIRA product for 60 minutes, for 90 minutes afterwards you’re still going to have accelerated nitric oxide production, which is boosting circulation, helping the muscles to become more supple and less prone to injury.”
KYMIRA has evolved its range with close back-and-forth during the developmental period to make sure that fit and style is on point for athletes.
The benefits sound remarkable, with one user – a British SAS operator – wryly enquiring if KYMIRA deal in ‘black magic’. Sceptics naturally abound and Brownstone welcomes their questions.
“Sceptics are really important because everyone should be sceptical of confident claims like ours because they’re quite bold. They’re substantiated but they’re bold because they’re substantiated. I don’t think anyone should look at the list of benefits that are on the wall over there and just go ‘that’s fantastic’. They should ask ‘how do you do that? Why do you do that?’
“The sceptic often becomes the biggest advocate because they’ve made us work harder for the reward, in essence. In dealing with sceptics, we just let the data speak for itself. We’ve got tens of case studies, tens of clinical trials, there is a mountain of evidence.”
As we head into 2023, Brownstone and KYMIRA are optimistic given their own plans for the new year as well as the increasing levels of education around all aspects of recovery in sports. Some teams are even using their athletes’ experience with KYMIRA to underline their fundamentals around sleep, nutrition and recovery.
“That’s quite cool and we hope that trend continues.”
