Influence of garment design on elite athlete cooling

High endurance sports in hot and humid conditions are detrimental to both performance and athletes themselves. This has led to an increasing interest in reducing thermal stresses, including the use of personal cooling garments. The design of such garments requires addressing a number of technical and human interface demands. Here we examine the design requirements for effective athlete cooling based on phase change material (PCM) media recognizing the complex heat transport and moisture management processes required within an active cooling garment. The layout and assembly of prototype PCM garments were subsequently optimized in tests in thermally-stressful environments. The final prototype PCM garment design achieved overall cooling performance comparable to conventional ice vests, although containing approximately half their cooling capacity by avoiding the associated detrimental aspects of ice usage.