New Stain Resistant Uniforms for Nurses' Scrubs Now Available at Retail Stores Nationwide
SPARTANBURG, South Carolina - (March 16, 2004) – Milliken & Company, one of the world's largest privately-held textile and chemical manufacturers, today announced that its StainSmart™ fabrics are now available in nurses' scrubs at select retail stores nationwide. Peaches Uniforms, Inc., a leading provider of healthcare uniforms, is the manufacturer that has introduced these scrubs.
"We created StainSmart to fulfill a distinct void in stain protection for fabrics: a fabric that not only repels stains but resists them," said David Kirkpatrick, director of sales for Milliken Uniform Fabrics. "We're pleased to provide the uniform and work apparel markets with another smart fabric solution."
Milliken's StainSmart provides the "best of both worlds" in a patent-pending stain prevention technology. The "repel" function allows most liquid-based spills to bead up and be wiped off, thereby preventing them from initially staining the fabric. The "release" function works on tough, ground-in stains that penetrate fabric – like Betadine or blood – by allowing these stains to wash out during normal laundering. These innovative dual-action stain protection capabilities last for the life of the garment.
"We chose StainSmart for our scrubs because it's the most advanced stain protection available," said Linda Shorter, vice president of Merchandising and Design at Peaches Uniforms. "You can't always prevent spills and accidents from occurring, but with StainSmart nurses can now have uniforms that help guard against most of the toughest stains on the job."
In an independent consumer survey by Markitecture, stains and soils are identified as one of a nurse's main worries when it comes to scrubs. Independent testing verifies that StainSmart currently outperforms other stain protection methods available today.
"In a head-to-head comparison of stain repellent products in the apparel market, Clothes Care Research Center (CCRC), an alliance of leading manufacturers and research laboratories dedicated to improving home clothing care, found that StainSmart outperformed leading repellent technologies for water and oil repellency," said Dr. Elizabeth P. Easter, board member for CCRC and director of the University of Kentucky's Textile Testing Laboratory. "StainSmart delivered unsurpassed soil release performance on tough stains such as oil and its color retention performance was significantly better than fabrics of comparable fiber types."
Availability
New StainSmart medical scrubs are available under Peaches Uniforms' Petal Soft Pastel brand at healthcare and nurse uniform retail stores nationwide.
StainSmart's innovative stain protection capabilities make it an ideal technology for high performance active apparel, workwear, military, uniform, and the casual menswear and womenswear markets. StainSmart technology is also available for custom fabric development in a variety of uses and markets. For additional information on StainSmart or Milliken's other Smart Fabrics, please visit www.stainsmart.com.
About Milliken & Company®
Founded in 1865, Milliken & Company® is a privately held (third generation) textile and chemical company that employs more than 14,000 associates worldwide. Milliken operates over 60 manufacturing facilities in 12 countries and produces over 48,000 high performance products. To learn more about Milliken, please visit the Company's Web site at www.milliken.com.