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Author Anna West, Sabrina Herzele, Günther Schlee & Alex Karahalis |
| Abstract There has been some anecdotal evidence to suggest a ~30% reduction in garment mass would be meaningful for end-user comfort. However, evidence of a systematic relationship between mass of a garment and end-user comfort is not available. The aim of this literature review was to explore the relationship between heaviness, comfort perception and garment mass to provide a framework for meaningful development targets. In the field of psychophysics, several models have been proposed to quantify relationships between weight and the perceived response by an individual; Weber’s Law, Fechner’s Law and Stevens Power Law. These laws identify weight discrimination thresholds and provide an indication of perceived intensity for weight evaluated in the hand, relative to a comparison. This has important application to in-store or sale environments, where consumers evaluate products using their hands. For hand evaluations, meaningful development targets for reductions in garment mass should therefore be made with consideration of these models and in particular Weber’s Law. For the evaluation of garment mass during wear, the relationship between heaviness, comfort and mass has only been investigated in two studies, specifically for shoes. Although heaviness, comfort and shoe mass were reported to be unrelated, observations were based upon the mass of five shoes only, limited in range. Currently, there is not sufficient evidence to provide meaningful development targets for garment mass reductions required for end-user comfort during wear. Thus, the relationship between heaviness, comfort and mass requires further evaluation, particularly for apparel. |