Kim and I did a lot of walking around at AIMExpo this year. Although there were many kinds of moto products on the floor, there were few brand new ones. But there was one new group of products that caught my attention. They come from a Dutch company called INUTEQ, which makes evaporative cooling gear.

You may own or have tried lots of evaporative cooling gear. While they work for a while under certain conditions, they all require you to dunk them in water to provide their cooling effects. That wet shirt might feel nice when you first put it on, but depending on environmental conditions and airflow, it can leave you and your other clothes soggy. And when they work, they only work for 2-3 hours, and you are then hot again.

Dry evaporative cooling

INUTEQ says their cooling garments are different. With their new INUTEQ-DRY products, a small amount of water goes inside the garment—no dunking required. As a result, you stay dry but still get the cooling effect from the water.

We asked INUTEQ’s Managing Director Eric Pellis how the garments worked, and he said they are patented but work like all other evaporative cooling products. The difference is INUTEQ-DRY® technology and their selected materials. Together they create a longer cooling duration compared to other evaporative products. But I was curious how much cooling a dry garment could provide.

INUTEQ Smart Zip Hat

Eric gave me two garments to try. First, I tried their Headcool Smart Zip “baseball” hat, and with my bald head, it felt almost cold. In fact, the hat was far cooler than any other evaporative cooling garment I had ever tried.

INUTEQ Bodycool Smart-X vest

Next, Eric gave me INUTEQ’s Bodycool Smart-X vest to try. It has a slim profile and feels pretty much like a non-cooling vest. But when I put it on, the result was the same. It was very cool, and I was completely dry.

Like most evaporative cooling garments, how long the INUTEQ-DRY garments will provide cooling depends on ambient temperature, airflow, and humidity. But INUTEQ says its evaporative cooling garments will provide from 8 hours to up to three days of cooling.

Availability and pricing

Unfortunately, INUTEQ’s products are not yet directly available in the US. INUTEQ attended AIMExpo to find some US distributors, and according to Eric, they had found some. So, we can expect their products to be available here shortly. In the interim, you canview and order their products from their website. There, the Headcool Smart Zip “baseball” hat costs €58.95 (~$62.50), while the Bodycool Smart-X vest is priced at €154.95 (~$164.30).