When it comes to comfort, smart textiles have some way to go. The development of smart and functional e-textiles has grown at a rapid pace, not least when it comes to desired properties such as being lightweight, flexible, being elastic, and the possibility of integrating them into garments. User-friendliness has been the top priority but when it comes to comfort, how the textiles actually feel on the skin, development has not come so far. This may explain why the market share of these textiles falls behind even though demand is high.

Now research has measured the physical properties of the textile material under low load conditions, such as how it behaves with regards for example to, pressure, bending, surface friction and shearing on contact with the skin, in which the result showed that low stress mechanical properties are directly related to the tactile comfort of fabrics when in contact with the skin. By using different statistical methods, an interpretable result was produced from the collected data. The result shows it is possible to use visual tests as well as blind tests to evaluate the comfort properties of smart and functional textiles. The project used completely environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and cost-effective techniques and chemicals.