Invel, which makes infrared-based clothing and products, is moving its global headquarters from Brazil to Orlando, marking its first official footprint in the United States.
“To move worldwide, it’s much better for us [to operate] from the United States than in Brazil,” said Carla Taba, Invel’s CEO. “Everything is much easier and everything goes smoother.”
The company has opened a showroom at GuideWell Innovation Center in Lake Nona Medical City and has a distribution center nearby. It will continue to manufacture its products in Brazil, where it has two plants. It will start with 10 employees in Orlando and plans to double that within a year.
Taba and her husband, Mario Hirata, started Invel more than two decades ago in Brazil, after learning about the health benefits of far infrared energy.
The health benefits of infrared rays have long been known and studied by researchers, said Dr. Michael Hamblin, associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.
Some studies suggest that far infrared rays, also known as thermal radiation, can dilate the small blood vessels in the body and make more oxygen available to the cells, thereby improving circulation; helping to reduce inflammation; and in the case of athletes, improve performance and recovery.
You may have heard of infrared saunas or lamps. But certain minerals can also emit infrared rays, and for several decades now researchers have been looking at different methods of incorporating them into clothing and textile.
The technical term for these products is “responsive textile.” The idea is that the heat and energy from the human body is transferred to and absorbed by the ceramic particles and sent back to the body as far infrared rays.
In other words, “the clothing is powered by the heat of the human body,” said Hamblin, the principal investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Invel’s first big hit wasn’t in clothing, though. The company first launched the Body Dome in 1999, using far infrared technology for weight loss in aesthetic clinics. The product is available in more than 700 clinics in Brazil, Japan and France today.
But in the meantime, the company continued researching minerals — also called bioceramics — eventually patenting a technology called MIG3, a blend of mineral compounds that could be incorporated into fabric and textile. The company says wearing the products give benefits of Infrared Light Therapy.
One of Invel’s competitors, Celliant, uses a different patented formula of 13 thermo-active minerals that it embeds into the fabric used for garments. Cellaint partnered with Under Armour last year, unveiling a line of tops and pants for recovery after workout.
Hamblin stressed that far-infrared clothing has to be worn for long periods of time — at least several hours each day — to yield results similar to saunas or lamps that emit far infrared rays at a much higher intensity.
Invel introduced its first piece of clothing in 2005 in the form of anti-cellulite shorts. The product was so successful that it propelled the company to create more outerwear, including athletic apparel, scarves, necklaces, dresses, pillows and mattresses.
The company continues to manufacture, distribute and sell its own products.
The products’ effectiveness lasts for about two years, or 100 washes, before the minerals wash off.
Taba said the company considered other locations for its U.S. headquarters, including Miami and Los Angeles, but it eventually decided to move to Orlando.
“When I saw Lake Nona Medical City, I said this is the place for us. This is what I want,” Taba said.
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