Voormi may have just engineered the next big evolution in outdoor clothing. “Smart clothes” have existed for a while now — shirts, jackets, and pants that can monitor your health, shift performance qualities, or heat you electronically.
But with Voomi’s Mij sensor technology, smart clothing takes a leap in a new direction for outdoor athletes. Voormi’s latest clothing seamlessly integrates with wireless sensors that monitor your thermal stress in real time.
For those unfamiliar with Voormi, it’s a relatively small outdoor brand based in the tiny town of Pagosa Springs, Colo. The brand launched around advanced wool apparel manufactured in the USA using Colorado-grown wool. It’s expanded from its early days, but still builds some of the nicest wool outerwear to be found anywhere.
With the launch of Mij, this mountain brand is stepping into a new, technologically advanced direction.
“What we’ve developed is a groundbreaking new textile — really a method of make — to integrate soft sensors directly inside of a textile, utilizing our Core Construction fabric technology,” Dustin English, Voormi’s chief experiences officer, told GearJunkie. He called it the beginning of a new era of full-body wearable devices.
Mij: The Beginning of Smart Clothing
Mij (pronounced ME) debuted at CES in 2025 and won a fashion innovation award. It works similarly to a body monitoring watch or ring that provides real-time data on your body’s thermal load. The idea is that if people can better control thermal stress, they can maintain better cognitive function to stay sharper and more focused on the task at hand.
For now, English said the brand is targeting this tech at first responders, firefighters, military personnel, and elite endurance athletes. Those groups benefit the most from monitoring their bodies’ thermal regulation in high-stress environments and situations.
However, the applications for Mij go far beyond that. The brand’s Core Construction T-shirt is the first garment integrated with Mij. But down the road, this could be used in hospital bed sheets, seat covers, base layers, wetsuits, and any other fabric that’s in close contact with the body.
And it doesn’t stop there. Eventually, English said there’s a very real possibility that this technology could become more than a biomarker sensor and actually self-regulate. That means your T-shirt could change porosity or airflow to cool you down on its own if it registers that you’re getting too hot.
Voormi Mij: What Makes It Different?
Body monitoring sensors already exist. Apple watches, Fitbits, smart rings, and even some apparel offer insights into your heart rate, body temperature, sleep quality, activity, and more. Some smart garments, like Hexoskin, use AI to provide wearers with that same kind of data. So, how is Voormi’s Mij technology any different?
“Anybody can get a temperature sensor off the shelf and glue it inside their shirt,” English said. “What makes us unique is that we’ve developed the fabric technology to wirelessly cage these sensors and communication and antennas directly inside the knit structure itself.”
He said that you can’t feel the sensors or battery element unless you know what to look for. It’s a regular-performance T-shirt that can be worn without the sensors activated. And while Voormi’s webpage for Mij says its pricing will be announced shortly, English assured GearJunkie it would be roughly the same cost as a regular performance T-shirt.
Users will just have to pay a subscription to access the Mij app. There, they can use the monitoring tech to better regulate their body’s thermal load.
“[The app] connects to the garment and shows your temperature, humidity, and calculated heat index of your microclimate at the shirt.”
How Voormi Accomplished Mij
GearJunkie covered the Core Construction knit technology that Voormi is integrating these sensors into in 2022. It’s a novel textile that combines a waterproof and windproof membrane into a single layer of fabric. It’s breathable and moisture-wicking; now, it can also be smart.
“Apparel companies today really lack that in-house innovation and capability to create data-driven tech,” English said. There have been attempts, like Google and Levi’s Jacquard Jacket. But according to English, that failed miserably. The jacket wasn’t machine-washable; it was copper wire-based, it broke down over time, and it wasn’t durable.
He continued, “While tech companies know how to innovate, they lack the textile know-how.”
According to English, Voormi was uniquely positioned to provide both tech and textile know-how. It wove sensors directly into the knit of the T-shirt fibers. It is machine-washable, durable, and, he said, comfortable to boot.
“Being able to insert something inside of a textile and knit around that cage structure really opens the opportunity for a lot of different applications,” he said.
Still to Come: Self-Adapting, Color-Changing Garments
While a shirt that monitors your heat index through an app is still a far cry from the sci-fi concept of smart clothing that can change its function and even appearance, according to English, that may not be far off either.
“Obviously, the next step is creating adaptable garments,” he said. “So, if it knows you’re getting too hot, it can change porosity or airflow or whatever the case on its own to allow it to maintain your thermal climate where you need to be. Same with color. We currently are working on both of those, and we’re hoping by this time next year at CES to be rolling out the next iteration of this technology.”
That’s why the brand boldly claims on its website that this is “The future of clothing.”
This initial launch of Mij is only the beginning of Voormi’s pursuit of true smart clothing. If everything this brand is working on comes to fruition, it could be the beginning of an innovative new era in textile technology and wearable body sensors.
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