Tis the season for cold weather gear. As New Bedford scallopers prepare for winter fishing on Georges Bank, the Aleutian pot cod boats and the Bering Sea fleet get ready to steam north, sometimes to the edge of the ice, deckhands are packing their sea bags and figuring out how their systems for staying warm.
Most fishermen are open to improving their systems—if there is something new that is better, they’ll try it—starting with a base layer. For the second year in a row, the Japanese company Zerofit brought its high-tech line of base layer shirts, leggings, and accessories to the Pacific Marine Expo, giving fishermen a chance to try something new. “The thing about fishermen is, they come here to buy,” says Zerofit’s North American distributor, Doug Zirbel. “And we’re here to sell.” Zerofit offers an extensive line of products, but Zirbel focused on two lines of shirts and leggings, the Move and the Ultimate, along with accessories like socks, neck warmers, and hats. “I’m wearing the Move right now, which is best for temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees. Below 40, you want the Ultimate.”
Koji Higashi founded Zerofit in Japan in 2005 and expanded into North America in 2020. The secret sauce to Zerofit’s functionality is a technology it calls Heatrub. “The idea is that as you move, it creates friction and warms up the fabric; that’s what keeps you warm,” says Angela Wick, one of Zirbel’s assistants at the show. “I’m wearing the Move shirt too, the hoodie version and I’m warm here,” she says, looking around the cavernous Lumen Field Event Center.
Zirbel notes that the shirts should fit snugly in order for the technology to work. “This is the size I wear in the Ultimate,” he says, holding up an Ultimate shirt in green. “It looks small, and a lot of people when they open the package think, now way, it’s not going to fit, but these shirts have a lot of stretch.”
Besides the Move and Ultimate shirts, Zerofit offers similarly constructed leggings for both lines, using the same Heatrub technology. “We also use it in our socks,” Zirbel says. “We had a young woman who fishes up north come in and buy the whole set, shirt, leggings, socks. We had one fisherman buy multiple sets, and a guy from one of the 'Deadliest Catch' boats is using Zerofit.”
According to the company, the Zerofit Ultimate shirt and leggings are made of 68 percent acrylic, 21 percent nylon, 7 percent wool, 2 percent polyester, and 2 percent polyurethane. “The 5-fabric blend used for the Heatrub Ultimate provides heat instantly,” says the Zerofit website. “What’s more, the extra-long fibers create heat when they rub against your skin, allowing heat to be maintained within it.” While the Move and Ultimate shirts come in a variety of colors the other components of the Zerofit system come in a choice of black.
Zirbel reports that he is steadily filling orders. “Word is getting around,” he says. “I’m getting orders from people who don’t even have access to the internet. I’m taking their orders over the phone!”
