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SOLAR TAN THRU's
PRESS RELEASES |
1995 - SWIM FASHION QUARTERLY PT.2
By Samuel Slater
suit sold. The card has specific instructions on how the Solar Tan Thru suit works and how users can achieve an all-over tan. These instructions are a compilation of data based upon test results obtained by testing the fabric at two different major laboratories. The labs used were the Photobiology Department at the University of Sydney in Australia, as well as the Harrison Research Laboratories in Ohio (a lab commonly used by U.S. suntan lotion manufacturers to determine SPF levels of their products). Additionally, independent testing has also been conducted by Apparel magazine of Australia (June 1994), as well as a more high-function test by Inside Triathlon magazine &July, 1995). Each independent test had like conclusions as to the technical attributes of the Solar Tan Thru fabric and garment.
Tanning salons contacted by Solar Tan Thru have expressed good results from offering the unique suit. One salon owner said, the Solar Tan Thru suit was the perfect product mix for his salon and it filled a need for his customers who wish to maintain an all-over tan when they tan at the beach. Other salons mentioned that the suits sold well to clients who did not wish to tan nude either in a tanning bed or in natural sunlight.
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns expressed by consumers as well as store buyer was of the non-see thru nature of the vividly over-printed fabric. Solar Tan Thru guarantees that the suit is non-see thru - wet or dry. This part of the process is truly amazing because the brightly hued Italian prints, all highly detailed, apparently confuse the eye causing the inability to see through the porous fabric. Try as you may, you simply can not see through the fabric when it is against the skin.
Tracy Kilburn, store manager for B' Risque Swimwear, a large swimwear retailer in Holiday, Fla., comments that in the three years she's been the store manager she has seen a tremendous product loyalty to Solar Tan Thru from past season customers. She adds that sales increased by more than 40 percent in each of the past three years with Solar Tan Thru and that the line just keeps getting better and filling more of our customers needs.
High-Tech Fashion
While functionality is key with these Solar Tan Thru suits, fashion makes a definite statement. The prints offered are unique and out of the ordinary. The company prides itself on the use of seven and eight color screen print designs from Italy and is known for "eco-type" print patters. Beyond this, the durability of these suits seems exceptional due to the double needle construction and the high-lycra content.
The suits stand up to extreme conditions as noted by a water sports instructor who swears by the "second skin" suits. Dive shops throughout the Caribbean have had further success with the Solar Tan Thru suits as noted by one owner who mentioned that the fabric won't pick or pill on rough surfaces. The dive instructors who are in and out of the water all day love them because they dry so fast, he adds.
According to Lorri Carey, Solar's sales manager, the biggest misconception about the suit is that people think its an SPF 0 or wearing the suit is like lying out in the nude. This is not the case, nor does Solar Tan Thru want a garment to have too low of an SPF level. The suits SPF levels can range from as low as SPF 2 in multiple bulb UV-source tanning beds to more than 10 in non-direct outdoor
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