adidas’s unveils a self-heating jacket for sub-zero performance

There is a moment in winter sports that is not technically competition, yet it is decisive. It is the interval between the end of the warm-up and the start of the race. A suspended time in which the body, already activated, begins to lose heat. That is where adidas chose to intervene with Climawarm: not during performance, but in its blind spot. “We start from an applied sport science approach to performance: we systematically analyze all the factors that can limit output, from physiological to environmental aspects,” explains Margherita Raccuglia, Director of Athlete Performance at adidas. Innovation here emerges from the intersection of laboratory research and field observation. “We attend training sessions and competitions because direct observation is fundamental: that’s where micro-gaps emerge, such as the loss of muscle temperature between activation and start.” 

The physiological principle is well known: “Muscle temperature directly affects the ability to generate power.” Climawarm is designed to maintain that advantage at the most critical moment. “We are preserving an optimal physiological condition already developed during the warm-up. Technology does not replace preparation; it enables and supports it.” In this way, Raccuglia explains, the athlete is supported in expressing “what they have built through training, discipline, and daily work.”

Climawarm is not a competition garment, but a pre-race infrastructure. A jacket and pants worn before competition and removed at the starting line. Inside, ultra-thin heating pads are integrated into key muscle groups; Eco and Boost modes; an adaptive system responding to movement and environmental conditions. Power comes from a power bank carried in a pocket — less invisible than one might expect, yet coherent with a modular, replaceable, updatable logic.

Margherita Raccuglia, Director of Athlete Performance at adidas

Seeing it in person, as we did at Adidas’ Milan headquarters near Piazza Gae Aulenti, tempers the science-fiction rhetoric. Yes, the jacket heats up — in a very concrete, almost domestic way — but the project does not rely on spectacle. It relies on timing. “The ‘right moment’ to introduce such technology is never accidental: it results from the alignment of multiple factors,” says Raccuglia. “First, the maturity of knowledge. Second, technological readiness. Finally, competitive timing.” Events like the Winter Olympics become the most demanding testing ground. “As our founder Adi Dassler used to say, ‘we would not be adidas if we did not bring innovation to the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.’”

If physiology defines function, the surface defines language. The metallic version of Climawarm — almost space-like — is not an aesthetic whim but a statement. “The metallic finish is intentional and goes beyond the competitive context; it is part of a broader design philosophy centered on the intuitive communication of performance,” explains Alex Taylor, Head of Innovation Design at adidas. Metallic surfaces, he continues, “carry deep associations with thermal behavior: reflection, insulation, heat rebound, protection.”

Material becomes a semantic interface. “We use this ‘visual literacy’ so that the athlete or observer can understand the function of the product even before wearing it.” As heating and cooling systems evolve, “those codes will evolve with them.” The real innovation of Climawarm may not lie in the fact that a jacket heats up, but in the idea that performance is designed as a system extended over time, including what happens before the start. In that invisible space between preparation and action, adidas has identified a design territory — and transformed it into an object that does not promise to make athletes stronger, but to prevent them from losing the strength they have already built.

All images: Adidas Climawarm. Courtesy Adidas