Lexington, KY - A Lexington company has begun marketing a body patch that can warn active, outdoor people if their body temperature rises to a dangerous level. The single-use, disposable IONX Body Alert Temperature Patch, created by IONX International, is nicknamed the Hot Dot.
When worn on strategic body parts, the Hot Dot will change color, from black to bright yellow, when the body's temperature reaches a level that could cause heat stroke or heat exhaustion. After the wearer takes note of the warning and responds by drinking liquids or cooling down, the patch returns to its original black color, signaling that the body's temperature is within normal range.
The cloth patch has a thermo-chromatic (heat-sensitive) chemical layer in it that changes color based on a temperature setting established in its chemical makeup.
"We are just now going to market with it. We've been in development for 19 months," said Dan Short, chairman of the board of IONX International. "It's a safety device, a heat-illness solution."
Short has 24 years of experience in the textile industry, focusing on fabrics and fabric-related technologies. He and his wife, company CEO Paige Shumate Short, were on a trip to England when they bought a pair of sunglasses with thermo-chromatic material in it.
"My background is in textile chemistry, so I really got intrigued by it," Dan Short said.
After they returned home to Kentucky, the Shorts decided to see if they could develop products with thermo-chromatic properties in them. Shumate Short had begun her career as vice president of new product development at Kentucky Technical Textiles, a 70-year-old family textile company located in Paris, Ky.
At about this time, tragedy struck on a football practice field at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville, Ky. Max Gilpin, a 15-year-old sophomore offensive lineman, collapsed during a sweltering practice session where the heat index was reported to be in the mid-90s. Gilpin was rushed to a hospital emergency room but died three days later.
The Shorts then became interested in developing some kind of heat stress patch. They were strongly encouraged by family friend and former Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins.
"She got on the phone with us and said that this was a technology we needed to create to keep people safe," Short recalled. "At the time, Paige and I were already working on a concept, but it was down our priority chain. I don't know if you know Gov. Collins, but when she pushes you toward something, it becomes the top of the priority chain."
Collins is a member of IONX International's board of directors, as is former UK and Pittsburgh Steelers football star Dermontti Dawson, who appears in the Hot Dot's demonstration video.
"I want to be as involved as I can be to help it along," said Collins. "It's a great concept. The best part, and what I keep stressing, is that it was developed in Kentucky by a Kentucky family. We're finding there's a lot of interest in other states."
The company's business plan states that during development, the start-up tested its patch on participants at the 2009 Blue Grass State Games; the summer football training camps of the University of Kentucky, Georgetown College, and the Cincinnati Bengals; and with U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C.
IONX International has identified high school and college teams as key launch markets for the Hot Dot patch, developing a national team dealer network of nearly 800. A team dealer generally works for a regional sporting goods chain and calls on schools. The IONX patch is also appearing at several major big box sporting goods stores, such as Sports Authority, Hibbert Sports and Academy Sporting Goods. The company hopes to eventually land Dick's Sporting Goods as well.
But the Shorts emphasize that their concept goes beyond athletics. School marching band members who practice in hot weather are logical targets, as are military personnel, government workers and private sector industries.
"People on road crews or roofers can use them if they're out in the heat of summer and need protection from getting heat stroke," Collins explained. "Once you have heat stroke, you're impaired. It's not a healthy situation."
"We're finding a great amount of opportunity everywhere, from sanitation crews to the crews cleaning up the Gulf," Short said. "We have the patches in packages of 10, 30, 100 or 500."
That means athletics departments or companies can order large quantities for their athletes or workers who toil outdoors. And IONX International isn't done bringing new products to market.
"We formed an umbrella company with the anticipation of developing a pipeline of technologies to feed through the companies," said Short. "We're raising money and selling shares. Paige and I have always self-funded our ventures, but we saw the potential of this (heat patch) being so big that we would need financial help."
So far, retail orders have proven that theory to be correct.