Ten years ago, Kevin Plank believed he’d discovered a better idea in sports clothing and sold Under Armour garments from his grandmother’s garage. Today, UA is a billion-dollar company. In mid-April, I met with Dr. Kit Taylor and Scott Schultz, president of Robinson Outdoors, where the AL brand was introduced to the press for the first time. AL is the brand name for “Addicted Life,” a process of infusing ionic energy into garments that produce near miraculous and immediate effects.
Schultz was invited to this meeting in the hopes that this new product would benefit his oldest daughter, who is severely disabled. Shultz brought several sets of base layers from his ScentBlocker line that had been infused with the AL process and tried on a shirt under Dr. Kit’s guidance. For baseline data, Shultz was asked to do a series of stretching and strength movements to compare his abilities before and after using the AL gear.
Shultz spoke emotionally about the experiment. “Dr. Kit had no way of knowing that my rotator cup was 90 percent pulled off and now my arm holds like a rock,” said Shultz. “I don’t understand it, but the effect is amazing.”
The Man Behind the Matter
Dr. Taylor, or “Dr. Kit” as he prefers to be called, returned from the Vietnam battlefield in a wheelchair and was told he would never walk again. He received medical attention from John’s Hopkins, Walter Reed, and eventually traveled to Mexico, where he lived with an Indian tribe. He was on morphine for 15 months and took whatever path he believed he could manage toward recovery. Eventually he saw a chiropractor who had him walking in three months. His recovery was so motivating, he obtained a degree in the rehabilitative science and went on to work for the Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, and extend his studies in neurology.
The Infusion Process
Exactly how the infusion process works is a closely guarded secret, yet preliminary anecdotal results have been very positive. “It doesn’t work on cotton fabrics, yet is very successful on synthetics and liquids,” I was told.
This process is undergoing scientific tests at a major university in the Southwest. Shultz’s daughter needs no more evidence. After trying on a pair of infused pants, a woman who is basically immobile is “walking all over the house,” according to the most recent text.
You can try Googling this process, but you won’t find results — AL is that new. Whether it will revolutionize clothing in the years ahead is uncertain, yet for sure, you read about it first here.
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