The fabric adjusts its aerodynamic properties on demand.

Advanced Materials

Technological Innovation Website Editorial Team - 11/11/2025

Depressions in the textile metamaterial, with honeycomb and hourglass patterns [Image: David T. Farrell et al. - 10.1002/adma.202505817]

Textile metamaterial

A fabric capable of creating ripples like a golf ball, changing its aerodynamic properties on demand, promises to enable the creation of new smart materials – including clothing – with applications in sports and engineering.

Imagine, for example, a cyclist or a skier whose clothing adapts to the wind speed and the terrain, allowing them to save time simply by pulling or stretching the fabric.

These are possibilities that have become reality thanks to the work of David Farrell and his colleagues at Harvard University in the USA.

The new smart fabric was born at the intersection of fluid dynamics and artificially engineered materials, better known as metamaterials , leading to the creation of a unique fabric that forms indentations, small depressions on its surface, when stretched – the depressions form even when the fabric is tightly fitted to the body.

The fabric utilizes the same aerodynamic principles as a golf ball, whose undulating surface causes the ball to fly further, using turbulence to reduce drag. Because the fabric is soft and elastic, it can move and stretch to alter the size and shape of the depressions as needed.

Manufacturing process and adjustment of smart fabric to stretch. [Image: David T. Farrell et al. - 10.1002/adma.202505817]

Fabric that wrinkles when stretched.

To create their textile metamaterial, the team used a laser cutter and a heat press to create two fabrics: a stiffer black fabric, similar to a backpack strap, and a softer, more flexible and comfortable gray mesh fabric. Using a two-step manufacturing process, they cut patterns into the fabric and bonded it to the mesh layer to form a textile composite.

By experimenting with multiple flat samples featuring lattice-shaped patterns, such as squares and hexagons, they systematically explored how different tessellations affect the mechanical response of each textile material.

"After running 3,000 simulations, we were able to explore thousands of wave patterns," Farrell said. "We were able to adjust the wave size as well as its shape. When we put these patterns back into the wind tunnel, we discovered that certain patterns and waves are optimized for specific wind speed ranges."

Adjusting the size of the depressions improves fabric performance at certain wind speeds, reducing drag by up to 20%, according to experiments conducted in a wind tunnel.

The effect is counterintuitive because, normally, stretching a fabric makes it smooth out and adhere better to the body. "Our textile composite breaks that rule," explained Farrell. "The unique lattice pattern allows the fabric to expand around the arm instead of tightening. We're using this unique property [that has been explored] over the last 10 years in metamaterials, and we're applying it to wearable devices in a way never seen before."

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