Knife resistant t-shirts
In mid-March, 2008, a company called Nihon Uni introduced a new t-shirt which is made of toughened polyethylene fibers to make it knife resistant. The t-shirt is targeted at the moms of young kids, following a rash of fatal stabbings over the last two years, by crazed attackers who seem to pick their victims at random.
A typical case was that of a March attack by a man at a train station in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, to the north-east of Tokyo. The 24-year old psycho told police that he really wanted to kill his sister, but since he was unable to find her, he decided to attack the first person he came across on his way to the station. Subsequently he killed an old age pensioner outside the man’s home and once blooded then went on to attack and seriously wounded another seven people around the station itself. One newspaper reported he said to police, “It didn’t matter who they were.”
In light of the media sensationalization of such cases, and the fact that they have been typically perpetrated by young, strong, and obviously insane men, the resulting mayhem can be significant. And so Nihon Uni is tapping into a growing feeling of unease about personal safety in Japan. Accordingly, the company has set the pricing of its Salvar t-shirts at JPY 20,200 (approx. US$200) or more for a child’s half sleeve version, and JPY31,500 for the adult version.
The company had the t-shirts tested by the Japan Synthetic Textile Inspection Institute, which pronounced that the specially processed fibers were three times stronger in resisting knife penetration than regular cotton. We believe the product will do well, especially if actively marketed in locations where an attack has just occurred — which at the current frequency could well be monthly…