“Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat,” became the mantra of Matt Komes, CEO at VOLT, when his company took on the challenge of making CBD-infused socks for pain relief. Komes presented the VOLT product development process Oct. 5 at ATA Virtual Expo 2020.

VOLT, a division of Supreme Corp., has expertise in military and medical textiles, cut resistant textiles, and conductive yarns and thread. Volt, however, had no experience working with CBD oil, and Komes says, “We’re a covering operation, not an extruder.”

This challenge meant finding the right expertise. “You have to bring in an expert and we were lucky we ran into Rakki.” Rakkiyappan Chandran, Ph.D., a research and development scientist, came on board and figured out how to convert the VOLT machines to extrude oil onto yarn. 

The process required continuous refinement, says Komes, with a level of acceptance that Murphy’s Law was in full operation: Everything that could go wrong went wrong, but we kept detailed, daily contemporaneous notes.” Over time, the “Lather, rinse, repeat” approach yielded success.

Registration for ATA Virtual Expo 2020 is open through Nov. 12. All Expo sessions will be posted on the Virtual Expo platform for viewing during Expo and for 30 days after Expo has concluded.