Getting a kick from football jersey that smells better

Not only does the new Liverpool jersey unveiled by the football club in June look different from early editions, it smells better too. The red shirt is woven from recycled polyester and coffee fibre.

That gives the kit odour-fighting properties - much like placing used coffee grounds in the refrigerator to soak up smells. In fact, used coffee grounds are actually used in the production of the environment-friendly yarn, called S.Cafe, by Taiwanese textile company Singtex Industrial.

The innovation is the brainchild of company founder and president Jason Chen and his wife Mei-huei. While having a cuppa at a Taipei coffee shop, they saw a customer collecting used coffee grounds "to be put in the fridge at home as an odour remover".

"My wife said why can't we make use of this property of coffee in our products," said Chen, 52. "It was a great idea."

Work started in 2005 and by 2009, Singtex had developed a process that purges residual water and oil from coffee grounds, before combining what remains with fibre to be woven into yarn. Singtex says S.Cafe controls odour by absorbing and trapping smells, then releasing them in the wash.

While it is up to 15 per cent more expensive than conventional fabrics, S.Cafe has been a hit since its debut. It is now used by some of the biggest names in apparel, including Nike, North Face, Timberland, Hugo Boss, and of course, US-based Warrior Sports, which makes the Liverpool shirts with 16 per cent S.Cafe polyester.

Last year, S.Cafe accounted for 25 per cent, or US$10 million, of Singtex's total revenue. Yet the raw material is completely free, all 500kg of it, every day. Bags of coffee grounds are provided at no charge by local coffee shops and taken to Singtex's premises in New Taipei City by its 210 staff, said sales director Gene Hu.