Purra Performance Launches As The First Safe And Permanent Antimicrobial Consumer Products Brand, With A Separate B2B Division For Brands Looking To Adopt Its Patented Antimicrobial Technologies

April 20, 2023

Led By Performance Footwear And Outdoor Sports Industry Veterans, Purra Leverages Proprietary Copptech Technology

(Laguna Beach, CA – April 20, 2023) /OUTDOOR SPORTSWIRE/ – Outdoor and apparel industry entrepreneur Mark Miller is leveraging patented and proprietary technology to launch Purra Performance, a first-of-its-kind antimicrobial lifestyle brand and B2B manufacturing solutions provider. The foundation of Purra Performance is built on its exclusive global license for Copptech, a safe, clean, patented, permanent antimicrobial technology for inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria, microbes, and fungi. The consumer-facing division of Purra made its debut earlier this year with its first collection of socks featuring a mix of design-driven technologies, with new products slated to be released in the coming year. Purra’s consumer division provides proof-of-concept for its B2B division, providing brands with the expertise and support needed to integrate Purra’s antimicrobial solutions into footwear, insoles, apparel, and sporting goods, all while meeting international regulatory requirements.

As consumers become increasingly savvy about wellness products, they are realizing that many popular brands are often vague in their claims regarding the use of antimicrobials, generic formulas not registered with the EPA, or make unsubstantiated statements regarding odor-fighting technologies. Some popular brands even use methanol-based solutions, which the Environmental Protection Agency has cited as harmful to humans. Copptech is EPA-registered and BPR-compliant, and Purra Performance has obtained the exclusive global license for footwear and sporting goods industries and is working with brands to implement the technology across key industry partners.

Unlike harmful chemical-based treatments that can leach into the water supply, Copptech can be embedded inside polymers, textiles, foams, and other materials to make them antimicrobial for the life of the product. It provides a safe and permanent antimicrobial solution that offers a natural means of inhibiting the growth of microbes, bacteria, and fungi, without using dangerous nanoparticles or hazardous chemicals.

The foundation of Copptech’s antimicrobial technology rests on its primary active ingredients, zinc and copper oxide. Zinc and copper have inherent antimicrobial properties, are safe to be ingested by humans and animals, and are naturally present in many foods.

Copptech’s formula can be fine-tuned for various usage scenarios depending on the product it will be integrated with. Currently, seven patented formulas have been created to integrate Copptech into textiles, polymers, and other materials, with different levels of zinc and copper, depending on the product’s intended use. Copptech also has four EPA registrations, providing further validation that using its patented formulas will not adversely affect the wearer or the environment.

Leading By Example: Purra’s Consumer-Facing Division Showcases Innovation And Creates Demand Through Its First Sock Collection

Purra’s debut line will focus on next-to-skin products in areas well-known for odor caused by sweat and bacterial growth. Purra’s first release, its Comfort Sock collection ($36 per three-pack), incorporates a Copptech formula that relies on zinc, without copper, and showcases the brand’s technology and design capabilities while capitalizing on an area of the body commonly known for sweat and odor.

Even without considering the Copptech antimicrobial, the Purra Performance Comfort Sock stands as an example of how a premium sock should be designed. It features a seamless toe, deep heel gore, enhanced arch compression, breathable mesh, and moisture-wicking fibers, all designed for a premium fit and enhanced level of comfort.

B2B Provides Antimicrobial Manufacturing Solutions Others Cannot Match

The B2B arm of Purra Performance is a textile and advanced foam technology enterprise that will provide an edge and reshape how performance brands integrate safe and permanent antimicrobial solutions into footwear, sporting goods, and apparel.

Purra’s B2B division comprises footwear, sporting goods, and textile R&D experts with the manufacturing relationships necessary to embed Copptech within a brand’s fabrics, foams, yarns, and other raw materials at the base level, to create a permanent antimicrobial solution. Purra also tests all of its products with the world’s leading accredited independent laboratories for measuring antimicrobial efficacy, ensuring all regulatory requirements are met.

Founders With A Long History Of Growth And Innovation

Leading the company as CEO, Miller is a footwear, sporting goods, and apparel industry veteran with a reputation for developing new brands and executing high-growth sales strategies in the Action Sports and outdoor industry for more than 30 years. Among his notable accomplishments, Miller held the role of senior vice president and general manager, Americas, for D.C. Shoes, driving significant growth for the brand long after its initial explosion as a new brand in the youth market. More recently, he directed strategic sales for the internationally known ski apparel brand SPYDER. Earlier in his career, Miller was integral in launching M3 Snowboards, a legendary part of the second wave of snowboarding’s explosive-growth era, which achieved worldwide acclaim in its first two years at retail.

“Today’s consumers are hyper-aware of bogus health-related claims made by brands. They seek better products for themselves, their families, and the environment. Purra Performance is the first and only consumer brand in the U.S. with Copptech’s safe antimicrobial technology as its foundation. We want to inform and empower outdoor enthusiasts and active individuals to do what they love and sweat with freedom and confidence, knowing they’re using better-performing products that are also safe for them and the environment,” commented Miller.

Miller isn’t the only footwear industry veteran involved in the Purra’s launch. Miller has enlisted the support of noted innovation and product design consultant Doug Sheridan as an equity partner in the brand. Sheridan brings four decades of footwear and sporting goods experience to Purra and is known for leading design innovation and project consulting for some of the world’s best-known footwear brands, including Native, Adidas, Puma, Converse, and Diadora.

“Socks, footwear, and insoles are the perfect platform for showcasing Purra’s manufacturing capabilities. We’re all aware of the odor and other issues associated with how sweat can cause the growth of bacteria on socks and footwear,” commented Sheridan. “Unlike antibacterial treatments, we use a permanent and non-toxic antimicrobial technology to prevent the growth of bacteria, microbes, and fungi in a next-to-skin product on one of the sweatiest parts of the human body. Purra has tangibly shown there’s a better way.”

Purra’s debut Comfort Sock collection is available on their website at https://purraperformance.com, with brick-and-mortar distribution pending. Additional products under the Purra Performance brand, including performance insoles, are slated for later in 2023.

About Purra Performance

At Purra Performance (https://purraperformance.com), we design and develop natural and safe antimicrobial performance essentials that allow everyone to sweat and move confidently and freely. We’re here to ensure that living an active lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to endure germs, bacteria, and odor. Purra Products solve the bacteria, germs, and odor problems that can come from living an active lifestyle with our safe, natural, EPA-registered Copptech antimicrobial. Instead of only masking odors, Copptech disrupts the cell wall of odor-causing germs, ultimately inhibiting their growth and stopping odors before they start.

Sweat anytime and anywhere. That’s Purra Performance.