From Anthropometric Sizing to Thermophysiological Comfort Classes in Textile Design

Human thermophysiological responses differ greatly between individuals. However, textile and clothing systems are usually designed using average population data. They also follow the idea that one product can provide acceptable comfort for most users. This perspective paper introduces the concept of thermophysiological comfort classes (CCs). The aim is to group continuous physiological differences into a small number of practical categories. Similar to anthropometric sizing, each CC includes people who show similar physiological responses and comfort perceptions under defined environmental and activity conditions. The proposed framework combines physiological measurements, environmental and behavioural factors, subjective evaluations, and individual characteristics. Data science and artificial intelligence can support data processing, feature selection, clustering, and validation. At first, the development of CCs will require detailed questionnaires and several types of measurements. The long-term goal, however, is to identify a small set of reliable indicators for a practical assessment protocol. The concept may support textile products designed for representative thermophysiological profiles rather than for an average user. Comfort-class assignment may also change over time. Thermophysiological classification is therefore proposed as a complement to anthropometric sizing and as a basis for personalised and industrially scalable textile design.