Chapter 94
I’m translating the chapter into polished HTML prose and preserving the scene break cleanly. I’m also keeping the in-universe presentation consistent, including the section divider for the scene transition.CHAPTER_TITLE: A Request From Across the Water (3)
Haesol Textile president’s office.
The office was cluttered with textile-related reference books from end to end, but Hwang Seok-jae, who had come in with something to report, sat down on the sofa with a faint, familiar smile.
“It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it?”
“It’s fine. Have you made any progress?”
“Oh, it’s not easy. Still, what brings you here?”
Hwang Seok-jae flipped open a black approval folder and said, “Would you take a look at this? It’s an official notice from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. The U.S. Department of Defense saw our combat uniforms and requested samples.”
At the unexpected news, Seung-hyun furrowed his brow and checked the document.
It was exactly as he’d been told: the Defense Acquisition Program Administration was forwarding the U.S. Department of Defense’s sample request to Haesol Textile.
“The U.S. Department of Defense is requesting samples of our combat uniforms? What in the world is this...?”
Hwang Seok-jae’s face brightened as he answered. “Yes, Representative. I think this could be very good news. It means even the U.S. military has taken an interest in our combat uniforms. They say an official notice came in under the name of the U.S. Secretary of Defense a week ago, but it took them some time to let us know because they had to check whether there were any security issues if Dualtex technology were to leak overseas, and whether it would run afoul of export-control standards.”
Seung-hyun wore a puzzled look for a moment.
It was strangely impressive that the Korean military’s combat uniform had drawn enough attention to interest the United States.
“If it came in a week ago, they spent quite a while looking into it, didn’t they? Hmm... In any case, we only need to send samples, right?”
“Yes, for now. They didn’t ask for technical materials or anything like that, only combat-uniform samples. If we agree, they’ll be sent to the United States through diplomatic pouch.”
Seung-hyun nodded.
If all they wanted was a sample, there was no real reason to agonize over it.
“Then please send a set of the army combat uniforms made at Haesol Sangsa in Busan to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. If we send something from the supply depot, the counts get messy, so let’s just ship one from Busan. It’s only a sample anyway, so I don’t think we need to fuss over it too much.”
“Understood. I’ll have it sent out today.”
Seung-hyun decided to handle the matter quickly and turn his attention back to other work.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s request was interesting, but there was a more important task waiting for him right now.
Special bedding for the Okura Hotel.
Now alone again, Seung-hyun lifted a professional reference book from the cluttered sofa table and muttered, “They all look plausible, but... do I have to try each one individually...?”
In theory, there were plenty of yarns that seemed suitable for improving durability.
But even when he tried building the combinations into a weaving program, he couldn’t arrive at a clean answer for which yarns, and in what proportions, would produce the right quality.
In the end, he would have to try them one by one, and even then he still had to decide the ratio.
“Let’s get started.”
He immediately asked Factory Manager Park Han-soo to prepare a range of test yarns.
Things were different from the old days now that the company had plenty of money, and that change extended to how they kept yarn on hand.
In the past, they had only stocked the yarns used for actual production, and whenever they needed to run a new test, they had to contact nearby factories or the market to source whatever yarn was required. But now they kept more than sixty kinds of yarn in inventory.
The cost of stocking test yarns alone came to nearly one hundred million won, proof of just how much the company had grown.
From that point on, Seung-hyun was reduced to repetitive labor.
Keeping temperature and humidity set to the same levels as when the existing blends had been spun, he kept French linen and modal in place while mixing in various other yarns instead of ordinary cotton to produce test fabric after test fabric.
He couldn’t give up French linen, because it was essential to exceptional breathability, antibacterial properties, and a luxurious yet natural hand. And he couldn’t give up modal either, because it added softness and a smooth feel.
The ratio was fifty percent French linen and thirty percent modal, with the remaining twenty percent swapped out for other yarns from test to test.
He wasn’t expecting this testing to produce a perfect fabric right away.
He only wanted the weaving to come out naturally and the durability to improve substantially, and then he would search for the final balanced ratio along with the right temperature and humidity settings.
More than half a month passed in this manner.
Since each fabric had to be spun and then tested again to see how effective it was, the process was far from easy.
“We said we’d make and send dedicated bedding for the Okura Hotel, so a little delay is fine.”
Hwang Seok-jae also came by from time to time to reassure Seung-hyun, who was growing increasingly impatient.
Then one day,
“Ah?”
At last, something appeared that preserved the fabric’s softness while showing remarkably solid durability.
Factory Manager Park Han-soo, who had poured his own efforts into making the test fabric alongside Seung-hyun, let out a relieved breath and said, “It looks like French linen pairs well with long-staple cotton.”
The one who passed the test was Long Staple Compact Cotton.
Long Staple Compact Cotton was made by tightly twisting long-staple cotton, mainly produced in Egypt or Peru, to increase its weave density during spinning, and its durability was more than thirty percent higher than ordinary cotton.
“Haa... so this is the optimal ratio.”
“Yes, it is.”
“But even with this alone...”
The reason he was obsessing over perfection like this was that this hotel bedding order could be the dividing line between whether they could expand further into the Japanese hotel market or not.
If customers were impressed and the hotel was satisfied, other companies would surely want to try it too. But if it failed to deliver satisfaction, expansion would be impossible.
That was why he wanted to go in with a flawless product the moment they entered the market.
“Maybe you should take a little rest first. We’ve definitely gotten a clue.”
“Yes, I know. How are the employees doing these days?”
Because the company was doing so well, Factory Manager Park Han-soo looked like he had gained at least five kilos since the day Seung-hyun first inherited the business.
Maybe because his mind was at ease?
“Hahaha, they’re very happy. In a textile industry like this, where so many companies are dying these days, where else would you find a place with work coming in this steadily? And the bonuses are good, and overtime pay is generous... Honestly, if Ms. Lee A-young is making that much money already, why would Ms. Yoon Jung-mi quit the company? She says it would be a waste to leave.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
“We’re also making sure they get enough break time, so once employees come in, they don’t really want to leave. Of course, if someone can’t even endure that and walks out, then this job was never a good fit for them.”
“I see... Then please keep up the hard work.”
Seung-hyun carried the test fabric blended with Long Staple Compact Cotton back into the president’s office.
He had finally gained a clue, so that was encouraging, but he also felt oddly deflated, and after collapsing onto the sofa he opened the Tokyo Line design files that Lee A-young had sent him in order to clear his head for a moment.
Looking at the refined designs spread across the screen, Seung-hyun suddenly remembered the clothes he had designed back in college.
As a fashion design major, he had once taken pure pleasure in the act of making clothes itself.
“That really was fun back then...”
Seung-hyun fell into thought for a moment.
Lately, he had been so focused on management and research that he seemed to have forgotten the simple joy of making clothes.
All at once, he felt an urge to design something himself.
Should I try making something?
He wanted to clear his head by making one piece just for fun.
When he took an old sketchbook from his desk drawer and opened it, the designs he had drawn in college were still there.
Seung-hyun flipped to a fresh page and picked up a pencil.
As he wondered what kind of clothes to design, his eyes fell on the military uniform hanging in one corner of the office.
Then he remembered the strange feeling he had had not long ago.
Even as a reservist, for some reason, the uniform had looked strangely good to him.
“Well... even so, a combat uniform is...”
Even as he said it, Seung-hyun got up from his seat, brought over the combat uniform, and spread it out on the desk.
He slowly began examining its details.
A design true to its functional purpose, a practical pocket layout, double-stitching for durability...
Every one of those elements stirred his designer’s instinct.
“A T-shirt with a digital-print pattern and a front pocket... maybe I should raise the collar a little?”
He had only meant to do this out of boredom, but once his hands started moving, lines began to fly across the page without pause.
Before long, Seung-hyun was filling the white sketchbook with drawings, so absorbed that he no longer even noticed time passing.
Arlington, Virginia, United States, DARPA headquarters.
Dr. Catherine Hamilton carefully opened the package that had just arrived.
It was a combat-uniform sample sent from the Korean Ministry of National Defense, and her laboratory already had a variety of testing equipment ready and waiting.
“It’s finally here.”
Her assistant, David Kim, said that with obvious anticipation.
An American of Korean descent, he had shown special interest in the project from the beginning.
The moment Catherine picked up the combat uniform, her brow twitched.
“Here, try lifting it.”
“Huh? Yes... huh?”
As soon as David Kim picked it up, his expression stiffened just as Catherine’s had.
Then he said to her in surprise, “It’s incredibly light.”
“Just as I thought... the report wasn’t completely full of nonsense. Good thing we asked for it.”
She immediately measured the uniform’s weight.
Compared with the current U.S. military combat uniform, the Korean Dualtex combat uniform was exactly 32.4 percent lighter.
The number matched Major Whitney’s report.
Catherine took the uniform out and spread it on the table.
At a glance it did not differ much from an ordinary military uniform, but when she touched the fabric with her hand, the sensation was clearly different.
“Shall we start testing the fabric’s physical properties?”
For the next forty-eight hours, Catherine and her team tested every aspect of the combat uniform without rest.
They performed comparative analyses against the current U.S. military combat uniform in areas such as durability, breathability, water resistance, heat resistance, and abrasion resistance, and in the environmental chamber they recreated extreme conditions to test the uniform’s performance.
They measured heat dissipation under high temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius and high humidity, then checked its insulation in subzero conditions at minus 20 degrees.
“This is... truly astonishing.”
Looking over the resulting data, Catherine marveled.
The Dualtex fabric effectively dispersed body heat in high-temperature environments while also maintaining excellent warmth in cold conditions.
Unlike the existing Gore-Tex-based combat uniforms, which excelled only in one type of environment, Dualtex showed outstanding performance in both.
As a final step, she conducted a real-wear simulation using a human mannequin.
She measured the uniform’s flexibility and comfort across a wide range of movements and postures.
“All tests are complete. I’ll prepare the final report.”
Twelve hours later, Catherine gathered all the data into a report and headed to Director Michael Rivers’s office.
After such a long stretch of testing, her face was full of energy, and Director Michael could tell as soon as he saw her.
“Looks like testing the Korean combat uniform was pretty interesting, huh?”
“Yes. Very much so. How did you know?”
“You must not have been able to go home for days, but your face doesn’t look worn out. I figured you must have felt that kind of mental exhilaration people get when they make some new discovery.”
“Director, you really do see right through people.”
“So, what were the results?”
Dr. Catherine spoke in a noticeably excited voice.
“Surprisingly, the report was true, Director. This Dualtex fabric really is... innovative.”
Director Michael unfolded the tablet Catherine handed him and checked the test results, then set the tablet down without much change in expression and asked, “What would you like to do?”
“If I may give my personal opinion, I think this is an item our military absolutely needs. As for how it should be distributed to service members, that’s not my area.”
“That’s not ours to decide. In any case, that’s enough for me.”
After Dr. Catherine finished her report and left, Director Michael considered the matter for a moment, then picked up the phone.
Once again, he was making a call to request a meeting with the Secretary of Defense.