Sales of “recovery wear,” clothing marketed as promoting blood circulation and easing fatigue through the effects of far-infrared radiation, are surging.
Combined annual sales across major suppliers now exceed 3 million pieces, and the market is projected to continue expanding.
Many companies have been aggressively running advertisements featuring celebrities such as model Ai Tominaga, singer Sho Sakurai and actor Yo Oizumi.
This year, the term was shortlisted for the Buzzword of the Year award.
The garments are typically made from fabrics woven with finely processed minerals and other materials.
Recovery wear was officially recognized as a category of general medical devices in 2022 under the name of “home-use far-infrared clothing for promoting blood circulation,” which allowed companies to advertise certain therapeutic effects on the body.
Workman Co., a major workwear retailer, sold 1.6 million pieces from its Mediheal autumn-winter line between September and October. This led to the company revising its full-year earnings forecast upward in its interim financial report released in November.
Including spring items, total sales since January have reached about 2 million pieces.
A long-sleeved shirt costs just 1,900 yen ($12), exceptionally inexpensive relative to competing products.
Tential Inc., which was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Growth Market in February, sold more than 1 million pieces of its Bakune functional pajamas as of August.
Other major suppliers include Venex Co., a small company in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, that first commercialized recovery wear 15 years ago. Another is MTG Co., known for its beauty line Refa, which launched a dedicated recovery wear brand, Red, in July.
JMA Research Institute Inc. projects that domestic retail sales of recovery wear will see an increase of roughly ninefold to 170 billion yen in the year leading up to summer 2030 compared to the 18.9 billion yen recorded in the year through summer 2024.