Under armour enters a new market - will provide spacesuit apparels to astronauts

The sports brand Under Armour is teaming up with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to make nex-gen footwears and apparels for astronauts. It will also provide uniforms to Virgin Galactic employees at its Spaceport America operation center in New Mexico, and help design programs to physically prepare astronauts for flight, it said in an statement on Thursday.

From a Virgin Galactic spokesman's end, the clothing will not be pressurised like traditional spacesuit. Rather it will be designed for a "short-sleeve" environment.

Virgin Galactic is carrying test flights now, and after this it plans to take passengers to space who have paid as much as $500,000 (Rs. 3.5 crores) on its first commercial trip, where they will experience weightlessness and see the blue earth from outer space. Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin, also plans to provide similar experience.

The designs of clothing and footwear are not released yet, and will be released later this year prior to Branson's flight who aims to fly himself during the tests.

However, this is not the first time a sports brand is collaborating with a space organisation. Back in 2017, Reebok also announced development of lightweight space boots for astronauts going to and from the International Space Station aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner.