On the eve of the 2025 Spring Festival, 300 needy families in Xi County, Shanxi, received self-heating underwear donated by Jifa Group. The fair market value of the goods exceeded 50,000 yuan, with a per-unit cost of approximately 167 yuan. Xi County, once a national poverty-stricken county, faced a severe winter warmth shortage after mountain torrent disasters in summer 2025.
This donation is not an isolated incident. It points to an accelerating industrial trend: self-heating underwear is evolving from a niche high-end category into a necessity with both public welfare and commercial scale. China Customs data shows exports of self-heating underwear grew 18% year-on-year in 2024, with domestic consumption exceeding 8 billion yuan, of which online channels accounted for over 60%.
Functional Fabrics: From Luxury to Lifeline
The core technologies for self-heating underwear fall into far-infrared radiation heating and moisture-absorption heating. Jifa Group's donated products likely use moisture-absorbing heating fibers that convert body moisture into heat, performing effectively in cold, humid conditions. These fabrics were once limited to high-end outdoor brands but have now reached the mass market.
The Xi County case is unique because it reveals the real value of functional fabrics in emergency disaster relief. When traditional cotton clothing loses insulation due to dampness, the moisture-wicking and constant-temperature properties of self-heating underwear become essential. This explains why donors chose underwear over outerwear — in disaster zones, the efficiency of a base layer far exceeds that of external layers.
From an industrial cluster perspective, orders for self-heating categories in the thermal underwear clusters of Yiwu, Zhejiang, and Nantong, Jiangsu, increased 12 percentage points in Q1 2025 compared to the same period last year. Some factories have received government procurement orders from northern heating-fringe areas for disaster preparedness stockpiles.
Cost Structure and Price Outlook: The Commercial Lesson of 167 Yuan
The fair market value of the donated goods is 167 yuan per set, placing it in the mid-range of self-heating underwear. Current retail prices range from 99 to 599 yuan, with the gap mainly determined by the localization of heating fibers. Products using imported fibers from Japan's Toray or Taiwan's Chung Shing typically retail above 300 yuan, while those using domestic hollow polyester or modified viscose fibers can compress costs to 80-120 yuan.
Notably, Jifa Group, as an established textile company in Qingdao, benefits from vertical integration from yarn to garment. This means the 167 yuan valuation includes a reasonable profit margin, not just cost. For buyers, this price point can serve as a reference anchor for bulk procurement — products below this level warrant caution regarding heating performance claims, while those above require assessment of brand premium justification.
Industry Transmission: How Charitable Donations Shape Capacity Layout
The Textile Light Foundation has covered over 20 disaster-affected areas since launching the 'Love and Benefit' initiative in 2017. Such projects are reshaping factory stocking logic. Previously, thermal underwear production ran from September to November, but in 2025, several factories have shifted self-heating underwear lines to year-round operation, partly due to the normalization of emergency orders from government and charitable organizations.
For upstream chemical fiber companies, this means a stable demand increment. In 2024, domestic production of moisture-absorbing heating polyester fibers grew 22% year-on-year, with about 15% flowing into public procurement channels. Although individual orders are not large, they offer high predictability and short payment cycles, helping factories smooth seasonal fluctuations.