The North Face had an unexpected hit during the holiday season -- a battery-powered fleece jacket, called the Met5, with tiny fibers woven into cloth panels on either side of the front zipper. Wired to two 4-ounce lithium-ion batteries, the fibers can heat the panels to a toasty 114 degrees Fahrenheit for as long as two and a half hours. If you were lucky enough to snap up one of these $500 parkas before most sold out in January, you have an unlikely organization to thank for that extra warmth on the ski slopes: the U.S. Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass.
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,37513,FF.html?ref=cnet
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