Keeping a casualty warm sounds simple until you are managing an injury outdoors, working with limited kit and facing an evacuation that could take hours.
Heat loss does not only become a concern in freezing conditions. Injury, shock, wet clothing, exposure and immobility can all leave a casualty vulnerable, whatever the weather is doing.
We are very pleased to announce a new partnership between World Extreme Medicine and THERMARMOUR, bringing specialist thermal protection equipment into selected WEM courses from October 2026.
Our attendees will be able to use the equipment during realistic scenarios, understand how it fits into a wider casualty-care plan and share their experience directly with the team responsible for developing it.
For us, that is the most valuable part of this partnership. People will be able to train with the equipment before they may need to use it for real, while their feedback can help THERMARMOUR continue improving its product range.
Heat loss is not only a cold-weather problem
Hypothermia is often associated with mountains, winter expeditions and polar environments, but low air temperature is only part of the picture.
A casualty who is injured, in shock, unable to move or exposed during treatment can lose heat in a wide range of conditions. Wet clothing, wind and contact with cold ground can add to the problem, particularly when evacuation is delayed.
In a hospital, it may be possible to control the temperature around a patient and access additional warming equipment quickly. On a mountainside, at a roadside incident or during a remote expedition, the available options can look very different.
Thermal protection may need to begin at the point of injury and remain in place while the casualty is assessed, treated, packaged, moved and handed over.
The equipment used needs to suit that journey. It must be practical to carry, straightforward to deploy and able to work within the wider kit and resources available to the team.
Who makes THERMARMOUR?
THERMARMOUR is a brand of Interweave Textiles Ltd, a Yorkshire-based company drawing on the region’s long industrial textile heritage.
Its research, development and manufacturing teams are based in Kingston-upon-Hull, while its head offices are in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
The engineers and product designers behind THERMARMOUR develop high-performance, lightweight insulating fabrics for use across medical, emergency and operational settings.
At the centre of the range is a patented multi-layer bonded fabric that acts as a passive warming system. The material is designed to reflect and capture radiant heat while providing insulation and protection from wind and moisture.
Because passive warming does not require electricity or a separate heat source, it can be useful when access to power or more complex equipment is limited. It can also be used alongside active warming when this is required as part of the casualty’s wider treatment.
The THERMARMOUR range includes compact emergency blankets and ponchos, alongside more robust equipment designed to support casualty protection, movement and evacuation.
The material is soft-touch, waterproof, windproof, non-conductive and X-ray compatible. These features allow thermal protection to remain part of the casualty-care pathway as someone moves between environments and stages of treatment.
You can read more about its construction on the THERMARMOUR technology page.
Training with the equipment, not just talking about it
From October 2026, THERMARMOUR equipment will be added to selected WEM courses where it supports the learning around hypothermia prevention, casualty care and evacuation.
Rather than only seeing the products in a presentation, attendees will be able to handle and apply them during practical scenarios.
They will be able to consider where the equipment should sit within their kit, when they might choose to use it and how thermal protection can be maintained when a casualty needs to be moved.
The exact products and scenarios will vary between courses. The challenges faced during polar or mountain training will not be identical to those encountered on a humanitarian, wilderness or pre-hospital course, and that difference is useful.
Using the equipment in several settings will allow people to explore how it performs when the environment, available resources and evacuation plan change.
It also means that if an attendee later encounters THERMARMOUR equipment during a real incident, it will not necessarily be the first time they have taken it out of its packaging and worked with it.
Useful questions help make better kit
People attending WEM courses tend to ask very practical questions. They want to know how easily an item fits into a kit bag, whether it is straightforward to deploy in poor conditions and what happens when a casualty needs to be packaged or moved.
Those observations are valuable to the people designing the equipment.
As THERMARMOUR products are used on selected courses, our attendees and faculty will be invited to share their experience. That may include what worked well, anything they found difficult and how the equipment fitted into the rest of the scenario.
We will pass that feedback directly to the THERMARMOUR team so it can inform future development and improvements across the product range.
WEM courses bring together people with experience in healthcare, rescue, expeditions, humanitarian response, military operations and many other specialist settings. They will not all look at a piece of equipment in the same way, and that variety is exactly what makes their feedback useful.
Someone accustomed to carrying a compact kit over long distances may notice something different from a person working from an ambulance or managing a prolonged evacuation. Bringing those perspectives together gives THERMARMOUR a clearer picture of how its equipment may be used outside a controlled environment.
Our attendees will therefore get more than the chance to try a product. They will have a route to share what they learned with the people responsible for developing it.
Building on two years of work together
Although this is a new formal partnership, the relationship between WEM and THERMARMOUR did not begin with this announcement.
Over the past two years, THERMARMOUR has worked with WEM associates and the WEM Fund, listening to end-user feedback and learning more about the demands placed on equipment in challenging environments.
That work has shown the value of connecting product designers with people who understand the realities of remote casualty care.
Introducing THERMARMOUR across selected WEM courses allows us to involve more of our faculty and attendees in that conversation, while giving them practical experience with equipment they may choose to carry or use in their own work.
Try THERMARMOUR at WEM26
THERMARMOUR will join us at the World Extreme Medicine Conference, taking place at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh from 14 to 16 November 2026.
Attendees will be able to visit the THERMARMOUR stand, handle a selection of products, meet the team and ask questions about how the equipment works.
It will also give the THERMARMOUR team a chance to speak directly with people working across different areas of remote and extreme medicine.
If you already use thermal protection equipment in your work, they will want to hear about your experience. If you are unfamiliar with the products, you will be able to take a closer look and discuss where they could fit within your own kit or organisation.
WEM26 brings together hundreds of medical and adventure professionals for three days of talks, practical workshops, cross-disciplinary learning and honest discussion about delivering care beyond conventional settings.
Having THERMARMOUR in the room means those discussions can include the people developing equipment for many of the challenges our attendees regularly face, including exposure, limited resources, prolonged care and delayed evacuation.
Save 15% on THERMARMOUR products
WEM community members can save 15% when shopping the THERMARMOUR patient-warming range through Interweave Textiles. Copy the code and enter it at checkout.
What happens next?
THERMARMOUR products will begin appearing on relevant WEM courses from October 2026, followed by the team exhibiting at WEM26 in November.
From 2027, we will also explore a programme of live and virtual events together, giving the WEM community more opportunities to learn about hypothermia prevention, thermal protection and the development of equipment for challenging environments.
As more people use the products during training, we will keep gathering their feedback and sharing it with THERMARMOUR.
We are looking forward to seeing the equipment used across our courses, hearing what our attendees make of it and giving our community a genuine voice in how the range develops.