Our story
Feel the Warmth was born out of a family moment that never left us.
Jean and John Rooney’s story started long before the belts and heat pads. In their twenties, they ran Strathclyde School of Motoring, teaching driving in Wishaw and Carluke ... but textiles were always calling. The couple spent more than 35 years in the industry, much of it in product development with WL Gore & Associates - a world-leading technical textile company with a plant based in Livingston, Scotland.
In the 1990s, Jean and John opened their own Wishaw-based manufacturing firm, employing a team of 40 people making made-to-measure GORE-TEX outerwear and served as the official sample room for GORE-TEX, and John undertook research and development with them for innovative product development. Then in 2004, an influx of cheap rainwear from overseas into Britain forced the factory to close after a decade. They regrouped, launching Custom Rainwear in 2006 - a high-end Clarkston shop that traded successfully for 14 years.
As Jean puts it: “The problem was, the products lasted too long.”
In 2010, John retired due to mobility problems. Rather than step back, he and Jean channelled everything they knew into a new range of made-to-measure technical raincoats, which Jean sold directly to customers across Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
But something else was quietly taking shape too.
Frightening wake-up call
The family had experienced a frightening wake-up call. Their son discovered his gran - who was living with dementia - collapsed in her garden in sub-zero temperatures, suffering from severe hypothermia, right here in Scotland.
It shook everyone deeply. And it planted a question in John’s mind that he couldn’t let go: “What if you could heat the person, not the room?”
John began researching. He found that the number of people who die from hypothermia in the UK each year was, in his words, “quite horrific” - with an alarming number of deaths happening in people’s own homes. Most heated clothing on the market was coming from China and relied on wire-based heating - something considered potentially dangerous, inefficient, and a real burn risk.
Remarkable invention
Then in 2013/14, John was introduced to an elderly inventor from Busby, near Glasgow, who had developed something remarkable: a specially formulated polymer that generates heat by passing a tiny electrical current through it - intrinsically safe, highly efficient, and producing Far Infrared (FIR) heat in precisely the wavelength range known to offer therapeutic benefits.
It was everything they’d been looking for.
John started building in his converted garage in Carluke. A few carefully designed garments later, powered by a 12v system, and Feel the Warmth was born.
In 2016, the project became a Community Interest Company (CIC) - a not-for-profit social enterprise in Scotland with a clear mission: to protect elderly people living in cold homes from the dangerous effects of hypothermia. The years that followed brought steady development - smaller batteries, more flexible designs, lower voltage systems. By 2019, the move to 5v power opened the door to USB power banks as a heat source, making the product genuinely accessible and cheap to run.
Police approval
Along the way, the products were trialled by the Scottish Police Authority’s forensic services team, whose members reported being able to work outdoors comfortably for longer. Products also reached over 400 people through charitable organisations across Lanarkshire.
Then COVID hit. Like so much else, everything stopped.
The restart
Restarting in 2022/23 felt like going back to square one - but it also brought new momentum. Dr Adrian Smales, a research fellow at Edinburgh Napier University who is now working in the National Robotarium at Heriot Watt University, came on board as advisor and mentor. A new aluminised backing fabric significantly boosted the efficiency of the heating elements. And with support from Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire (VASLan), a new self-regulating belt was developed and the mission of Feel the Warmth began gaining real traction again.
In 2024/25, supported by VASLan and Dr Smales, Feel the Warmth ran a pilot study exploring the impact of Far Infrared heat on anxiety, stress and sleep quality.
Here and now
Today, Feel the Warmth continues to pursue partnerships with charities and businesses across Scotland to make the product available free of charge to those who need it most. Jean and John - who are now grandparents in their late 60s and early 70s - are still sewing every product themselves, and show no signs of stopping trying to help the most vulnerable in our society.
The technology is ready. The mission is clear.
Thank you for showing interest in our products and assisting us in our quest to reduce the amount of unnecessary deaths occurring from cold-related illnesses, due to a mixture of high fuel costs, Scottish winters, poor housing conditions, dementia and rough sleeping.
