To battle tough performance gear competitors like The North Face, Dicks Sporting Goods

Consumers want more juice for the squeeze, explains Shian-Li McGuire, a brand manager at Dicks Sporting Goods. Hard-core sports enthusiasts, she adds, are especially pushing fabric innovation. So last year, the company hired a fabric specialist, who searches for new ways to manipulate fabrics.

Source: Micron

World's highest capacity NAND flash memory die, developed by Micron and Intel.

Across the country, Boise, Idaho-based chipmaker Micron

Without this technology, there would be no place for us, says Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron. We make the worlds most advanced chips.

Micron has spent billions of dollars creating fabrication rooms where chips are built.

Consumer goods companies have it easier than Micron. Some nanotechnology research labs and upstarts are supplying resins and chemicals that contain nanotechnology. For example Nano-Tex, which supplies Aquapel to Dicks Sporting Goods and other companies, sells chemicals that coat fabric.

Creating buzzworthy new products in crowded marketplaces is a must-do goal these days. So apparel makers like Eddie Bauer and Dockers, a unit of Levi Straus, count on nanotechnology to add strength, durability or other performance properties to their fabrics.

The tiny, powerhouse technology is also being harnessed in key industries like energy, building and construction, high-tech, paints and medical device industries.

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Nanotechnology Now an Unseen Success