Q36.5 is claiming its space at the top of the industry. From quaerere (to search in latin) and 36.5 °C (the optimal body temperature), the brand based in Bolzano, has made a strong bet on crafting high performance apparel through intensive product development. An outstanding product coupled with Italian heritage.

The obsession with performance becomes clear the moment you meet the team. They talk numbers, charts, percentages and testing methods, all the time. The CEO, Luigi Bergamo, is also the R&D Director, and he has built a strong company culture around apparel research and innovation, with strong claims written all around their headquarters, starting with “research & daring”.

Raw Cycling Magazine experienced a full product test in lab conditions and the correlation between heat and power loss was demonstrated with actual data. Because of that, when most of the cycling apparel brands have gone full aero, Q36.5 has taken a turn and has posed a different question: What benefits can we extract from proper thermal regulation? 

The innovation ecosystem

Providing an answer to such a question is not an easy task, so Q36.5 has surrounded itself with real partners. Because, collaborating with big names is relatively easy, but finding those partners with whom you share the same mentality, focus and drive is not.

In its pursuit, Q36.5 has partnered with SRM, Core, Amacx, Tacx and Pinarello. All pioneers of the industry and also well known names that continue to bring impactful innovations to the sport. A group of brands full of synergies and complementing each of the aspects that might impact the performance of a cyclist. 

Improving performance with thermal regulation

Helping the body improve thermal regulation under harsh weather conditions is right now the strongest focus of Q36.5 research & development, creating a product line that helps the human body stay as close to optimal temperature (36.5 °C). The Q36.5 improvements are already available to the amateur cyclist, specially the one with a soft spot for performance gains. 

Being adapted to harsh climatic conditions is an advantage when you are faced with them, especially if you are riding the Pro Peloton and every marginal gain counts. Think about a rainy, windy, cold day… The energy is gone just trying to keep the body warm. On a hot, humid and still day the human body is consuming a lot of energy as well, putting all its physiological weaponry at work to keep it cool. 

Experimental data provided by the team of Q365 shows that over certain thresholds, your FTP decreases between 20 and 30%. We have experienced it ourselves this summer 2026, as a big part of the Raw Cycling Team lives close to Barcelona. In the hottest summer ever recorded, an easy going 30 minutes climb suddenly felt like an extenuating training session.

Develop, measure, adjust, repeat

Q36.5 is using a sweat intensity map of the human body with different heat dissipation gradients to architect the construction of the garments. The fabrics are probably the most obvious part of the story but the fit and where each fabric is used, turns out, is also extremely relevant for both thermal regulation and functionality.

With all those variables at play, Q36.5 has built an innovation framework. There is a continuous pipeline of new fabrics and fit adjustments to be tested, using standardized methods and top notch measurement technology. They combine that with access to some of the best pros, such as Tom Pidcock, and continuous feedback from an internal team including former pros and amateur cyclists. In addition, Q36.5 counts with the flexibility of an inhouse sewing lab, all to achieve a very optimized and agile process to iterate on product improvements in just a few days.

Raw Cycling Magazine was invited to experience how innovation works at Q36.5, testing the apparel in lab conditions at the TerraXCube facility in Bolzano, the same way the professional athletes would do. Simulating the heat conditions of Barcelona’s second stage of the Tour the France, we were brought to a combination of high heat and powerful efforts while measuring our body temperature with the Core 2 device. With this controlled setting and with a portable sewing lab, our feedback could potentially be adjusted and retested in a few hours.

The challenge: Defining the optimum

The innovation path is full of challenges. Q36.5 still has to overcome a few. Right now their main focus seems to be on cracking down two: the tradeoff between aero and thermal regulation at pro level and developing a sufficiently adaptive product range that delivers on its promise for the mortals.

On the first, aerodynamics and thermal regulation are oftentimes at odds. The fabrics that provide the best aerodynamic properties create unfavorable conditions for moisture evaporation, and vice versa. So there is a tradeoff to be optimized: while in a short time trial one would tend to prioritize aerodynamic gains, in a long stage under the sun of July one would tend to favor garments with better thermal regulation properties.

Furthermore, under the same conditions, two riders with different heat adaptations might benefit from a different mix of fabrics and constructions. So isolating and understanding the complex matrix of interwoven effects and being able to generalize garment constructions even at the pro level is an ongoing research, and part of the motivation to exist for the Q36.5 team. 

Finally, as the technology developed by and for the pros cascades towards the general public, Q36.5 has to think about the mortals. The general public only gets a few kits to adapt to the four seasons of the year and has to make do with that. Even with the public willing to pay for high performance, Q36.5 has to build a product range that is optimum and adaptive enough, so there is no need to buy a myriad sets of apparel and also to understand the complex thermal regulation tradeoffs. So far, the brand is departing from overused wording -such as endurance- and adopting a more simple language based on fit. 

Conclusion

The Q36.5 apparel is simply superb in terms of quality, the details are carefully crafted and the obsession with which it is designed is very noticeable.

Q36.5 has built a unique performance ecosystem that allows it to push innovation fast at the pro level, and many of those improvements will cascade to the general public in the upcoming seasons.

Opening a new field of improvement based on thermal regulation gains and balancing its tradeoffs with aerodynamics, is a big departure from the current trends, but there is no doubt that Q36.5 has created its space at the top precisely with that.