# Where can I buy small amounts of hypercolor dye?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-small-amounts-of-hypercolor-dye/532953>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-small-amounts-of-hypercolor-dye/532953 "2010-03-18T22:52:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-small-amounts-of-hypercolor-dye/532953/1 "2010-03-18T22:52:52Z")

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Remember Hypercolor shirts?

> **[Hypercolor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercolor)**
>
> Hypercolor was a line of clothing, mainly T-shirts and shorts, that changed color with heat.
> They were manufactured by Generra Sportswear Company of Seattle and marketed in the United States as Generra Hypercolor or Generra Hypergrafix and elsewhere as Global Hypercolor. They contained a thermochromic pigment made by Matsui Shikiso Chemical of Japan, that changed between two colors—one when cold, one when warm. The shirts were produced with several color change choices beginning in 1991. The eff...

Suppose I want to get my hands on a small quantity of thermochromic textile dye and DIY my own hypercolor clothes at home.

Where can I buy it?

I googled for a while and found a few retail outlets for thermochromic acrylic paint (not good for washable clothing) and a lot of manufacturers’ websites where they presumably would be happy to sell me a 500-gallon drum of the stuff.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-small-amounts-of-hypercolor-dye/532953/2 "2010-03-18T23:42:14Z")

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Looks like [Matsui calls it Chromicolor](http://www.matsui-color.com/chromicolor_ink/) nowdays.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-buy-small-amounts-of-hypercolor-dye/532953/3 "2010-03-19T00:03:30Z")

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[Matsui International Sales & Distributors](http://www.matsui-color.com/distributors.php)