Reasonably heat resistant. I tried soldering with a soldering iron for 5 seconds, everything is fine. It only smelled very slightly when I took it out of the packaging. The smell went away after a week. There is a plasticizer in the material, it is not pure silicone. It turns slightly white during the compression test, but that doesn't affect performance. Most of the KT-180's odd little pockets are surprisingly useful, with the exception of an odd strip of ridiculously small pockets on the left side and diagonals. On the right side. Big pockets and square pockets would make a lot more sense.