Interesting fabric resource

[Justin W]

I had never seen this site before and recently stumbled on it while looking for something else.  It seems to focus on Japanese specialty/high end fabrics.  I’m not sure why it is labeled “eco” other than marketing though?

https://thinkecofabrics.com/collections/all

Note, of (possible) particular interest to this forum are the “Octa” fabrics in several different weights (surprisingly affordable too), a pure UHMWPE coated fabric at 104g/m2 and surprising price of 40 dollars a yard (based on the weight, I suspect it to be around 200D UHMWPE fibers), and UL higher tenacity polyester based fabrics.  I’ll share the links to these below:

Octa Fabrics

Pure and coated UHMWPE fabric

Higher tenacity (1.5 x) polyester based UL fabrics
(Called Pasmo. Unfortunately, nothing that is waterproof)

It’s pricier than I normally go for, but I bought two yards of the UHMWPE fabric (I’m intrigued–could be better than Ultra fabrics. Leave it to the Japanese I suppose). And the nice thing was that it was free shipping for economy shipping.  Unfortunately, the site does not list the specific coating on the fabric.

 

[Jon Solomon]

It looks like it is a North American sales portal for Teijin Frontier, a Japanese textile conglomerate that is probably best known here for Octa.

The new adaptive fabric they plan to roll out for 2023 sounds interesting. The fabric’s structure changes when it gets wet.
https://www2.teijin-frontier.com/english/news/post/112/

[Roger Caffin]

I had a look at that web site.
A bicomponent thread or knit. Hum . . .
I don’t think there is very much in it myself, except for a lot of marketing spin. I might be wrong of course.

Cheers

[Justin W]

Does look interesting Jon. Judging by the comparison pics alone, it looks like the wet fabric gains somewhere between 2 and 3 times more void space between the yarns.

Regarding the site in general, I was somewhat surprised by the fairly reasonable prices in most cases.

[Todd T]

From the link Jon showed:

Highly adaptive breathability (about double that before sweating)

Maybe that’s good.  Or maybe its dry breathability is only half that of other fabrics, so it only becomes tolerable after you start sweating.  Cynical me expects that’s the case.  But like Roger I might be wrong, so I guess I’m in good company.  :-)

[Justin W]

Received the coated UHMWPE fabric today. I’m really happy with it.  It has like an inch or so on the selvage edges that is not coated, so it provides an interesting contrast between the base material and the coated. The base material is pretty air permeable to the human lung tests, but the coated is not. Not sure if it is technically waterproof though. (I would probably use a SUL liner anyways).

I definitely want to make some kind of pack with it, but I’m not sure yet what kind.

If anyone does order from the above website, be aware that if you order say 2 yards like I did, for some reason, it doesn’t come in 2 continuous yards, but in 2 separate 1 yard pieces.  Perhaps you can give instructions if you want it differently–not sure. But that was the default apparently.   Also, for some reason, they wrap the fabric around the outside of a thick cardboard roll–hence be careful with cutting it open.  I think they should put the fabric inside the cardboard roll, personally.

Too early to say for sure, but it does show the potential for possibly being a contender with the Ultra fabrics.  The nice thing being that it is pure UHMWPE and not a blend with polyester.  It definitely seems like a high quality Japanese product. I’m quite curious what the coating is, and how they did it.

[Justin W]

I have to add amazing customer service to the list of positive things about the above site/company. I hadn’t written them or written any other review besides the one here and yesterday I received a surprising email saying,

“Hello Justin,

I am sending this E-mail to say thank you for your shopping and also apologize for the inconvenience caused by the inappropriate way of packing. Due to the internal incorrect shipping process, we were not aware that we shipped 2 separate pieces until we found your post on the backpackinglight. The fabric was supposed to be shipped in 2 continuous yards as you expected. So, today we shipped another 2-3 yards with extra protection to the same address by [……..]. We are really hoping you could accomplish your projects with our fabrics and also looking forward to hearing any feedbacks.”

     Not sure how they found my review here, but they are going above and beyond with the above.

[Roger Caffin]

Can’t argue with that sort of support.
Cheers

[Justin W]

Indeed Roger.

[Montmolar]

Can recommend the shop as well – shipping to Germany was flawless and the communication top notch. :)

[Eric Blanche]

Does anyone know more about the “coating” for the UHMWPE fabric?

I suppose I can shoot them an e-mail. Will report back with a response.

EDIT: Very basic response, but within 5 min! Polyurethane is the coating. I don’t have anything more than that.

[Geoff Caplan]

Polyurethane is unlikely to be very durable I’d image – unless anyone more knowledgeable can correct me?

So it’s likely to function like Cordura and become a bit leaky and water-retentive after a time.

I’ve never found that much of an issue with my old Cordura climbing pack, which has seen many hundreds of days on the hill and is still going strong. I just use a liner and thole the extra few grams of weight when it’s wet. Most of the more modern fabrics retain a bit of water too, once the DWR wears off.

So this raises the question of whether backpacking really needs the durability of UHMWPE, and what advantages it offers over a more traditional fabric like Cordura.

If you’re a very active mountaineer on abrasive types of rock I can see the value. But given that UHMWPE is presumably pretty demanding to sew, what’s the MYOG use-case for our type of application?

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