New X-Pac RX Fabrics – 100% Recycled Face Fabric & Climate Neutral

Hi

I found that the way the X-Ply threads made the inside face bulge over the thread caused local wear spots, which broke through the waterproofness.
Any chance of some of these materials being available withOUT the X-Ply threads?

Cheers

Hi Roger,

We can certainly do this, it’s only a matter of demand. While this is potential failure mode, in reality very little X-Pac fails in this manner.  Certainly I could see this happening after thousands of miles thru hiking. We have modified the finishing process of X-Pac(actually a few years ago now) to reduce any chance of this failure mode actually occurring.

Cheers,

Taylor

Hi Taylor,

I’ve been confused by the published stats from Challenge suggesting their ecopac is as durable in terms of abrasion as compatible weight nylon.

Will you be publishing abrasion comparisons with your normal X-Pac?

Also, what was the change you made to keep the x fibers from a raiding through the face fabric. There’s certainly demand for this, for backpacking I think we all agree it would be a superior fabric without the x ply. (If not as cool looking!)

Hello!

I can certainly understand how it is difficult to compare apples to apples. IT does not look like the Challenge tech sheet has the test parameters for the ASTM3884 test. Namely the wheel used in the test and the wheel weight. These are important parameters for the test. I have not had a chance send all of the Challenge samples to have tested independantly under the same test parameters.

However, this maybe besides the point. Which the ASTM test is an industry standard, it does not provide a very good indicator of ultimate durability. The ASTM abrasion test tend to punish rougher fabrics and reward smoother fabrics. This can be seen with rip-stop fabrics for example where the “abrasion number” is lower but the ultimate durability is very likely higher.

We added a finishing process to smooth the face fabric and limit the “peaks” in the fabric where the X-PLY yarns intersect. I do know the X-PLY adds quite a lot of stability(read: performance) to the fabric and there are certainly benefits there AND it’s cool looking. Performance technology you can see, what’s better!?

Cheers,

Taylor