Emerging new fabric technologies are the engines of innovation in the outdoor industry to a large extent. The fabric manufacturers constantly interact with gear and apparel manufacturers to understand their needs. In many cases, a new fabric construction is created to meet a manufacturer's specifications; in other instances, a fabric manufacturer will develop a new technology then work with manufacturers to utilize it in one form or another. Often, a particular fabric technology will be translated into dozens of individual fabric constructions. Examples are different face fabrics laminated to a particular membrane, and specific yarn blends and weaving types. What can be confusing is each manufacturer usually comes up with a proprietary name for their particular construction using the technology, so we end up with a lot of different product names for the same technology.
In this article I describe some of the more interesting fabric stories we encountered at this Outdoor Retailer Show.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Columbia Thermal Reflective and Thermal Insulative
- Pertex Quantum GL
- Polartec Power Shield Pro Fabric
- Primaloft Yarn
- Polarmax Introduces TransDry Moisture Management Technology for Cotton
- Thorlo Engineered Variable Density Pad
- Conclusion
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# PHOTOS: 5
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