Clothing Fabrics – A Primer on Eco-Friendly and Performance Fabrics

Do you get confused by all of the different fabrics on the market? Want to know what “eco-friendly” or “soybu” means? In the hopes of eliminating many of the confusion, I have made a listing of definitions for you personally, in addition to some features of every type of fabric.
Eco-Friendly Clothing or Environmentally Friendly Clothing: These fabrics are manufactured from materials which might be friendly on the earth. The materials in many cases are produced using organic methods, or from materials that may be easily replenished, or from recycling. The production ways to create the products often consume less energy, lowering the carbon footprint forced to make them. Organic cotton, organic bamboo, soy, and hemp are instances of eco-friendly fibers. Not only are these clothing products great for the earth, but they’re regularily much healthier to suit your needs because few chemicals are used within the growing and production processes.
Advantages of Eco-Friendly Clothing:

No or fewer harsh chemicals found in production and processing of fibers
Decreased carbon footprint and usage
Made from materials that can be easily replenished or from recycled materials
Give an economic boost to farmers and also other producers who use green growing techniques
Soybu: Soybu fabric is constructed from a variety of soy, bamboo, cotton, and polyester or spandex fibers. Soy fibers are made using processed organic soybeans from a waste product within the manufacture of tofu. Biodegradable takeaway containers resulting fibers are incredibly soft and smooth.
Advantages of soybu clothing:

Moisture wicking pulls moisture out of the body, keeping you cool and fresh
Fabric is cashmere-soft
Breathable
Quick drying
Wrinkle-resistant
Lightweight
Excellent stretch, allowing the information to maneuver with you
Biodegradable
Organic Cotton Clothing: Organic cotton is grown minus the pesticides along with other chemicals which will make traditional cotton so harmful to the environment. It is breathable, durable, and biodegradable. Clothing manufacturers often use natural dyes or pigments with organic cotton to further increase the earth-friendliness of these products.
Advantages of Organic Cotton:

Breathable
Biodegradable
No chemicals utilized in growing process
Look for labels with “Certified Organic Cotton”
Recycled Fabric Clothing: Recycled fabrics can be made from the variety of materials. One from the most common recycled fabrics is made of plastic bottles like soda bottles and milk jugs, saving a great deal of these bottles from cluttering the landfill. The bottles are crushed into tiny chips that happen to be heated after which spun into yarn, just like regular polyester. https://theconversation.com/profiles/dodson-jiang-944479 , huh?
Other choices for recycling fabric include taking fabric scraps, cotton gin waste, mill ends, commercial fabric trimmings, unusable factory seconds, and worn-out clothing that would normally be discarded, and spinning these materials into new yarns.
Biodegradable takeaway containers : Because bamboo can grow up to 2 feet per day, it is a highly sustainable resource for fabric. Bamboo thrives with no use of chemicals for example fertilizers or pesticides.
Advantages of Bamboo Clothing:

Natural antibacterial properties
Breathable
Biodegradable
Fabric is quite soft and comfortable
Slub: Slub yarn is produced in the event the fibers of the yarn have areas that happen to be thicker than other locations in the yarn, making a “lumpy” appearance. When woven in a fabric, the slubs form a continuous pattern, providing a subtle pleasing texture and look.
CoconaA�: These fabrics are produced by embedding activated charcoal particles in man-made fibers like polyester and nylon. The activated charcoal particles are extracted from recycled coconut shells. For maximum performance, garments made out of Cocona technology should be washed using scent-free detergents, and must be dried in the dryer, with no scented dryer sheet.
Advantages of Cocona fabrics:

No harsh chemicals inside the fabric
Evaporative cooling qualities
UV protection
Odor management
Benefits of Cocona technology take root in the fabric and won’t wear out or wash out
Performance Clothing: Performance fabrics are made using natural and man-made fibers and therefore are especially designed to give garments particular characteristics in durability and wearability. Most performance fabrics are intended to wick moisture outside the body, dry faster, provide odor control and antibacterial properties, provide UV protection, improve fit and shape retention, resist spills and release stains, repel water, or improve freedom of movement through better stretch. Performance fabrics are especially valuable in sports clothing and athletic wear. Different performance fabrics provide different benefits, so be sure to carefully read product descriptions for that benefits of a selected garment.
Examples of Performance Fabrics:

CoolMaxA�
LycraA�
Bamboo
CoconaA�
Fabrics using nanotechnology
MicroTek SupremeA�
Micropolyester Fleece
Fair Trade Clothing: Clothing that’s produced in factories committed on the ethical management of workers, including fair and meaningful wages, fair working conditions, local production, and non-exploitation. Often, fabrics and garments are manufactured in worker-owned co-ops using green fibers and production techniques.