We tend to bang on a bit about the fact that we use microfibre for our kit (for cycling jerseys, custom technical t-shirts, cycling caps etc), but what is it and why is it so great?
Microfibre is essentially a thread that is less than a 100 times thinner than a human hair, which gives it some special properties – it is very soft on the skin and can give you very vivid colours when using sublimation printing, but the main benefit is its wicking proprties. Wicking just means that moisture (sweat) gets absorbed from your skin and transferred to the outside of the fabric so that it can be evaporated away, so that you stay dry.
For our cycling jerseys we use an extra special microfibre that has lots of tiny holes in to further aid evaporation and also has a cell structure that bacteria find difficult to bed down in; this means that they cannot get to work on your sweat so easily, so the jersey doesn’t smell bad. The fabric is also very stretchy to give a contoured fit and ultra-lightweight so that you hardly notice you are wearing it. Pretty clever stuff!
There are a lot of different microfibres available to make technical clothing from and we spend a lot of time making up samples with different fabrics and trying them out on the bike, in the gym, in the pool or wherever. It helps only employing people who are all sports fanatics! So if we are ever not in the office answering your emails, then you now know that we are out ’testing’ kit. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!
