Physical and Comfort Properties of Athleisure Wear Using Sustainable Bamboo/Cotton Blends

Abstract

Consumer demands for comfort performance are highly escalated, making global manufacturers turn their attention towards the development of technical textiles with enhanced comfort properties. The comfort characteristics of bamboo/cotton blend along with elastane knitted fabrics made by using ring-spun yarns were studied. Four different blend proportions, namely 53:42:5 cotton/bamboo/elastane, 51:41:8 cotton/bamboo/elastane, 45:40:15 cotton/bamboo/elastane and 59:31:10 cotton/bamboo/elastane were used to produce knitted fabrics by using ring-spun yarn of 14.7 tex. Single jersey knitted fabric was made with the first three proportions and interlock fabric was made with the fourth proportion. Fabric samples have been evaluated for physical properties like CPI, WPI, stitch density and thickness aside from measuring comfort properties like absorbency, air permeability and water vapour permeability. Based on the test results, it was concluded that a Lycra jersey developed with 51:41:8 cotton/bamboo/elastane blend showed good surface and moisture absorbency characteristics.

Keywords

• bamboo
• cotton
• sustainable
• comfort
• athleisure wear
• air permeability
• water vapour permeability
• absorbency