Polartec the brand of Milliken & Company has developed a new technology that substantially reduces fibre fragmentation for knitted fabrics. Iconic 200 Series fleece is the first fabric made from this new process.
The new machine called Polartec Shed Less Fleece is being called a milestone in efforts to reduce textile fibre fragment shedding. It is a process that combines yarn construction, knitting, chemistry, and manufacturing.
It is a step further to the brand’s iconic Polartec 200 Series Fleece, the modern version of the original PolarFleece launched in 1981, and in 1993. It is the first performance fleece knit that uses yarn made from recycled plastic bottles.
The Shed Less process works by removing the lofted fibres that not only give fleece its soft hand but also the ability to resist breaking and rubbing off during home laundering. Polartec Shed Less Fleece achieves this outcome while maintaining all of the attributes that continue to make Polartec fleece a staple of mid-layer collections – lightweight, breathable, and warm, with unmatched softness and hand feel.
The brand used the AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) TM212-2021 test method for fibre fragment release during home laundering.
While performance fabrics contribute a small percentage of the fibers fragments shed by the global textile industry, Polartec has been researching root causes and mitigation strategies for many years. Shed Less Fleece is a natural progression of this curiosity toward our goal of reducing fiber fragment shedding to near zero in all of our performance fabrics.”
Polartec Shed Less Fleece will be initially launched in the United States and will be available to customers beginning March 1, 2023.
Polartec® introduces Shed Less technology that reduces fiber fragmentation in laundering tests
