Wool-nylon blend among Payen’s novelties
High-performance textiles manufacturer Payen has presented a fabric blending wool for thermoregulation with nylon for durability - with properties including breathability, windproofness and light weight - among its latest developments.
The French company is among the last vertically integrated textiles companies in Europe, working from yarn spinning to dyeing, weaving and finishing, and specialises in high-tech stretch wovens.
It supplies to some of the world’s top running, cycling and triathlon brands and, at the last Olympics, 70% of competing nations had some element of Payen fabrics, according to a spokesperson.
The company also specialises in compression fabrics, both for the sportswear and medical sectors. The benefits of the woven structure means they can alter the compression levels and still produce a lightweight, breathable fabric, he added.
He is also seeing a crossover between sectors – fabrics created for lingerie brands have been used in lightweight jackets, for example. “These fabrics are lighter, super-fast drying without any treatment, breathable and windproof,” he added.
Other novel materials on show at Milano Unica included a Cordura blend developed for a Salomon shoe (pictured), created for the Marathon des Sables; a 150 mile ultramarathon through the Sahara Desert.
