• Poor stretch recovery (fabric deformed by 12% after 500 stretches, leading to 20% customer returns for "loose fit").

• Insufficient breathability (moisture retention caused 25% more complaints about "discomfort during intense workouts").

• The fabric lacked colorfastness under frequent washing, resulting in a 10% drop in repeat purchases in the North American market.

• Lead times for custom elastic fabrics exceeded 4 weeks, delaying new product launches.

Solution

SpecFabric provided a custom 20D high-elastic spandex fabric with integrated functional treatments:

• Adopted a multi-filament interweaving process, improving stretch recovery rate to 98% (deformation <2% after 500 stretches) while maintaining 300% stretchability.

• Added a microporous moisture-wicking coating, increasing fabric breathability by 50% (air permeability: 8000mm/s) to keep wearers dry during high-intensity activities.

• Applied a nano-scale color-locking treatment, ensuring colorfastness to 50+ washes (meeting AATCC 61-2013 standards) without compromising elasticity.

• Streamlined production workflows to reduce lead times for custom fabrics to 10 business days, aligning with the client’s rapid launch schedule.

• Collaborated with the client’s design team to adjust fabric thickness (0.08mm) for optimal fit in compression sportswear.

Result

• Customer returns related to fabric deformation dropped by 90%, and product comfort ratings increased by 40% (per post-purchase surveys).

• The brand’s compression legging line (using SpecFabric’s spandex) became its top-selling product, with North American sales rising 30% in 3 months.

• Colorfastness improvements reduced repeat purchase decline by 15%, boosting customer loyalty scores by 22%.

• Faster lead times enabled the client to launch 4 new sportswear collections annually (up from 2), capturing 2% more market share in the activewear segment.

• The client expanded collaboration to include yoga wear and running apparel lines, with annual fabric orders exceeding $6.5 million.

• In 2024, the brand was named "Best Performance Sportswear Material Partner" by a leading fitness industry publication, citing SpecFabric’s spandex fabric as a key differentiator.