The weather is warmer, and you can see more and more people wearing yoga pants on the street and in office buildings, and yoga pants have gone out of the gym and become a fashionable outfit. At present, the price of yoga pants sold in the market ranges from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan, how to choose?
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Fabric
If you pay attention to the labels on yoga pants, you must have seen these 3 names: nylon (nylon), polyester, and spandex. Most of the yoga pants products on the market today are generally made of these three fabrics.
Nylon/Nylon: Nylon is the Chinese name for the synthetic fiber Nylon, and you may be more familiar with its translated name "nylon". It is the world's first synthetic fiber variety, with strength, good abrasion resistance, and lightweight, soft and good breathability.
Polyester: Polyester, also known as polyester, has excellent wrinkle resistance and shape retention, which can make clothes less prone to wrinkles during wear. Good moisture-wicking properties can help keep the skin dry, while also having the property of drying quickly.
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Spandex: Spandex is a highly elastic fiber that can improve the ductility, elasticity, and fit of fabrics. The lycra LYCRA that you often see with the triangle logo is a very well-known spandex fabric. A survey of commercially available yoga clothing shows that the spandex content of some yoga clothing fabrics can be as high as 25%-40%, especially the spandex content of yoga pants is relatively high.
Nylon 74% Lycra 26% Stock copyright image, reproduction may cause copyright disputes
The main advantages and disadvantages of polyester vs nylon
Generally speaking, nylon has higher strength, better elasticity, and better abrasion resistance; The hygroscopicity of nylon is more prominent than that of polyester, and it will be more skin-friendly to the skin, and there is no stuffiness of polyester fabric in the case of sweating.
Therefore, the comprehensive performance of nylon + spandex blended fabrics in the use process is better than that of polyester + spandex blended fabrics, and nylon + spandex blended fabrics are also more common in high-end yoga clothing.
The impact of fabrics on prices
According to the market quotation in mid-January 2024, the price of nylon DTY (DTY is a textile term, which is a type of textured yarn of chemical fiber) is about 19,200 yuan/ton, and polyester DTY is only 8,850 yuan/ton, which determines that there will be some differences in the selling price of yoga clothing of these two fabrics from the fiber raw material end.
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What needs to be noted here is that polyester is relatively much cheaper, which does not mean that polyester is an inferior material. In fact, polyester is a fiber with outstanding characteristics and excellent comprehensive properties, and it is the largest and most widely used chemical fiber in mainland China; Statistics from the textile industry show that from January to November 2023, the total output of polyester in mainland China is about 52.69 million tons, and the output of nylon is about 4.23 million tons. It is precisely because of the mature production technology and huge output of polyester in mainland China that large-scale production has brought about a very "approachable" price.
What is the difference between Nylon 6 and Nylon 66?
The best-selling products on the market today mainly use nylon 6 (nylon). Nylon is a general term that can be divided into many types depending on its chemical composition. The statistics and actual situation of the textile industry show that the nylon fabric used in domestic consumer clothing in mainland China is mainly nylon 6 (PA6), and some high-end brands will use nylon 66 (PA66) fiber, but the proportion is very small. This also leads to a difference in price.
If you compare the performance of nylon 6 and nylon 66, the performance of nylon 66 is better, in terms of strength, elasticity, wear resistance, etc., nylon 66 is better than nylon 6, and the nylon 66 fabric has a smoother feel. Since nylon 66 is so good, why not use it in large quantities?
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At present, the output of domestic nylon 66 in mainland China is less than 200,000 tons (while the output of polyester in mainland China in 2022 is about 53 million tons, you can feel the huge gap in output from these two data). Moreover, nylon 66 is mainly used in the industrial field, military field, protective clothing field, etc. in the mainland, and the use of nylon 66 in daily civilian clothing is still less due to the limitation of its output.
This is mainly due to the fact that the production of adiponitrile, the key raw material for the production of nylon 66, has been a problem in the mainland for a long time, and the dependence on imports is very high, and adiponitrile has been monopolized by a few enterprises in Europe, the United States and Japan for a long time, so the output of domestic nylon 66 has not been able to be improved. However, it can be expected that from 2020, breakthroughs will be made in the localization technology of adiponitrile in mainland China, and a number of industrialization projects will be completed and put into operation, and the output of domestic nylon 66 is in a growth trend. After the ramp-up in production, consumers can expect to see the superior performance of domestically produced nylon 66 on a wide range of garments, including yoga clothing.
Other factors that affect the price
Of course, the material is only one aspect of the final price. In addition to the material of the fabric, design, craftsmanship and brand premium are important factors that determine the pricing of yoga clothing.
Version design: In terms of the version design of yoga pants, in order to improve the fit and comfort of yoga clothing and the body, high-end yoga clothing usually adopts more complex tailoring, such as the use of darts (here "province" sang three sounds, clothing design term), dividing lines and other structural designs to improve the functionality and aesthetics of yoga pants.
Processing technology: In terms of processing technology, complex versions will bring about an increase in processing difficulty, and more complex processing processes will also bring about an increase in costs, which will be reflected in the final price.
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Seamless integrated knitting technology is also used in the manufacture of some high-end yoga clothing, considering the different requirements of the human body for heat and humidity comfort and pressure comfort in various parts of yoga exercise, seamless knitting technology can realize the partition design and weaving of clothes, and the whole yoga pants have no seams, and the fit and comfort are better.
More and more yoga clothing is designed to pay more attention to fashion and personalization, to achieve mixing and matching with daily clothing, adding popular elements or using popular technology, which will increase the production cost, and eventually transmit to the selling price.
Buy as you go
Although there are many low-priced products, people will also flock to the brand. Consumers still need to decide on the choice of yoga pants according to their actual situation and economic ability.
When purchasing, you can stretch the fabric by hand, feel the ductility and resilience of the fabric from the four directions of up and down, left and right, and feel the touch of the fabric and the skin and the support for the muscles by trying it on; Choose the right size and style, and don't feel too tight and pressing.
At the same time, yoga clothing should be washed in time after use, and dried in a cool and ventilated place after washing with cold water, and should not be exposed to the sun for a long time.
bibliography
[1] Zhang Xinggang. Domestic nylon 66 ushered in the highlight moment [J]. China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Observation, 2022, (04): 22-23.
[2] Zeng Cheng, Zhao Hongyan, Sun Yaxin, et al. Development status and prospect of nylon 66 industry in mainland China [J]. Hi-Tech Fibers and Applications, 2022, 47 (06): 9-16.
Author丨Song Lidan, Consulting Engineer of Industrial Research Department, China Textile Construction Planning Institute
Audit丨Zhang Jie, Chief Engineer of China Textile Construction Planning Institute
Source丨Popular Science China
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