Revolutionary Nuyarn Spinning Tech Creates a True Performance Wool
Nuyarn is the “world’s first performance stretch Merino yarn” — a patented process that offers unparalleled stretch, recovery, dry time, durability, and weight, and it is now being used in a handful of the world’s top performance apparel brands such as Black Diamond and Artilect. Nuyarn works by drafting Merino wool fibers along one of a number of high-performance core materials, creating a structure that amplifies that Merino fiber’s natural properties.
Nuyarn Merino Wool, from New Zealand fabric designers The Merino Company, retains the impressive natural properties of Merino wool by using a proprietary weaving process. In many cases, Merino wool loses much of its strength and durability due to a chemical treatment process. To prevent this loss, Nuyarn Merino Wool instead utilizes a mechanical technique that ensures that the fabric maintains its high-performance characteristics. This process guarantees durability and longevity.
Compared to typical Merino wool, Nuyarn Merino Wool features faster drying, increased elasticity, higher heat retention, and higher burst strength. These properties make the fabric a perfect fit for high-quality outdoor clothing. Nuyarn has partnered with high-performance outdoor brands such as The North Face, Ortovox, Black Diamond, and Trew, among others.
Nuyarn can make wool that performs as closely as possible to the way it does in nature. It unleashes wool’s natural abilities in moisture management and thermoregulation to rival or exceed even modern synthetic alternatives.
Here are some ways in which Nuyarn is revolutionizing performance wool:
1. 35% More Volume + Aeration
Twist free spinning creates much more loft and aeration within the wool fibres. As in nature this results in natural thermo regulation, breathability, air resistance and the ability to absorb and manage water vapour.
2. 5x Faster Drying
Nuyarn begins to absorb water vapour before it becomes droplets, one tier before synthetic fibres absorb moisture. Vapour and droplets are quickly wicked from the surface of the skin and absorbed into the fabric where aeration begins the drying process even before it gets to the fabric surface.
3. 35% More Elasticity
Ordinary spinning compresses wool fibres together,so manufacturers add elastane/spandex, for elasticity. This also adds weight, but it degrades over time and has little capacity to deal with moisture. Nuyarn’s twist-free technology results in fibres that can move with the body resulting in incredible stretch – 35% more than conventional merino, yet it regains to 100% of its original shape.
4. 35% More Thermal Retention: Nuyarn assists the body with thermoregulation, leaving more energy reserves for athletes to use in performance.
Nuyarn provides 35% more thermal retention than ring or core spun merino, but without the added weight. The thermal advantage provided by the loft results in lighter Nuyarn merino garments that perform better than heavier merino garments manufactured the old fashioned way.
5. 53% Less Air Permeability: The body can expend less energy in maintaining its core temperature caused by convective heat loss.
Nuyarn retains natural pockets of air within the yarn structure that are normally twisted out by older spinning methods. The additional loft provides a natural barrier to wind and as a result fabrics created with Nuyarn are up to 53% less permeable to air. This does not inhibit the garment’s breathability, as the moisture is moved mechanically from the vapour stage.
6. 50% Greater Burst Strength: Apparel made with Nuyarn Merino lasts longer.
Nuyarn’s twist free technology can use longer fibres without creating tension. It maintains the fibre structure and is therefore less prone to the breakage that besets traditional spinning. Compared to traditional ring spun merino, it delivers a 50% increase in tensile strength,resulting in a more consistent appearance, less pilling, more comfort and fewer holes in areas of impact or abrasion.
7. More resistant to abrasion:Clothing made with Nuyarn resists damage caused by friction such as backpack straps.
Nuyarn’s structure is much more resistant to abrasion. In standard martindale abrasion tests, Nuyarn merino resisted abrasion by at least 50% compared to ring and core spun equivalents. Nuyarn seams also proved to be 120% stronger than traditional merino seams in tests. The ring spun merino failed at 3kg of applied torque. Nuyarn seams withstood multiple efforts before 8kg of torque applied led to seam failure.
In the last decade, the fabric and technology available to outdoor brands has seen huge growth and shows no signs of slowing down. They have evolved dramatically through new fiber blends, more advanced laminates, and increasingly sustainable and natural materials.
