3-End Fleece: How We've Built Our Fleece Since 1987
What Is a 3-End Fleece?
3-End fleece uses 3 yarns: a back yarn, a tie yarn, and a face yarn. It enables us to use a 100% cotton face yarn, a middle tie yarn, and a cotton/polyester back yarn.
Why the Third Yarn Matters
The middle yarn does more than hold the fabric together. It adds thickness, loft, and mechanical stretch, and it creates a barrier between the face and back yarns. With a high-cotton face sitting on top, the garment handles heat better during printing and curing.
Covering You in 3-End Fleece
All of our styles are 3-End knit, with solid colors having a 100% cotton face yarn. Our fleece content may read as a cotton/polyester blend, but our 3-End knit process allows the outside fabric (face yarn) to be 100% cotton. This gives our fleece a soft feel with the ultimate printing capability that is discharge friendly.
Our first hoodie, the IND4000 Men's Heavyweight Hooded Pullover, has been made with 3-End fleece since 1987. It uses a finer 32 singles face yarn, making the garment surface smooth and easy to print.
3-End vs. 2-End Fleece
A 2-End process typically uses a 50/50 cotton/polyester surface. That surface is harder to print, more prone to pilling, requires different inks, and doesn't hold up as well to high heat during printing and drying.
Since 1987
3-End knit isn't a trend here. Our first hoodie, the IND4000, was made with 3-End fleece, and we have been producing it since 1987. That same construction now runs through nearly every style we make. Decorators and brands have printed on it for nearly four decades, and we'll keep making it this way.
