Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Microfiber is a term for fibers with strands thinner than one denier. Fabrics made with microfibers are exceptionally soft and hold their shape well. Microfiber performance apparel has become a popular alternative to cotton for athletic wear, as the material wicks moisture away from the body, keeping the athlete cool and dry, and microfiber is also widely used for cleaning tasks where its fine fibers leave no lint or dust.
Microfiber performance apparel has become a very popular alternative to cotton apparel for athletic wear, as the microfiber material wicks moisture away from the body, keeping the athlete cool and dry.
Microfiber is also widely used by car detailers to handle such tasks as removing wax, quick detailing, cleaning interior, cleaning glass, as well as drying. Due to its fine fibers which leave no lint or dust, microfiber is the ultimate all-in-one choice of towel for avid car detailers and enthusiasts
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Microfiber is one of the few fabric words defined by a number. Below one denier, a single filament is finer than silk, and everything characteristic follows from scale. A yarn spun from microfibers contains far more filaments than a yarn of ordinary fibers at the same weight, so the fabric surface is denser, smoother and softer; the cloth drapes in smaller folds and holds its shape well because the fine filaments distribute stress across many more contact points. Most apparel and cleaning microfibers are polyester or polyester-polyamide, and the premium cleaning grades are split microfibers: each filament is manufactured as a bundle of wedge segments that are split apart in finishing, opening the star-shaped channels that give split microfiber its exceptional absorbency and dirt capture. Unsplit microfiber, used in apparel and suede-like fabrics, keeps the softness and wicking with a smoother surface. The one-denier line in the definition is therefore not trivia — it is the border between an ordinary synthetic fabric and a different handling class.
The same fineness built two unrelated markets. In athletic wear, microfiber addressed cotton weakness: cotton absorbs sweat and holds it against the skin, growing heavy and cold, while microfiber transports moisture along its fiber channels to the surface to evaporate, so garments stay lighter and the athlete stays drier — the definition direct claim, and the reason microfiber became the popular alternative to cotton for sport. In cleaning, the physics repeat at a different task: fine split fibers reach into microscopic surface texture, lift particles and hold them, and release no lint, which is exactly what glass, paintwork and interiors require. Care links the two careers: microfiber should be washed without fabric softener, whose residues coat the fine fibers and destroy both wicking and pickup, and dried at moderate heat. Washed correctly, the fineness that defines the material is durable; washed with softener, a microfiber cloth becomes an ordinary cloth with an extraordinary name.
Denier measures fiber fineness as weight per unit length: a fiber of one denier weighs one gram per 9,000 metres. A microfiber is finer than that — finer than a strand of silk at about one denier, and a small fraction of the diameter of a human hair — which is why microfiber fabrics feel exceptionally soft: thousands of very fine fibers bend easily against the skin.
By capillary action through the dense spaces between its very fine fibers, greatly increased when the fibers are split into wedge-shaped segments during manufacture, multiplying surface area and channels. Sweat is drawn along those channels and spread to evaporate, which is the mechanism behind microfiber athletic apparel keeping the athlete cool and dry.
The fine fibers leave no lint or dust, pick up and hold dirt and wax residue in their dense structure instead of pushing it around, and are soft enough not to scratch paint or glass. The definition notes the uses: removing wax, quick detailing, cleaning interiors and glass, and drying — microfiber is the all-in-one choice of towel for detailers.