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Where Do Fibers Come From?

• Natural Fibers: Come from plants and animals and are spun or twisted into yarns. Cotton is the most common natural fiber used to make thread. Other natural fibers include silk, wool, jute, ramie, hemp, and linen. Natural fibers are generally not as uniform as synthetic fibers and are affected by climatic changes. At A&E, we use cotton as a fiber source for some of our thread. We select our cotton fibers from the best available crops, classifying them depending on the geographic location and climate, seed and type of plant, and the cotton grower's reputation. The two classes of cotton fibers that we use at A&E are SAK (or Supima) cotton that comes from Arizona and CP (or Peeler) that comes from the San Juaquin Valley in California. SAK quality cotton produces stronger spun cotton threads than CP fibers.
   
• Synthetic Fibers: Are made from various chemicals or regenerated from cellulose such as wood pulp and cotton waste. We select our synthetic fibers based on their sewability characteristics, seam performance, ease of dying, colorfastness, and pricing. At A&E, the synthetic fibers that we use as a source to make thread are polyester, nylon, Kevlar® from Dupont, and Nomex® from Dupont.
   

Fibers Come in What Forms?

When we receive bales of cotton, polyester, nylon, Kevlar®, and Nomex®, the fiber contained in the bales comes in one of the following forms:

• Staple: Refers to natural fibers that vary in length or to synthetic fibers with filaments that are cut to a definite length during the manufacturing process.
   
• Continuous Filament: Refers to synthetic fibers of an indefinite length.