Why Does Pilling Happen?

First of all, what is pilling?

Imagine the fibers in your clothes like tiny strands of hair.
Up close, they’re not smooth, they have little flakes, and in natural fabrics, each “strand” is actually a bunch of smaller fibers twisted together.

Just like your hair gets split ends that eventually tangle into knots, the fibers in fabric do the exact same thing.

Those little pill balls you see on your clothes are tiny knots formed by semi-broken fibers on the surface.

Why does pilling matter?

Because once the surface of a fabric pills, the item instantly starts looking… cheap.

If you’ve ever stared at your closet thinking, “Ugh, I have nothing to wear,” it’s often because the surface finish of your clothes has changed causing them to look worn out, and pilling is one of the biggest tells.

It can make things look old even if they’re not, ask us how we know, sigh.

Can pilling be avoided?

Kind of. It depends on the fabric.

For fabrics that pill, you can delay the onset of pilling by:

• washing cold
  
  

• using gentler detergents
  
  

• air drying
  
  

• avoiding harsh friction (wash like fabrics with like)
  
  

but even meticulous laundering can't stop a fabric from pilling if it's just prone to it.

What we’re doing differently

We developed a proprietary 100% cotton fabric tested for over six months to not pill under unusually harsh washing and abrasion conditions specifically so we could make a 100% cotton thong with zero tradeoffs. Because we know the woman we're talking to is not looking to compromise.

Follow along for Part Two where we explain how we engineered that.