Our Cotton
All of our fabrics are made with 100% Supima cotton, and all are fabricated from plied yarns. Each fabrication is knit on a specific machine, which we own, so they never change. The result is a fabric with minimal shrinkage and virtually no torque.
Supima cotton is grown in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and southern California, and is the longest staple cotton in the world. With strong, super fine fibers, more fibers per cross section is allowed in a given yarn count. This in turn gives superior dye absorption and improved moisture management properties.
Dying
There are three ways to dye a product; garment dye, piece dye and yarn dye. Garment dye is where you dye the finished product, piece dye is where you dye the fabric and trim, and yarn dye is where the greige yarn is dyed before knitting. To keep our color consistent throughout the product line, everything we do is yarn dye, even our solids. The process for depth of color and dye penetration starts when the yarn is placed on a dye tube, inserted in a dye kettle, and then dyed at specific pressure and temperature. We owe it to yarn dye for our excellent color fastness; nothing gets better color and luster.
Knitting Process
High thread count towels and sheets absorb moisture extremely well and evaporate moisture relatively quickly. Your body accumulates moisture; the sheets pull it off and evaporate it to the atmosphere. Good cotton really manages moisture, takes it in, converts it, and takes it out.
Torque refers to the twisting of fabrics after they are laundered. Our fabrics are produced on circular knitting machines that induce a natural torque on fabric. We have all had shirts that you can’t line up on an ironing board to save your life. The only right way to eliminate torque is to use plied yarns. We take two single ends of yarn and twist them together in the opposite direction of the knitting machine to counteract that torque. Our shirts lay perfectly flat after wash and dry.
There will always be some shrinkage in natural fiber products but it can be minimized and controlled. We begin by knitting very tight. Our fabrics are knit at 28 needles per inch. With the gauge yarn we use, it can’t be any tighter.
We also knit very slow feeding less than 44 ends of yarn in the machine at a time. This is slow but makes a fabric that is very stable wash after wash. Once we knit our fabrics and trim, we finish both thoroughly. Through the production process, fabrics get twisted and stretched as you can imagine. If their natural position isn’t restored, the product will not be stable in a washing machine.
We cut and sew at our factory in South West Virginia. Every product is cut from the same set of patterns. The result is that our sizing is always consistent. Our product has negligible shrinkage so if a large fits, that’s what you need.
We are a vertical Company offering state of the art embroidery services including digitization. We have provided embroidery for many of the top 100 golf facilities in the country. We use exclusively rayon thread. No polyester!
Resin Finish
We apply resin to our fabrics and trim. Resin is the best method known for maximizing color retention and controlling shrinkage in the width of a garment. Robert Bryan Limited is the only manufacturer using a resin finish in the clothing industry. Resin will break down lesser blends of cotton and that is why it is principally used on industrial grade blends, but because of our high quality cotton it does not hurt our product.
Two years ago we developed a stay collar. We also added lycra to the collar. Every Collar is also treated with resin, and then we insert the stay. When the collar is attached to the shirt, the stay is permanent. The resin treatment and stay in the collar prevents the collar from curling.
