Lark's Guide to Performance Fabric
“Performance” fabric is term thrown around by a lot of companies these days, but not all performance fabrics are made equal. Here’s our no-nonsense guide to the different types of performance fabric.
Solution Dyed Acrylic:
This is the OG performance fabric. It’s been around for years. You might know it as Sunbrella or Perennials — both big brand names when it comes to Solution Dyed Acrylic. It is light-fast up to 1500 hours — which means it will take 1500 hours before it starts to fade in the sun. It’s also bleach-cleanable. That’s right - you can spray bleach right onto a stain to clean it. Its one weakness? It doesn’t resist stains in the first place. Translated: it’s easy to clean when it gets dirty, but it gets dirty easily.
Crypton:
Have you ever seen a video of red wine poured onto fabric — and then soaked up easily by a paper towel? That’s Crypton. Crypton’s advantage is that, unlike Sunbrella, it is actually stain repellent. Liquids just bead up on top of it. I once had a client tell me they were able to wipe mud right off their new sofa after the dog came in from the rain and jumped on it. The downside? You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT use this outside. It is not light-fast. It will fade faster than my grandmother at Disneyworld. In addition, if a stain gets through that layer of stain protection, you can’t clean it with bleach.
Inside-Out:
This brand is fairly new to the market and is the holy grail of performance fabrics. If Sunbrella and Crypton had a baby, it would be Inside-Out. It has both the light-fast and bleach cleanable properties of Sunbrella AND the stain resistance of Crypton. The downside? The jury is still out — but in our experience the patterns and colors are more limited and it can sometimes pill. Despite these issues, this is still our #1 choice when it comes to performance fabric.
So next time a salesman tells you “it’s bullet-proof! It’s performance fabric!” you can dig into the details. Knowledge is power! For more tips on buying a new sofa (now that you know all about the fabric choices) head over to this blog post!
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