Seamless Knitting Bringing Advantages to Producers and Consumers

Seamless clothing has a unique combination of performance characteristics that give it a special appeal in many end uses. These characteristics include comfort, smooth fit, lightness, aesthetic appearance, and ease of care. The production of seamless clothing can use seamless knitting technology, or seamless techniques such as adhesive bonding or welding, or a combination of the two.

Understanding seamless knitting

Seamless knitting is an exciting technology that can produce garments in a single production process. In addition, it offers almost limitless possibilities in design, pattern structure, and shaping. The technology used to produce seamless clothing was once limited to the production of socks and underwear. However, it has undergone significant changes since the late 1990s, mainly due to advances in knitting machines and programmable software. Therefore, it has entered a wide range of clothing applications, including outerwear, sportswear, compression garments, and medical clothing.

The advantages of seamless knitting and seaming

Seamless knitting and seaming offer some major advantages for producers and consumers. For producers, they can add considerable value to their products. For consumers, they provide comfort and freedom of movement that conventional seamed clothing cannot match. Some of the most innovative seamless clothing in recent years has been created through collaboration between designers, fabric manufacturers, and knitting machine suppliers. For example, seamless machine supplier Santoni collaborated in 2016 with three leading companies from different fields of the textile industry: Lenzing, Tonello, and Unitin, to develop a knitted denim series. Experts have no doubt that these technologies will increasingly move into the major field of functional clothing, especially in applications such as fitness and sportswear that place high emphasis on comfort.

It is important to distinguish between seamless knitting technology and seaming technology. The use of seamless knitting in garment production, also known as three-dimensional knitting, produces products without any seams. The use of seaming techniques, such as adhesive bonding and ultrasonic welding, produces products that do have seams but still have a seamless appearance. Many clothing products now use these technologies, although only a relatively small proportion are completely seam-free. Seamless knitting and seaming can complement each other. For example, garments made on seamless knitting machines can be finished with welding to produce products with no seams or needle holes. Seamless knitting and seaming technology bring many advantages to consumers and clothing manufacturers.