Huang Shan Today

Cloth is basically composed of a fibrous substance like wool or cotton. The individual strands of wool or cotton is short and physical weak. This is readily apparent with the weak force needed to pull a wad of medical cotton out of the pack. Cloth gets its strength from the spinning of the fibers into a thread. The individual strands pull on each other and lends resistance to a pulling force. Further strength is given by weaving it into the actual cloth.

Advances in technology allow for synthetics, like Nylon, to be woven into cloth. This allows superior strength, light weight, sweat management and even luster to cloth. These features are readily apparent with sports wear like NFL jerseys. However, some traditional sports wear, like polo shirts from Lacoste, are still woven with cotton as majority with some additives. Other advanced textiles, like Lycra, provide a stretching component to the cloth, specially in swim wear and stretch pants produced by manufacturers like Ed Hardy.