The upsurge of stitch-free apparel products has been a growing trend in the apparel industry in recent years, especially in high-end apparel products such as activewear, sportswear, intimate wear, and footwear.
Stitch-free or in other words stitchless apparel does not use traditional stitching techniques with needles and strings to join the fabric panels together in order to make the full apparel product. Instead it uses stitch-free apparel technologies such as welding and bonding which has been developing rapidly in recent years driving the new innovations in the apparel industry. This has created new opportunities for the apparel brands to gain competitive advantage over other brands by designing novel products with a high level of comfort and aesthetics through adaptation of these technologies.
There are two main technologies, which are welding and bonding, used in stitch-free apparel manufacturing or stitchless apparel manufacturing processes. Even though in the stitchless fabric assembling domain the terms “welding” and “bonding” are used interchangeably on some occasions, the stitchless apparel welding technologies are quite different from stitchless bonding technologies. Not only the technology, even the properties of the final apparel product made from stitchless apparel welding technologies are different from the stitchless bonding technologies. So apparel designers should carefully consider adapting these technologies based on the intended features of the end product.
An ultrasonic wave is used to melt and fuse two thermoplastic fabrics together in the stitch-free apparel welding process. There will not be any glue required for this technology. Ultrasonic stitch-free fabric welding will result in an embossed motif along the entire seam in a stitchless manner. On the other hand, stitch-free apparel bonding uses additional adhesive in-between two fabric layers. Stitch-free apparel bonding will result in a flat seam appearance in a stitchless manner. So, not only the fabric type but also the final product properties like aesthetics and comfort can be a decisive factor when selecting the appropriate stitchless fabric joining technology for an apparel product such as next-generation intimate wear or sportswear.
By incorporating stitch-free apparel manufacturing technologies, apparel brands can introduce new products with distinct comfort as well as market-leading aesthetics. these technologies help consumers with tactile sensitivity or hypersensitivity by eliminating the rough edges of the apparel products. Another key advantage of using bonded apparel technologies is the ability to reduce air drag and improve the performance attributes such as elasticity, compression, and elasticity, which is especially beneficial in sportswear and activewear. Also, apparel brands can eliminate material wastage and improve the sustainability aspects of their final products by adapting bonded apparel technologies.
At Bondville (Pvt) Ltd, we provide consultancy to design and manufacturing services of bonded apparel products by providing one-stop bonded apparel solutions to apparel brands. Our goal is to help apparel brands come up with novel, innovative, and market-winning apparel products by adapting stitch-less apparel technologies into their products. Bondville is a leading bonded apparel manufacturing service provider in Sri Lanka.
Please find a sample stitchless bonded apparel solution below, which we have designed and manufactured for a novel activewear startup in the UK.
