We see the term Super 180, Super 200, and other quality levels of wool fabrics available in the markets, but what is the meaning of these numbers and how did they arise? To answer this question, we must go back to the beginning of the appearance of this term “super” or “S” in wool fabrics, which was its first appearance in the late eighteenth century in Huddersfield, England, when Joseph lumb and his sons introduced Lumb’s Huddersfield super 100s wool to the markets, with the aim of clarifying the quality of the wool used in its raw materials for consumers, as the word “Super” symbolizes the degree of purity of wool or wool mixed with some rare fibers such as mohair or a little Lycra.
Then the US Department of Agriculture established the United States Wool Standards, which is a mechanism and tool for clarifying the average diameter of fibers used in wool raw materials. It aims to provide a more objective classification of wool fabrics for consumers in the markets. For each specific diameter, there is a symbol for the average diameter of the fibers, for example, Super wool raw materials. 170 The average diameter of its fibers is 15.25 micrometers, according to the system stipulated in the Textile Code issued by the International Wool textile Organization “IWTO”.
Although not all manufacturers follow the guidelines stipulated in the IWTO Code, which explains what consumers see of the difference in the degree of softness of wool materials that carry the same super grade from one fabric manufacturer to another, we find that they all share the same approach to clarify the same goal, which is that with an increase in the super number increases the softness of the wool material, which requires an increase in the number of threads used. It should be noted here that in most types of wool fabrics, as the level or degree of the super increases, the weight decreases. Also, a higher weight of the fabric does not necessarily mean more warmth in the chosen material.