Azo-Free Dyeing, OEKO-TEX Certified
Azo dyes are a class of synthetic colourants that can, under certain conditions, break down into aromatic amines restricted in textiles sold into many international markets. We dye exclusively with azo-free dyestuffs, and our dyeing process is carried out to OEKO-TEX certified standards — meaning the finished fabric has been tested against a defined list of substances known to be harmful to human health. For brands sourcing sportswear and apparel fabric for export, that certification is often a baseline requirement before a fabric can even be considered, and it’s built into every dye lot we run, not offered as a premium add-on.
Any Colour, Dyed On Demand
We don’t dye from a fixed colour card. Every order is matched against the reference you provide — a fabric swatch, a Pantone number in C, TPX or TPG format, or a shade description — and dyed to match. Lab dips are run first so you can approve the exact shade before we commit to a full production lot, which keeps colour consistent from your first sample through to bulk delivery. This applies across our full range: 100% polyester, polyester-spandex blends, and cationic or CDP-dyeable base fabrics all take colour differently, so we adjust dye class and process to the fibre content rather than using one method for everything.
Beyond Colour: Customizing Feel, Finish and Fabric Properties
Dyeing at SKF Polytex isn’t limited to colour matching. The dyeing stage is also where a lot of a fabric’s hand-feel and performance characteristics get set. Cationic-dyeable and CDP (customized dyeing process) base fabrics, for example, take dye differently than standard polyester — often producing deeper, richer shades or enabling two-tone and heather effects from a single dye bath. Dye temperature, time and auxiliary chemistry can also be adjusted to influence softness, shrinkage control and colourfastness rating, so two fabrics with identical fibre content can come out of dyeing with noticeably different hand-feel depending on how the process is tuned. If your project needs more than "match this colour" — a specific softness, a particular depth of shade, or a colourfastness grade for a specific market — that’s a conversation we have at the dyeing stage, not an afterthought.
Dyeing Different Fibre Blends
Not every fabric we dye has the same fibre content, and that changes how the dye process runs. 100% polyester fabrics are typically dyed using disperse dyes under high-temperature, high-pressure conditions, since polyester’s tightly packed fibre structure resists dye uptake at lower temperatures. Polyester-spandex blends need a gentler process — spandex fibre is more heat-sensitive than polyester, so dyeing temperature and time are adjusted downward to protect the fabric’s stretch and recovery, which is exactly why we treat Lycra/spandex blends as their own category rather than dyeing them on the same cycle as plain polyester. Cationic and CDP fabrics are engineered at the yarn stage to accept dye more readily, which opens up deeper colour depth and, in some constructions, the ability to dye two different fibre types to two different shades in the same bath for a heathered or melange effect.
Lab Dips and Colour Consistency
Every dyeing order starts with a lab dip — a small swatch dyed to your reference before we commit fibre, water and time to a full lot. This step exists because colour perception shifts depending on lighting, screen calibration and even the base fabric it’s viewed against, so a physical, dyed swatch in hand is the only reliable way to confirm a match before production. Once a lab dip is approved, we record the exact dye recipe — dye class, concentration, time and temperature — against that shade reference, so a repeat order months later can be dyed to match the original lot rather than approximated from scratch. That recipe record is also what lets us hold consistency across a large order that has to be dyed in multiple smaller batches to hit a delivery timeline.
Minimum Order Quantities
Our standard minimum order quantity is 150kg per lot for a given fabric and colour combination, with a reduced minimum of 25kg available for sample or pre-production runs. That lower sample threshold exists specifically so you can validate colour, hand-feel and performance on a small batch before committing to a full production order — without absorbing the cost of a full lot just to test. For brands planning a multi-colour range on the same base fabric, each colourway is treated as its own lot against that 150kg minimum, so it’s worth planning colour count against total volume early in a project rather than after fabric is already knitted.
What Happens After Dyeing
Once colour is approved and dyed, fabric moves to finishing — the stage where surface texture and functional treatments like moisture-wicking or anti-microbial protection are applied. Dyeing and finishing are ordered together, not separately, so your colour and your performance requirements are handled as one production run.