Surface Finishes
Surface finish changes how a fabric’s face feels and looks without changing its underlying knit structure. We offer three:
Smooth Plain
The fabric’s natural knitted surface, left untouched — a clean, technical face with no added texture.
Brushed Raised
A mechanical brushing process lifts fibres from the fabric’s back to create a soft, raised nap — adding warmth and a plush hand-feel.
Peached
A finer abrasive finish than brushing, peaching creates an ultra-soft, suede-like micro-texture on the fabric face.
How Finishing Treatments Are Applied
Most of our functional treatments are applied through a pad-dry-cure process: the knitted, dyed fabric is run through a chemical bath formulated for the specific treatment, passed through rollers that squeeze it to a controlled, even pickup, then dried and cured under heat so the treatment bonds to the fibre rather than sitting on the surface as a temporary coating. Curing temperature and time are treatment-specific — get them wrong and a water-repellent finish can wash out after a few cycles instead of holding up over the garment’s life. Surface finishes like brushing and peaching, by contrast, are entirely mechanical: raised or abraded by machine rather than chemically applied, which is why they can be combined freely with any of the chemical treatments below without interaction issues.
Performance Treatments
On top of surface finish, we apply functional treatments that change how a fabric performs in use — independent of colour or construction. Any of these can be added to a custom build in our Build Your Fabric tool.
Non-Bleed
Locks dye into the fibre so colour doesn’t transfer or bleed onto lighter garments during washing or sweat exposure — critical for dark-coloured sportswear.
DryFit
A moisture-wicking treatment that pulls sweat away from the skin to the fabric’s outer face, where it spreads out and evaporates faster.
Anti-Microbial
Inhibits the growth of bacteria on the fabric surface — the main source of odour build-up in worn activewear.
Anti-Odor
Works alongside anti-microbial treatment to actively neutralize odour-causing compounds rather than just masking them.
Anti-Pilling
Reduces the small fibre balls ("pills") that form on a fabric surface from friction and repeated washing, keeping the face looking newer for longer.
UV Protected
Adds a UPF rating to the fabric, blocking a measured portion of UV radiation from passing through to the skin — useful for outdoor and summer apparel.
Water Repellent
A surface treatment that causes water to bead and roll off rather than soak in, without sealing the fabric or blocking breathability.
Fire Retardant
Reduces flammability and slows flame spread, meeting the baseline requirement for certain workwear and industrial apparel applications.
Anti-Static
Reduces static charge build-up in synthetic fabric, preventing the cling and small shocks common in 100% polyester garments.
Wrinkle Free
A finish that helps fabric resist creasing during wear and washing, so garments hold a cleaner, pressed appearance with less ironing.
Choosing Finishes for Your Application
The right combination of finishes depends on what the garment actually has to do. A running or training top typically benefits most from DryFit paired with Anti-Odor and Anti-Microbial — the three work together to move sweat out, evaporate it fast, and stop it from building up into odour between wears. Outdoor and summer apparel leans on UV Protected alongside Water Repellent for light rain and splash resistance without losing breathability. Workwear and industrial apparel is where Fire Retardant becomes relevant, often combined with Anti-Static in environments where static discharge is a safety concern. For everyday apparel and team uniforms sold in darker colourways, Non-Bleed and Wrinkle Free are the two treatments that most directly protect how the garment looks after repeated washing. None of these combinations are fixed rules — they’re a starting point we refine once we know your fabric’s end use.
Combining Finishes
Most of our finishing treatments can be layered — a fabric can carry DryFit and Anti-Odor and UV Protected together, for example, since each works through a different mechanism. The practical limit is usually hand-feel: stacking too many surface-level treatments onto a lightweight fabric can start to change its drape, so we’ll flag that during your build if a particular combination is likely to affect feel rather than just performance.
From Knit to Dye to Finish
Finishing is the last of three stages every SKF Polytex fabric passes through, and it’s worth understanding how the three connect. The fabric is circular knitted first, to the construction, yarn and GSM you specify. It’s then dyed to your exact shade, azo-free and OEKO-TEX certified. Only once colour is set does it move to finishing, where surface texture and performance treatments are applied. Ordering each stage separately isn’t something you need to manage yourself — when you submit a Build Your Fabric request, all three stages are specified in a single form and run as one production order.