Ep. 440: Performance Fabrics 101 with Patrick Shelton

0:01Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home. I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head up the creative team. We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world.

0:22Patrick Shelton:Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balordesigns.net. Now on with the show. I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick. Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney Plus, rated PG-13. All right.

1:05We get lots of questions here on the podcast. There are lots of common themes that pop up among them, one of which is about performance fabrics. That is a new, you know, kind of buzzword in the industry, the home industry right now. And we know people have lots of questions about it. What does it mean? So we invited the experts to come answer your questions. Patrick Shelton from Valdez Weavers and Inside Out Performance Fabrics. With 10 years of experience at Valdez, Patrick brings deep technical expertise in fabric contents, cleanability, real world applications of performance fabrics. And he's going to decode it all for us.

1:40So, Patrick, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Happy to be here and be part of the conversation. And I will do my best, I promise. Well, there are, you know, obviously we work together. We carry inside out performance fabrics in our collection in addition to a couple other varieties. You know, we carry some umbrella and some Krypton and some other things. but we're going to talk about performance fabrics as a whole and you know just try to get down into all the details what people should know when they're shopping questions they may have about you know where should I put it what is like the right application when do I need it what is the cleaning like all that kind of stuff so maybe we can just start at the beginning and you give us kind of a rundown of what is what is the what is the term performance fabric mean to wait caroline what we should start with who patrick is i know nothing about he said he were okay all right patrick how did you get into this seeing as this has been you know you guys have so much history so i want to know how you got in here well um i started at valde's weavers about 15 years ago in a management training role and you know that encompassed a lot of different things so um you know from working on every shift that we have to making yarn and dyeing yarn and weaving fabric finishing fabric testing quality standards sampling distribution everything that we do as a company um you know i got a up close and personal look at it um so got a deep understanding of of who we are and what we do, which continues to help me be a better asset and resource as I work with Ballard to get you the best product that's in line and appropriate with what you do as a company and what you're looking for.

3:35Will you tell us now about Valdez Weavers and just like the start of it? Absolutely. So Valdez Weavers is a 110-year-old company based in the foothills of North Carolina, actually in Valdez, North Carolina. So it's about 10 minutes, 15 minutes west of Hickory, North Carolina, furniture capital of the world. We're about an hour northwest of Charlotte, an hour and a half west of High Point, where furniture market is held twice a year. But we are a completely vertical textile mill, the largest in North America, and one of the leaders to a number of different markets that we serve. So nobody does everything that we do, which has allowed for us to continue to thrive and withstand different challenges and obstacles that the industry has faced for a number of years.

4:34But as I talk about being completely vertical, we make yarn, dye yarn, we finish. We have 40 designers on staff. We operate three shifts a day, five or six days a week. And a really cool nugget for us is we're 100 % employee owned. So we have over 700 associates at Valdez Weavers, all of which are owners of the company. So really cool from a culture aspect that all of our associates get to take part and benefit from our shared success. But, you know, as a company, we service a lot of different markets. So furniture, upholstery fabric is really the core of what we do, but we're also a leading supplier to fabric distributors that service and sell to the interior design trade.

5:22We work with all of the lifestyle furniture retail brands. We work in the contract and hospitality segment of the market. So, you know, off the systems and wall covering fabrics and fabrics for hospitality and hotels. So we do a lot of different things, but that diversification keeps us steady all while we're trying to come up with what's next. Innovation is the cornerstone of what makes us unique and special, but also that challenge keeps us at the forefront of the market. So performance is a big topic and a big category for us as a company. And over the last 10 years, as performance has gone from a nice to have to a must have, you know, it now makes up about 75 percent of all of our sales.

6:10So it's continued to grow and evolve and our assets and resources have continued to be devoted to offering unique and special and decorative and beautiful products that your customers and clients and designers want to have without sacrifice. Taryn, do you have a follow-up question or can we get into performance fabrics? Fine. Yes, let's get into the nitty gritty of just what are these and everything. So any listener who's, you know, this is new to them to understand, let's just get that education going. So generally, when we have conversations around, you know, performance fabrics, we always start with the question, you know, what is performance?

6:57What does it actually mean? Because there's not a specific definition for performance and what it is and what it should do. Because to be honest, it changes with every customer and their lifestyle and what their needs are in and around performance. So, you know, performance, is it durability? Is it cleanability? And, you know, is it cleanable with soap and water? Is it cleanable with bleach? Is it fade resistant? Is it liquid resistant? Is it eco-friendly on top of all of these things? And, you know, to this point, there have been so many different types of products that satisfy certain parts of that answer.

7:36And there are a lot of great products and brands that do various things. But, you know, performance in and of itself is a gray topic at best. So what I hope to help with today is help clarify some of what performance means and ultimately allow for your customer to make the best selection for their environment and their lifestyle as they shop at Ballot. Yeah. So there are a lot of different things that fall under that Performance Fabrics umbrella. It's kind of like a buzzword that encompasses a lot. So it is hard to know when you're shopping what you're actually getting and what each different brand means by Performance Fabrics.

8:18So there are, would you say there are like generally two big groups? There's sort of the solution dyed or the yarn dyed, which is what Inside Out is. And then there's also some things that are like more coated after they've been, I don't even know if I'm using the right terms, but like they've been weaved, woven, and then they're coated. So talk to us about those kind of two things, just sort of overview of what types of things we're talking about when we're talking about performance fabrics. Yeah, so performance can be achieved in two different ways. You can have yarn-based performance where performance is engineered into the yarn, or you can have performance created by an added finish or chemistry added to the fabric that makes it repel and cleanable.

9:14So, you know, Ballard offers a great variety and range of products and performance is achieved both ways within that offering. So, you know, we sell a lot of Krypton Home performance fabrics that are available at Ballard and into the market. And that product offers this broad variety of different yarn types and yarn options. So you can use natural fibers like cottons and linens and rayons and polyesters and then add this, you know, performance finish to the product that makes it repel liquids like your red wine or water or whatever it may be. It's going to roll off. It's going to help prevent the stain from happening in the first place.

10:00And then it also makes it cleanable with soap and water. So that's, you know, one application. And I also want to mention that the Queen's Velvet that's been at Ballard for a number of years and a top seller, we've recently added new colors and introduced it as a performance velvet. And it's the same type of treatment or performance. So that's one way to present and create performance. The other is really at the fiber level. So Sunbrella is a great brand. It's a great product. They utilize all solution dyed acrylic and that yarn inherently offers great color fastness and is really great for fade resistance outdoor settings, which you've used for a number of years.

10:43So there the color is added to the fabric. The performance is engineered into the fabric as it's being made. And then a topical treatment or chemistry is added to the fabric so that it does the same things that the chemistry-based performance that we talked about a little bit earlier does. It repels your liquids. It's cleanable with soap and water. But when the performance is engineered into the yarn, it also makes it bleach-cleanable and fade-resistant and have some other properties as well. So it can be achieved a number of ways and then also starts to support maybe different lifestyles or different applications depending on how it's created.

11:21So that's kind of a baseline of how each are maybe a little bit different or how they're made. And then you have inside out, which performance is complicated and I'm in it, we're in it every single day. and what we saw at the point of sale as we work with your sellers and with designers is I've got all these brands and all these products and they all say performance. How do I get my customer or my designer what they actually need? And it was confusing. So that was the genesis or the question that we asked. How do we make a product that can offer the highest level of design and style and great color, but performance at the fiber level?

12:07It's never going to wash or wear away. It's going to be fade resistant. It's going to be bleach cleanable, but also kind of merge those two topics that we talked about earlier. And that's where Inside Out comes in. So it was the first all-in-one performance product that is engineered at the fiber level. It has this, you know, added treatment to make it resist and repel liquids, cleanable with soap and water or diluted bleach. But it's going to look and feel like a decorative, beautiful indoor fabric that you can sit on and live on every day without sacrifice or without concern. I've got two toddlers under four, which are crazy jumping up and down on it, spilling their milk or eating on it or whatever it may be, or me most of the time.

12:52But something that you can feel really comfortable with, you're not making a sacrifice in getting that chenille or that velvet or that linen look or that tweed, your home can still be what you want it to be without fear or concern that you're going to ruin it. So that was kind of how we developed a product that's continued to evolve. But I think if you, and the ultimate test of that is when somebody walks into your store and you look at it and you feel it, we want them to fall in love first. And then, oh, by the way, this is perfect for your kids or your pets or your busy or active lifestyle. Yeah, it seems like, you know, maybe five, maybe even just a couple of years ago, the fabrics that were sort of treated after they were woven, those were the ones that maybe had like the patterns and the colors and something like you really wanted to use, but you felt like, I can't really put this on a chair because it's in a high traffic area, you know, whatever.

13:58And the solution sort of yarn dyed was something like a little more simple, maybe more basics. Like the good news is that that has really sort of blurred, right? Because of what you're saying with Inside Out and others, the technology has just evolved so much that now you kind of have both, but it also makes it more complicated because you're like, wait, now everything has like the feel and the hand and the color and the pattern. But talk to us about the different sort of fibers and what if we read that on a like product page or something and it says, you know, 100 % solution dyed polyester or acrylic, Like, what does that mean?

14:48And maybe, like, let's go through all the different ones so that people can understand, even if they're not looking at what it's called on a website or something, what the actual fiber name means. You know, like sort of those definitions, what they can expect from it and like how you would clean each one, maybe. I will start with, you know, there are a lot of different types of fibers. And then, you know, once you get the fiber, you can use it as a filament. You could use it as a spun yarn. You can make it into a boucle or a chenille. So there are a lot of factors and variables within that. However, based on the general assortment for home decor or upholstery fabrics, you've got polyester, you've got olefin or polypropylene, you've got rayon or viscose, cotton, and acrylic within your offering.

15:39So I'll touch on those mostly. And I will start by saying that every yarn has its positive attributes and its negative attributes. So we could get into a little bit of a rabbit hole. So pull me out if we start to get that way. But I'll start with synthetic yarns versus cellulosic or more natural fibers. Your synthetic yarns are polyester, polypropylene, and acrylic. And generally, polypropylene is your most value-oriented yarn. Historically, polypropylene, it's actually used a lot in carpets and rugs because it's inherently cleanable. It's inherently hydrophobic. It's going to repel liquids and moisture.

16:31but the aesthetic or the look in the hand is not necessarily as great as some other fibers. So, you know, that would be probably the drawback. It's got great performance, but the drawback is maybe it's not as decorative as what you may want. You know, polyester, I think, and that's kind of a foundational yarn for our platform, is it's really durable and be really cleanable, especially when you add treatments to it. And it can look and feel more decorative than some other fibers, especially with the evolution of just yarn and yarn technology. Acrylic's a great fiber, as I mentioned earlier. It's going to offer you the highest level of color fastness or fade resistance, which is why acrylic's been used in outdoor settings and outdoor applications for years.

17:25And Sunbrella has done a great job in championing solution dyed acrylic because it's great for outdoor settings and awnings and umbrellas and things like that. But the drawback with acrylic is the more you sit on it, the more you use it. And this is true whether it's in a sweater or whether it's in your outdoor upholstery. it has a tendency to, a propensity to peel or wear more sooner than maybe some other fibers. And I think historically that's always been okay because you don't sit on your outdoor furniture the same amount that you do your indoor furniture, which can be every single day, except maybe in some parts of the country.

18:08And, you know, one of these days, maybe I'll move to one of those places. But so that's kind of the pros and cons with those. And then you've got, cotton, which is just a great natural fiber. And then you've got rayon as well. Rayon offers a higher level of sheen. It's maybe a little bit more decorative, but it has a tendency to possibly water spot if you get spills on it. Cotton offers a great dry, matte look and appearance, but again, not necessarily going to be as cleanable as maybe some other synthetic fibers. So I think as you work to achieve performance, you're always trying to balance. It's got to be decorative.

18:53It's got to be beautiful. It's got to be at the right price, but it's also got to perform. So as you blend and marry these different fiber types and these different constructions to create these beautiful fabrics, you can't sacrifice that it's going to be cleanable and it's going to be durable and it's going to meet the demands within the home. And that's really, you know, where I think we come in with our heritage and designing and developing products for the home for a hundred years. Like it's this creative balance that our team has and expertise to create something that... Hi listeners, if this episode has inspired you to tackle a project in your own home, we want to help with a special offer just for podcast fans.

19:35We know how exciting it is to bring your vision to life, whether you're updating a room or starting a refresh. You'll find everything you need to create a space that feels uniquely yours. As a thank you for listening, enjoy 20 % off plus free shipping on your next order with the code PODCAST20. Visit BallardDesigns.com to get started. Your dream home is just a click away. Use PODCAST20 for 20 % off plus free shipping. Code's not combinable with other offers. See terms and conditions for details. All right, happy decorating. Let's get back to the show.

20:05blends the best of all of these fibers while minimizing some of the negative.

20:10Patrick Shelton:It's been so exciting to see the evolution of performance fabrics in our homes. And we're putting them on our upholstered pieces throughout our catalog and photography all the time, just because they're so beautiful. And, you know, there has been such an evolution of performance really just being for outdoor and being a little bit tougher to the hand to what you provide with Inside Out, which has, you know, incredible cleanability. And it's so remarkably soft. I think that's super exciting. And I have been blown away to find out that our Queen's Velvet is performance. Not to the degree that an Inside Out is, because Inside Out is solution dyed.

21:06Patrick Shelton:That color goes all the way through every single yarn. But our velvet is now cleanable with soap and water? Correct. Okay, that's wild. So what is the best way to clean a velvet? Great question. And yes, I am super excited about Queen's Velvet and its kind of rebirth or relaunch at Ballard. It's been such a great seller, but now to be able to tout it as performance and add it in 18 colors, and now it's available in finished products and pillows and window treatments. Like, it is a go-to staple item. and, you know, it's great for so many applications and so many customers, as long as you don't need the fade resistance or the bleach cleanability.

21:56So super, super excited about that. And thank you for using it so much throughout your catalog. We obviously love to see that. But the way to clean a velvet, so velvets and other, even chenille fabrics are pile fabrics. So, you know, as you rub your hand one way and then rub it the other, you know, the pile will orient with how you're rubbing the fabric, right? So it can look like it's, you know, shaded or, you know, different coloration. So it's really important to clean it in the same direction, if you will, so that the pile's going in the right way. But generally, I would say the first thing with cleaning any fabric, not just velvet, is don't panic.

22:43Don't overreact. Don't go get the tire brush and use a bunch of elbow grease and try to get it out. I think the best thing for anybody to do is to take a deep breath, relax. Like it is a decorative, beautiful fabric first. And oh, by the way, it's cleanable. So I think if you go and you get just a simple, you know, rag or paper towel, just blot first to try to remove the stain, get any excess dirt or excess spill off of it. Because if you don't, you're going to push it into the fabric. So I would remove any excess first. You can vacuum and to try to get any dirt off of that as well. And then I would just start with water.

23:26Just a simple water bottle, misting bottle. Spray it lightly. Blot again. The worst thing you can do is feel like the harder you scrub, the better it's going to be. Because you can wear a hole in the fabric. It doesn't matter what performance product we're talking about. None of them are indestructible. so you can rub a hole in the fabric and ruin any fabric but um you know i would start with just water simply blot simply rub again in the same direction and i would go full cushion to to cushion um because if you just clean a simple spot a single spot you might get that really clean but the rest of the cushion it's gonna collect dust and dirt over time anyway um you know it's It's funny, we talk when we do these presentations, like these fabrics are really great and they're really beautiful and they're everything that you said earlier, which was awesome, but they're not self-cleaning.

24:22Like we're not to that point yet. Innovation and technology is coming. AI, something might figure that out, but we are not there today. So I think it's important to clean, you know, the entire cushion and to just be gentle with it. And if that doesn't come out, I would move to simple soap and water. but I would also just encourage and remind people that you don't need more soap than necessary. So we've got really dedicated cleaning instructions that we provided. It's on the website. I would defer and default to those. Spray it, get it off but then always remember to rinse afterward because you've got to get the soap out.

25:03Soap attracts dirt. So while you might get it clean today if you don't rinse and get the soap out of it you're potentially creating a bigger problem down the road that's going to be even harder to clean. And then one other tip, if you will, is try to do it when it happens. You know, my kids, they do something, we flip the cushion, you come back a month later, it's going to be really hard to get it out because it's been allowed to set in there. So I think the quicker you can get to it and, you know, the more just frequent upkeep and treatment you can do, the better your investment is going to be protected for the long term.

25:45Patrick Shelton:Is there a soap that you recommend? Because not all soaps are made equally as well. That's very true. Yeah, I would use powder detergent. I don't have a brand favorite. My wife might. But I think everybody has things that they prefer, but a powdered detergent is going to work better than a liquid detergent. And again, put that in your water, your bottle, mix it thoroughly, and then spray. But, you know, we usually use like a Tide or a Dawn or just standard, you know, over-the-counter brands and soap or detergent. Can I tell you how I – this is like my process, and I want you to pick it apart for me and tell me if I'm doing it wrong.

26:30Patrick Shelton:But I will say, it almost always works for me. But I put one squirt of Blue Dawn in a cup, fill the cup with water. It has to be Blue Dawn, by the way. Fill the cup with water, and then I use a little toothbrush. Blot first, scrub it with the Blue Dawn on the toothbrush lightly, and then I blot it up again, and then I rinse it with a clean cup of water. lightly brush again with a toothbrush, and that is my system. And I feel like it works very reliably, but I'm curious what you think about that. I think you are a pro. If this whole podcast thing doesn't work out, then we're going to call you for any customer training.

27:15But no, that's exactly it. You know, some stains are going to need to be agitated. You know, generally you could use like a fingernail, Um, but I think, um, I think a toothbrush, a soft bristle toothbrush is absolutely great. It's going to agitate. It's going to get the soap in there and then rinsing with, um, with clean water is, uh, is the right way to go. And if it's working for you, then, um, then, then that's, that's good enough. Well, you know, we, we don't want to recommend something that I know sometimes, um, even Karen was like, I do bleach, but I don't know if I should say that. So anyway, you can use bleach, but it's got to be on the right fibers and the right the right fabrics.

27:59You know, not all performance products are engineered and created the same way. So she can on the right fabric. You know what? I don't want to use bleach anywhere that like it's too risky. Even if it's on your performance fabrics, what if it like, you know, like drips onto something else? Like I just know. OK, you said something before about self-cleaning though. And I think that is such an important point because people think, oh, it's performance fabrics. That means I can pick white. And I just, okay, I've made this mistake myself, so I feel like I can talk about it. but you can pick white because you can get the stains out but to your point you are still going to have to get the stains out and clean it a lot so talk to us about maybe how um how we might shop for the right fabric in addition to just the performance options but also like what are the colors should we pick a pattern do we need a texture Those kind of other factors about fabrics that will help maybe not necessarily that they have different like fabric qualities in terms of like the cleanability of their all performance, but the way they might mask stains and, you know, wear and tear.

29:28That's a good question. And you're absolutely right. You can buy white. However, the likelihood that you're going to need to provide a little bit higher level of upkeep to keep it clean and looking crisp white is greater than if you buy something that isn't white or that is more, you know, melanged or multicolored or it has more ability to hide some sins, we'll say. But, you know, I think as we create and develop product, we develop them all to meet certain thresholds and standards for performance. So, you know, within the inside out offering at Ballard, you've got a velvet and you've got a tweed and you've got a boucle and you've got a chenille and you've got a linen look.

30:12So the customer can can select any type of product that that speaks to them with the expectation that performance is going to be the same or comparable. So it's not necessarily that this fabric is going to do better or be be more cleanable. But I think as you get into color, you know, anytime that you can have things that are a little bit more multi, I think they're going to going to hide the need to be cleaned as frequently as something that's very stark, one color, clean, crisp, and especially white. You know, one question that we get a lot as it relates to application or what a customer should should use is with pets.

30:56And everybody loves their pets. you know, my family included and, you know, they are like, they're additional children for some people, which is great. But as they get on furniture and live on furniture, there are certain fabrics that are better than others. You know, some boucles with big loops or open weave fabrics, you know, paws can get in there as they start scratching and that can create some, challenges or some issues with fabric. So really tight woven, multicolored fabrics, the velvet is a great option within your assortment. But things that really can't be, I'll say, picked as easily, there's no pet-proof fabric either.