Teamwear Knit Fabrics: The Names Behind Kappa, Damla, Kaz Ayağı and Polymesh

A kit order often opens with a sentence like “we want kappa, with some damla panels.” That sentence cannot be turned into a machine instruction, because neither word names a knit — both are market names. The same name is used for two fabrics knitted on two different machines; conversely, one fabric is sold under three names. The cost is measurable: a mis-specified sampling round is two weeks and a pattern trial. The mapping below is derived from the production side — from what the needles actually do.

Teamwear fabric is not a construction, it is a use category

The Turkish word formalık describes where a fabric goes, not how it is built. Three properties make a knit suitable for kit: a polyester base, moisture management, and a flat area for the print to sit on. Single jersey, interlock, open net, dotted mesh and piqué can all deliver those three. So the category maps to a family of faces rather than to one machine, and which face you take is decided by the garment part and the intensity of use. That is why “what does teamwear fabric cost” has no single answer — the face has to be settled first.

The map between market names and knit constructions

The table below ties four common market names to the construction behind them. The weight column is our own catalogue window; numbers quoted elsewhere may run narrower or wider, because every machine and every yarn produces its own band. Writing the band rather than the name is what makes two suppliers’ samples comparable.

Why kappa is not one fabric

Kappa is spoken of as if it were a construction, but what it names is a yarn-and-face family. The shared properties are fine filament and a flat face, and that face can be produced on a single-bed jersey base as readily as on a double-bed interlock base. The two look alike and behave differently: the single-bed version is lighter and drapes more, and its cut edge curls; the double-bed version is more opaque and stable, does not curl and is easier to sew. The 170–200 g/m² window quoted in that market usually describes the double-bed version. Names such as “double-face kappa”, “water-repellent kappa” and “drytouch kappa” are finish and structure variants of the same family — qualifiers added to one name, not separate fabrics.

Damla and kaz ayağı: a hole or a dot

The two are often confused because both get described as “porous”. Looking at the face settles it. Damla is genuinely perforated: deliberate, even and visible openings sit inside the knit, and it passes light. Kaz ayağı is raised instead: a knit + tuck arrangement produces evenly spaced dots, and the channels between them carry air while the face stays opaque. The consequence is practical — damla runs cooler but covers less and may need a lining; kaz ayağı runs warmer but looks even and corporate. One warning: woven houndstooth is a different product that Turkish calls by the same name, kaz ayağı. That one is a weave pattern, this is a knit texture, and the shared word is a real source of ordering errors.

Polymesh: a spread, not a fabric

Polymesh travels through buying correspondence as though it were a single fabric, when it is the collective name for the entire polyester mesh family. Inside that family the hole opens from a 70 g/m² lining mesh to a 250 g/m² jacquard mesh, and the difference is felt directly in the garment: the same motif breaks up over a coarse hole and carries over a fine one. A request for polymesh is therefore not yet a specification; unless hole size, weight and elastane share are written down, two suppliers’ “polymesh” will not be the same cloth.

The kit weight map: which band goes to which part

Weight decides the garment part. The bands below are read from our own catalogue windows, and they let you read off which construction each part is asking for.

Where sports kit and corporate kit part company

Both uses draw on the same family, but they rank things differently. Sports kit is judged over the length of a match: lightness, airflow, and sweat moved to the face. Corporate and school kit is judged over a working day: coverage, holding its shape after washing, and colourfastness. So on the sports side the hole opens and the weight drops; on the corporate side the face closes and the weight rises. Two bands of one family go to two different jobs — saying which side you are on shortens the sampling round.

The sublimation ground: why polyester

Teamwear knits are polyester for more than durability. In sublimation the dye passes through a gas phase and enters the polyester fibre itself; cotton offers no chemistry for it to hold on to. Digitally printed kit therefore effectively requires a polyester ground. Print sharpness then depends on how flat the face is: closed faces such as interlock and the kappa type carry the crispest report, while on an open net the motif breaks along every hole. Where a perforated face must be printed, the artwork is built for it or the print is moved onto the closed panels.

What a sample request should say

A market name is a starting point, not a specification. Five lines make a sample request unambiguous: the construction (jersey, interlock, net, bird’s-eye, piqué), the weight window in g/m², the composition and elastane share, the finish expected (wicking, water-repellent, antimicrobial), and whether the ground is to be prepared for sublimation. Once those five lines are written the market name has become unnecessary; without them the sampling round repeats, whichever name was used.