What is Supima Cotton?

In some apparel item labels, we often see the term ‘Supima Cotton’. What does this Supima mean in cotton type? Let’s discuss this here.

Supima cotton

Supima is a trade name used by a group of Pima cotton growers who adhere to certain standards of quality and labeling. Because Pima is expensive, some mills adulterate it with inferior cottons. Most Supima is DNA coded so that even on a retail shelf, its purity can be proven. Manufacturers pay to put this label on their textile products as a mark of superior quality.

The word “Supima” often appears on the labels of Pima sheets as a trademark of the Supima Association, which promotes Pima cotton. 

The Board of Directors of Supima is made up of American Pima growers from Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

Pima cotton fabric comes out softer and more durable than if it were to be made from shorter staple cotton. Manufacturers say that Pima cotton has a 50 percent longer life expectancy than other cotton products.

Staple length is one of the major parameters to define cotton quality other than maturity levels, trash percentage, and color. Longer fibre length helps more recovery in spinning and better appearance, hand feel, and long-lasting life of the fabric.

Supima cotton is American cotton having a staple length of more than 34mm-38mm.

Related: What is Pima cotton?

Sources: All the information shared here is available on other websites including Wikipedia. 

Prasanta Sarkar

Prasanta Sarkar is a textile engineer and a postgraduate in fashion technology from NIFT, New Delhi, India. He loves writing how-to guide articles in the fashion industry niche. He has visited garment factories in many countries and implemented process improvement projects in numerous garment units in different continents including Asia, Europe, and South Africa.

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