While most fabric traders are still haggling over a few cents per meter, functional knit sportswear fabrics at China Textile City have carved out a distinct upward trajectory. Market feedback shows that all-polyester and polyester-spandex knitted fabrics with cooling, breathable and high-stretch properties are seeing simultaneous growth in domestic and export orders, with buyers notably less price-sensitive than they are demanding of functional consistency. This signals a quiet shift in the knitting sector from a tonnage mindset to a functional premium.
Background
At the outdoor functional fabric zone on Dongsheng Road in Keqiao, the shelves are no longer stocked with conventional polyester rolls but with clearly labeled functional products such as ice-silk cooling fabrics, breathable bird's-eye mesh, soft milk silk, warm flannel, coral fleece and super-soft knits. Spring and summer bestsellers include ice-silk, milk silk and dense bird's-eye mesh, offering cooling effects and rapid moisture wicking. For autumn and winter, flannel, coral fleece and super-soft fabrics dominate, prized for their fluffy warmth retention and skin-friendly comfort. Flat polyester-spandex stretch fabrics, meanwhile, combine high elasticity with shape retention, serving both yoga wear and everyday casual apparel.
The cross-category expansion of fabric applications deserves attention—from sports T-shirts, fitness pants and sun-protection wear to loungewear, sofa throws and bedding sets. This means the customer base for knitted fabrics is no longer limited to sportswear brands; home textiles and soft furnishing channels are emerging as new growth engines. For buyers, whether a single fabric can serve both athletic and home scenarios is becoming a key selection criterion.
Industry Impact
The booming demand for functional knitted fabrics has directly disrupted Keqiao's low-end commodity ecosystem. In the early years, low-quality recycled polyester grey fabrics dominated the market, resulting in poor elasticity, pilling, and cooling properties that faded after repeated washing. The product range was narrow, forcing buyers to source cooling and warming fabrics from multiple suppliers. Small workshops lacked complete dyeing and finishing facilities, causing color fading and stiff, scratchy textures that failed to meet the needs of mid-to-high-end brands. This landscape is now being reshaped by source factories adopting a full-chain supply model.
Companies like Gude Textile, a local source factory, integrate raw material procurement, grey fabric knitting, eco-friendly dyeing, stock wholesale and small-batch custom sampling. They use exclusively virgin polyester and high-stretch polyester-spandex materials, supported by a full suite of finishing processes including pre-shrinking and setting, cooling coating, anti-pilling brushing, and reactive eco-friendly dyeing. With a standing inventory of over a thousand tons, they offer both competitive pricing for large volumes and fast sampling for small, multi-color orders. At the 2026 Spring-Summer Textile Expo, a dense cooling bird's-eye knitted fabric secured a cross-border order of 30,000 meters—a testament to the market's appetite for functional stock fabrics.
More noteworthy is the role of AI digitalization in reshaping the production-sales chain. Gude's AI digital sample garment service allows buyers to generate garment effect images for sportswear and loungewear with a single click, bridging the information gap between fabric wholesale and apparel brand design. The AI Fabric mini-program launched by China Textile City can identify fabric parameters and generate garment visuals and promotional materials, significantly lowering the digital threshold for merchants. This means small and medium-sized fabric suppliers can now access brand-level presentation capabilities at minimal cost, potentially shortening procurement decision cycles.
From an industry perspective, the knit sportswear and home fabric sector is undergoing structural upgrades across four dimensions: functional composite fabrics are becoming mainstream, with surging demand for cooling, sun-protection, heat-retention and quick-dry properties, and virgin polyester-spandex materials replacing inferior recycled fabrics; niche differentiation is intensifying competition, as quality source factories gain pricing power while low-end commodity profits shrink; flexible quick response and ample stock have become procurement necessities, giving full-chain enterprises an edge in small orders; and green dyeing is accelerating, with eco-friendly materials and OEKO certification shifting from a bonus to a prerequisite for export orders.
For Keqiao, this upgrade means more than just single-product sales. The complete knitting industry chain, empowered by AI, is enabling local enterprises to move from sample-based processing to function definition. Looking ahead, the development of functional and recycled fabrics, combined with green production and digital technology, will determine whether Keqiao can maintain its global leadership in knitted fabric supply.