The easiest way to explain it, and the way it was explained to me by our supplier (it also makes the most sense), is comparing it to something like cotton t-shirts; some cotton shirts are really soft feeling, some are very rough. Some will stretch and shrink more than others and some will wear out much quicker while other cotton will last forever. This probably isn't the best way to explain it, as some cotton shirts are thicker than others, but it gets the point across in a simple way that makes some sense (to me anyway).
The same thing can be said for Silnylon, as it is not all created equal! The base materials used, as well as the manufacturing process, can vary a great deal and those variances are what will make the difference in waterproofness, abrasion resistance, UV resistance and tear strength.
In the case of what we use (Ultra High Tenacity, Mil-Spec, Silnylon), the differences are simple, the base material is of a higher quality (that's why is has a higher abrasion tear resistance) and the reason it stretches less is because it's woven tighter. When the weave is larger by even the slightest amount, the stretch in the material grows as well....exponentially as the length of material grows (meaning 10' will stretch a ton more than 10"). The quality of material also has a lot to do with the amount of stretch, as some will naturally stretch more than others. This is obviously an "all things being equal" type of thing when comparing what we use to standard American made 30D Silnylon and Asian sourced 30D Silnylon.
You can test this pretty easy, as it's not to difficult to find cheap Silnylon at even Walmart. If you stretch a cheap Chinese Silnylon (especially at a point it's sewn together) you will see the stitch holes get a lot bigger with a lot less pressure on the cheaper Silnylon. You can also cut a small slit in the side of the material and pull each side of the slit apart. When you do these things with higher end fabric against a cheaper fabric, you will quickly see a large difference in all aspects of testing. When we were looking at other potential fabrics/Silnylons, this is exactly what we found (issues with the stitch holes when under pressure and less tear resistance). The cheaper materials did relatively well as far as staying waterproof, but the stitch holes grew quickly and those holes from the stitching started to transfer to the edge of the material. After using the tipi several times in high wind with the prototype material, the stitching points eventually failed (they failed at half the weight when tested in our meat baggies) and all my hopes of cheaper fabric started failing as well
So after a few months of testing cheaper priced material to help keep our users and potential users happy, I pulled the plug on a new tipi material until we found something better that would at least equal what we have now.
This in now way means other types of material won't work for people, but it does mean ALL of the blame would be placed on me if the new material ended up with Kifaru having a higher warranty percentage and the blame would also be places on me by our long times customers that have grown to appreciate what we currently offer............ so I'm a chicken I guess, as one of the tipis I was testing with an Asian sourced fabric, blew down on me when we were shed hunting. This test was done in very high winds, but it was an area that I've camped many nights in tipis made of out current fabric.
Anyway, the long and short of it was this; a cheaper material would probably be at 75-80% of what our current material offers, but the 20-25% scared the shit out of me! I also knew I would get hung in the court yard and stoned to death by long time Kifaru users, so taking a beating on our price point was by far worth going through all the outer potential outcomes.
So believe me when I say I would prefer to not hear "your gear is more expensive than brand X", but I can't swap materials until I know it at least meets our current materials standards......Patrick will also kill me if I screw this up!
Hopefully this made some sense and cleared a few things up, but if not, feel free to ask more questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Thanks everyone!
