Kite Fabric

For many years, kites have been made from other people's Nylon. Nylon designed for spinnakers on boats. Nylon designed for balloons. Nylon designed for paragliders. Nylon designed for parachutes. Even Nylon designed for tents and clothing.

But while great kites have been made with these fabrics, they all have their drawbacks. Some are too heavy, reducing the performance of the kites. Some are not strong enough to cope with the tension that large inflateables have to endure. Some are more prone to ripping. Many have poor resistance to damage from Ultra Violet radiation. Fabrics designed for saiing boats often lack some of the colours that kite designers want to choose. Some have coatings that perform poorly with the flexing that kites need to endure. Price is also an important - When you are building kites that use many killogrammes of fabric, the cost is of critical importance.

So Peter Lynn Kites have worked hand in hand with a manufacturer to design a fabric specifically for building soft kites. This isn't a single-step process - they need to make a batch of fabric (one kilometer at a time), dye it, coat it, then test it extensively in the field. The team report on the result, the formula is tweaked and adjusted, then a new batch of fabric is manufactured. It took many circuits round the loop to get it right but the result is a fabric tuned and optimied to be perfect for soft kite construction. The fabric has earned the nickname "The Good Stuff", or TGS for short.

The tenacity of the Nylon fibres and their diameter influence the weight and strength of the fabric. TGS has been optimised for the demands of large kites whilst staying light enough for effective light wind performnce.
The coating is optimised to deliver the protection and finish that makes for a great kite. The coating of TGS critical importance, providing protection to the fibres, stiffness, strength and is a closely guarded secret.
Where most fabric manufacturers choose their colours "blind", with no idea what might be designed with them, TGS is manufactured in a spectrum of colour to meet the requirements of the kite designers, so colours that are often ommitted by other manufacturers such as Brown, Beige Grey and Forrest Green. Dyes are chosen with close attention to their resistance to UV damage. Peter Lynn Kites are large and rather expensive and people tend to fly them all day and keep them for many years, so resistance to UV damage is of critical importance.
The fabric has good physical properties. It lies flat for accurate cutting. The warp and weft don;t skew largely, giving consistant stretch characteristics and good aestherics. The edges have been professionaly trimmed to 152cm wide.

Beige

Beige, a light brown, also useful as a skin colour.

Yellow

We are particularly pleased with Yellow because the Yellow produced by many manufacturers can be prone to fading, whilst the dye in TGS works particulary well.

Gold

Sometimes referred to as Spanish Yellow, this warm shade is between Yellow and Orange. Useful for Tigers.

Orange

In some Nylon fabrics, orange has a reputation for fading quickly but this is a good, solid, long lasting, bright colour.

Red

A Deep red. Perfect for hearts. Also Manchester United supporters.

Pink

This is a new colour added to the range, with limited stock. I don't have a photo carlibrated to match all the others.

Brown

Chocolate brown, a colour often missing from other manufacturers.

Green

Green is a bright shade, reminiscent of the colour of Kawasaki motorbikes. The limitations of dye technology mean that it is impossible to make this shade as colour-fast as the rest of the colours available. It is best selected for areas on the underside of kites, out of the direct asault of UV rays.

Forrest

Forrest is a deep Forrest green.

Aqua

Aqua is the lightest of the cool shades. Note that despite using the best dyes avaiable, it will fade to a lighter blue.

Royal

Royal is a medium blue. The blue used in many flags.

Purple

The colour most loved by many fliers. You can never have too much purple.

Whale

A deep grey/blue or navy blue, perfect for the whale.

White

The photographic process makes the white look slightly grey on the computer screen, but in the sky, it looks as white as a wedding dress. As well as white kites, white is useful in many coloured kites for the top skin, to help keep everything bright.

Grey

Grey is an important colour to bring balance to many kites. Not everything needs to shout vibrant colours.

Black

Black is a dominant colour, blocking out almost all transmitted light. Useful for contrast.

Rainbow

Our rainbow fabric is NOT TGS. It is a ripstop polyester, printed using dye sublimation technology with a vibrant rainbow stripes that fade softly between colours. Note that the fabric has a distinct front and rear side with subdued, ligher shades on the rear. Also note that the printed width is less than 1.5m - closer to 146cm. But... rainbow!

Mixing Colours

Kites are normally backlit. The Kite is above you and the source of illumination (the sun) is above the kite. For this reason, the colour that you see is normally the colour transmitted threough the fabric, not the colour reflected from the surface. Thus kite designers need to consider what happens when the top layer and the bottom layer are different colours. For example, consider these kite:

There is no green fabric in the kites above. The top skin is yellow, the bottom skin is aqua blue. The result of the combination gives a green shade.

So what is the result of the other combination? This chart has been constructed to show all 255 possible combinations. Each square is a photograph of the two colours which has been backlit, with no surface lighting.

Pricing and Availability

Minimum order quantity for TGS is 1m. Please contact us if you want to buy by the complete roll.

	tgs1-beige	Javascript Required
	tgs1-yellow	Javascript Required
	tgs1-gold	Javascript Required
	tgs1-orange	Javascript Required
	tgs2-pink	Javascript Required
	tgs1-red	Javascript Required
	tgs1-brown	Javascript Required
	tgs2-green	Javascript Required
	tgs1-forrest	Javascript Required
	tgs2-aqua	Javascript Required
	tgs1-royal	Javascript Required
	tgs1-purple	Javascript Required
	tgs1-whale	Javascript Required
	tgs1-white	Javascript Required
	tgs1-grey	Javascript Required
	tgs1-black	Javascript Required
	rainbow	Javascript Required
	100m roll	Javascript Required