Wakayama Daibakusho Okazaki Knit / CYCLOOP 1 (T-shirt)

Future Yarn / Adopted "Recycle Cotton®"
Okazaki Knit, which not only develops advanced fabrics by meticulously creating yarns but also excels in techniques for jersey and fleece, such as expressing the texture of loopwheel knitting with custom-made sinker knitting machines. This time, we interviewed Hideaki Okazaki, the representative, about how he processed the new recycled material "Recycle Cotton®" into two types of fleece.
-What are your impressions of Recycle Cotton®?
Okazaki: With general recycled yarn, unused yarn, fabric, or products (used clothing) are scraped with needles back to the cotton state (raw material). During this process, the fibers are damaged, and when re-made into fabric, it has a rough texture. The innovation of "Recycle Cotton®" lies in the process of finely cutting the raw material, oiling it, and opening it with air. This causes less damage to the fibers, maintains fiber length, and allows for the spinning of fine-count yarns. It is completely different from conventional recycled yarns, and I thought it would be interesting to incorporate this into our manufacturing.
-The T-shirt and hoodie made with Recycle Cotton® are both made of fleece.
Okazaki: As for the T-shirt, I personally don't wear it alone much in the summer. When you sweat and return indoors, it sticks to you, doesn't it? In such cases, with fleece, the loops that touch the skin absorb sweat, maintaining a smooth feel. Regular fleece is too hot, so this time we used a fine-gauge mini-fleece that can be worn even in summer. We finished it to retain some crispness without becoming too soft, resulting in a smooth and comfortable piece.
-What about the hoodie?
Okazaki: For this one, we wanted a relaxed feel, so we used thicker yarn and made it a 3-thread fleece.
-It's a knitting method with large loops, like those seen in vintage sweatshirts.
Okazaki: Yes. We knitted it with a fluffy texture using our unique modified sinker knitting machine, which can achieve a texture close to loopwheel knitting. It's a fabric that maximizes the characteristics of the yarn and fits the body gently. The face yarn and back yarn are 100% Recycle Cotton®, and the core yarn is organic cotton, which I believe expresses Okazaki Knit's approach to "sustainable manufacturing" in a way that aligns with the theme of the Osaka-Kansai Expo.
The "mini" and "3-thread" two types of loops made with Recycle Cotton® will open up the future society.