Various aspects disclosed relate to structures such as a textile, a garment, a garment component, footwear, or a footwear component. The present disclosure includes the structure having a first region having one of more first fibers. An individual first fiber includes co-extruded first and second filaments, the first filament formed of a first thermoplastic polymeric material. Due to expansion or contraction of the one or more first fibers, the first region contracts or expands on a change in relative humidity, relative to an equilibrium state of the first region prior to the change in relative humidity.

Provided is a conjugate fiber for air-laid nonwoven fabric manufacture having a planar zig-zag crimp shape before a thermal treatment, such that a uniform web is obtained by air laying with high processability and productivity, and the conjugate fiber develops a spiral crimp when the web is subjected to a thermal treatment to thereby enable the web to shrink significantly, as a result of which a nonwoven fabric can be obtained in which fibers are amassed to a high density. The conjugate fiber for air-laid nonwoven fabric manufacture is a heat-fusible conjugate fiber in which a first component comprising an olefinic thermoplastic resin is conjugated with a second component comprising an olefinic thermoplastic resin having a melting point higher than that of the first component. The conjugate form is such that the centers of gravity of the conjugate components are mutually different in the fiber cross section, the fiber has a single-yarn fineness of 1 to 10 dtex, a fiber length of 3 to 20 mm, and a planar zig-zag crimp whose crimp shape index (actual length of short fiber/distance between both ends of short fiber) ranges from 1.05 to 1.60, and the web shrinkage upon thermal treatment at 145 C. of a web obtained by an air-laid method is not lower than 40%.

A method of manufacturing an elastic fabric including a latent crimped yarn according to an embodiment includes forming a raw fabric by knitting the latent crimped yarn and a polyester yarn, reducing the raw fabric, removing oil from the raw fabric, removing wrinkles of the raw fabric, followed by drying, dyeing the raw fabric, and removing wrinkles of the raw fabric, followed by drying to form the elastic fabric. The method can manufacture a highly elastic fabric having excellent recovery and color fastness to washing.

A method of manufacturing an elastic fabric including a latent crimped yarn according to an embodiment includes forming a raw fabric by knitting the latent crimped yarn and a polyester yarn, reducing the raw fabric, removing oil from the raw fabric, removing wrinkles of the raw fabric, followed by drying, dyeing the raw fabric, and removing wrinkles of the raw fabric, followed by drying to form the elastic fabric. The method can manufacture a highly elastic fabric having excellent recovery and color fastness to washing.

Various aspects disclosed relate to structure such as a textile, a garment, a garment component, footwear, or a footwear component. The present disclosure includes the structure having a first region having one of more first fibers. An individual first fiber includes co-extruded first and second filaments, the first filament formed of a first thermoplastic polymeric material. Due to expansion or contraction of the one or more first fibers, the first region contracts or expands on a change in relative humidity, relative to an equilibrium state of the first region prior to the change in relative humidity.

Various aspects disclosed relate to structure such as a textile, a garment, a garment component, footwear, or a footwear component. The present disclosure includes the structure having a first region having one of more first fibers. An individual first fiber includes co-extruded first and second filaments, the first filament formed of a first thermoplastic polymeric material. Due to expansion or contraction of the one or more first fibers, the first region contracts or expands on a change in relative humidity, relative to an equilibrium state of the first region prior to the change in relative humidity.

The invention relates to multi-component shape memory threads, fibers, tubes, or tapes, which includes at least two shape-memory polymeric (SMP-N) components. Each of the at least two SMP-N components is of at least 1% of the total weight, and N is a positive integer starting from 1, and the SMP-N components have a selectively engineered shape recovery temperature (T.sub.r) between approximately 0 C. to 130 C. Also, when T.sub.rN and T.sub.rN+1 are higher than room temperature, the threads, fibers, tubes, or tapes are configured to assume a substantially helical configuration upon heating to above T.sub.rN and lower than T.sub.rN+1 by a stimulus when an elongation of the threads, fibers, tubes, or tapes is approximately 30% to approximately 300%, and having a coil diameter from 0.5 to 10 mm and a number of the turns per cm from 5 to 30.

A system for preparing a polylactic acid (PLA) spunbond nonwoven fabric is provided. In particular, the system includes a first PLA source configured to provide a stream of molten or semi-molten PLA resin; a spin beam in fluid communication with the first PLA source, the spin beam configured to extrude and draw a plurality of PLA continuous filaments; a collection surface disposed below an outlet of the spin beam onto which the PLA continuous filaments are deposited to form the PLA spunbond nonwoven fabric; a first ionization source positioned and arranged to expose the PLA continuous filaments to ions; and a calender positioned downstream of the first ionization source.

A system for preparing a polylactic acid (PLA) spunbond nonwoven fabric is provided. In particular, the system includes a first PLA source configured to provide a stream of molten or semi-molten PLA resin; a spin beam in fluid communication with the first PLA source, the spin beam configured to extrude and draw a plurality of PLA continuous filaments; a collection surface disposed below an outlet of the spin beam onto which the PLA continuous filaments are deposited to form the PLA spunbond nonwoven fabric; a first ionization source positioned and arranged to expose the PLA continuous filaments to ions; and a calender positioned downstream of the first ionization source.

One or more aspects of the disclosure provides a nonwoven fabric comprising a single layer in which the single fabric layer comprises a plurality of different fibers in which each fiber type has desired functionality. In one aspect, a system for preparing a nonwoven fabric having a single fabric layer in which the single fabric layer comprises a plurality of different fiber types, is provided. The system includes a spin beam having a zoned distribution plate disposed upstream of a spinneret, the zoned distribution plate includes a plurality of distribution apertures arranged in zones, wherein each zone is configured and arranged to extrude a plurality of polymer streams that are of a different polymer type than polymer streams extruded by an adjacent zone to the spinneret to form a single layer having two or more types of fibers that are of a different type from each other.