Pima cotton originated in the southwestern United States in the early 1900s. It was initially developed by crossbreeding Egyptian cotton with American Upland cotton. The name "Pima" comes from the Pima Native American tribe in Arizona who, with an ancestral knowledge of cotton cultivation, were the first to cultivate the crop. They helped the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with its pilot project in the early 1900s and were critical to its development.
SUPIMA® cotton, specifically, is a brand name for a premium variety of Pima cotton that is grown only in the U.S., mostly in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It was developed to further enhance the characteristics of Pima cotton, particularly its long staple length (average length of individual cotton fibres) and strength. Supima cotton is a subset of Pima cotton, but it has to meet even higher quality standards to qualify.
What’s so special about Supima?
Extra Longer Staple (ELS) Fibres: Supima cotton fibers are 50% longer than typical cotton fibers, which results in a smoother, softer, and more durable fabric. The longer fibers also make the cotton less prone to pilling.
Stronger & Softer: Supima is known for being stronger and softer than regular cotton, which makes it ideal for high-end textiles, particularly fine fabrics like luxury bedding, apparel, and towels.
How to find “real” Supima?
For this we turn to Forensic Science.
Supima was officially introduced and trademarked in 1954 by the Supima Association of America.
To ensure that every product that carries the SUPIMA® brand name is genuine, Supima has partnered with Oritain, a forensic science leader, that uses a methodology to analyze trace elements and isotopes to determine a product’s origin.
Oritain has established an origin fingerprint of genuine SUPIMA® cotton across the entire growing region and samples are taken from the supply chain and verified against this fingerprint to ensure authenticity.
Fibercoins® are the digital, blockchain token-based tracking mechanism on Textile Genesis that allow for a transparent digital footprint of the cotton as it moves through the supply chain. All downstream SUPIMA® cotton product transactions have to transact sequentially on the Textile Genesis platform in order for the Fibercoins® to follow the product. This enables complete traceability, transparency, authenticity, and credibility to validate “real” SUPIMA® products.
The SUPIMA® trademark can only be used on products sourced and processed through this end-to-end system. Any products transacted outside of the AQRe™ Project and Textile Genesis platform cannot use the SUPIMA® trademark.
So, always buy SUPIMA® with Fibercoins®.
Anything else is really not SUPIMA®.
If you didn’t know this before, now you know.
