Alpha Cotton is a luxurious fabric primarily used to make high-thread-count sheets.
In a move to protect US consumers from unknowingly buying inferior quality bed lines at inflated prices, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) announced last week that the Customs and Border Protection will work directly with Nextt, the Dallas-based leader in the US home textile industry, to import only the company’s patented Alpha cotton.
“The ruling is as much a victory for consumers, as it is for Nextt, and Alpha cotton,” Nextt CEO Arun Agarwal said in a statement. “High thread counts are a sign of quality, comfort, and luxury in bed linens. The problem arises primarily in cotton/polyester blends, where manufacturers find it difficult to weave very fine polyester fibers. This problem was solved by the Alpha Cotton, which covers thread counts ranging from 190 to 1200.”
Alpha Cotton is a luxurious fabric primarily used to make high-thread-count sheets. Other textile importers and manufacturers have chosen instead to falsely label lower thread count fabrics as much higher thread counts. This false labeling sometimes is by over 100% and violates the current patent in place.
The ruling is expected to affect fourth quarter business, where this fabric is part of the Black Friday promotions by heavy-hitting retailers. With the Customs and Border Protection enforcement and the assistance of Nextt, it is considered as a big victory of the consumers when it comes to the quality of home furnishings.
Nextt, the $500 million privately held company, provides textiles to all of the major US retailers including Dillard’s, Belk, Wal-Mart and Kohl’s. The company has robust portfolio of leading celebrity brands, such as Beautyrest, Ellen Tracy, Jessica McClintock and Royal Sateen. The company was ranked 17th in the 2014 Dallas 100 list of fastest growing companies selected by the Caruth Insitute for Entrepreneurship of SMU and CEO Agarwal was awarded ‘NRI of the Year’ by TIMES NOW and ICICI Bank in 2015.
3 Comments
We live in Texas. Do you to the way the product was marketed, believed I was purchasing 100% cotton sheets. The material is very thin but the sheets are very hot. Will be returning and this is deceptive trade.
I bought a set of Alpha cotton sheets. I live in Florida and the sheets are too warm to sleep under, unlike regular cotton sheets. I think it’s wrong to label Alpha cotton as 100% cotton. That’s the only reason I purchased them.
So glad to see that someone else mentioned the deceptive-ness of labeling 100% cotton. I live in Southern California and anything with polyester is far too hot to sleep on/under. I bought some great looking gray sheets and was about to remove from package to wash when I decided to research. I will return as I only want true 100% cotton.