Polyamide or polyester: what is the difference?

Polyamide or polyester: what is the difference?

Polyamide or polyester: two synthetic fibres to dress a team. According to Wikipedia, polyamide (nylon) resists abrasion very well and polyester has difficulty absorbing water. For the University of Alberta, nylon releases less odour 24 hours after a synthetic sweat, but when worn, no gap was measured.

Key points:

• According to Wikipedia, polyester is hydrophobic; polyamide takes in a little moisture, up to 2.4% of its weight for nylon 6.
• In 2024, about 12.0% of the polyester produced worldwide was recycled polyester, against about 2.3% for polyamide, according to Textile Exchange.
• On tknp.io, 2,216 of the 4,287 references show polyester and 151 show polyamide.
• At Stanley/Stella, the polyester and nylon versions of the same gilet get the same decoration ratings in their printing guides.

One windbreaker in polyamide, another in polyester, from the same brand: which one should you pick for your club's merch? The "polyamide or polyester" question comes up for a sports tee, a puffer for the staff or leggings for a fitness class. Here is what named sources say about water, odour, wear, warmth and recycled content, where the two fibres sit in our product pages, and how they affect decoration and price.

What is the difference between polyamide and polyester?

The difference between polyamide and polyester starts with chemistry: they are two distinct synthetic fibres, defined separately by the EU's textile fibre names regulation (1007/2011). Polyamide, which it also calls nylon, is a fibre whose chain repeats amide linkages. Polyester is built on an ester of a diol and terephthalic acid; here, we compare the two.

Polyamide or polyester: the point-by-point comparison

Do polyamide and polyester absorb water?

Polyamide and polyester both absorb little water, but not in the same way. Polyester is hydrophobic: according to Wikipedia, it has difficulty absorbing liquids, which also makes it highly stain-resistant. Polyamide is hygroscopic: it takes in or gives off moisture depending on the surrounding air, up to 2.4% of its weight in water for nylon 6, while staying less absorbent than wool or cotton.

Both fibres turn up in garments made to dry fast. Wikipedia links nylon's place in windbreakers to its low absorbency, which makes it dry quickly; our sports tees page describes the sports tee as a technical polyester knit, "engineered to move perspiration outwards where it evaporates".

Polyamide or polyester: which one holds odour less?

Polyamide gets rid of odour faster than polyester, according to a laboratory study led by Rachel McQueen of the University of Alberta (Canada) and published in 2024 in the Textile Research Journal. Soaked in a synthetic sweat, nylon released the most odorous compounds after 30 minutes; 24 hours later, polyester was releasing more.

When worn, however, the gap did not show. In a 2018 study the researcher took part in, eight people wore T-shirts lined under the arms with samples of both fabrics: the 13 assessors found no difference in odour intensity between nylon and polyester, nylon having simply absorbed more odorous molecules.

Polyamide or polyester: which one is more durable?

None of our sources compares polyamide and polyester on abrasion resistance. Wikipedia lists "excellent abrasion resistance" among the properties of nylon; to polyester, the encyclopaedia attributes a high tenacity and, what it is most admired for, good resistance to wrinkling and shrinking in the wash.

The English Wikipedia also describes one of the first polyesters, Terylene (or Dacron), as equal or superior to nylon in toughness and resilience.

Polyamide or polyester: which one is warmer?

Neither polyamide nor polyester is ranked warmer than the other in our sources. According to Wikipedia, polyester is used as padding and as an insulating layer.

The two fibres can also work together in the same garment: at Stanley/Stella, the printing guide for the Stanley Climber 2.0, a quilted gilet, describes a recycled nylon shell and recycled polyester padding.

Polyamide or polyester: which one stretches more?

None of our sources compares the elasticity of polyamide and polyester. Wikipedia credits polyamide with high elongation; for polyester, these sources say nothing about its elasticity.

In our product pages, both fibres are paired with elastane: under their thumbnail, polyamide teams up with it in 14 tknp.io references, polyester in 196. Two leggings show it: Spiro's Mens Bodyfit Base Layer Leggings (80% polyamide, 20% elastane), in a stretch fabric, and Just Cool's Women's Recycled Tech Leggings (86% recycled polyester, 14% elastane), stretchy in all four directions. Elastane doses, garment by garment, are detailed in our article on elastane.

Where do you find polyamide and polyester on tknp.io?

Polyester dominates our product pages and polyamide stays rare: on 23 October 2026, 2,216 of the 4,287 references in the tknp.io catalogue show polyester in the composition summary under their thumbnail, more than half, against 151 for polyamide. In jackets, the gap is 653 references to 67.

Under the thumbnail, two fibres at most are listed: a third fibre, padding or a lining may be missing, and you need to open the product page to read the detail. In sweats and hoodies, polyester is mostly blended with cotton: that is the case for 282 of the 318 models concerned.

Polyamide or polyester: which decoration should you choose?

On the jackets and puffers read for this article, switching from polyester to polyamide does not change the decoration ratings in their printing guides; it is on a light polyester textile that one more technique becomes possible, sublimation.

Stanley/Stella shows it on two gilets it makes in two versions, one in recycled polyester, the other, called 2.0, in recycled nylon: the Puffer Gilet and the Stanley Climber. Their four printing guides rate the polyester version exactly like the nylon version, with embroidery and transfers judged "excellent" in both cases.

On tknp.io, the product pages point the same way: B&C's Air windbreaker, in polyamide, and the same brand's #RESET Windbreaker, in recycled polyester, both offer, online, softshell print and embroidery, with patches still on quote, just like the two versions of the Puffer Gilet.

Sublimation, for its part, belongs to polyester: our page on this technique states "light polyester only", rules it out on cotton and on dark fabrics, and prices it on quote. So it applies neither to a polyamide garment nor to Stanley/Stella's two recycled polyester gilets, whose guides rule it out.

Does polyamide cost more than polyester?

Polyamide does not necessarily cost more than polyester: across the two pairs of custom garments compared here, it is not the same fibre that costs less, and the product pages do not say how much of the gap comes from the fabric.

Unless stated otherwise, each decorated price in this comparison covers one single run: a single model, with an identical logo placed in the same position. On tknp.io, at B&C, for 50 units with an 8 x 10 cm embroidery, the Air windbreaker in polyamide comes to €12.99 excluding VAT, 10 cents less than the #RESET Windbreaker in recycled polyester; at Stanley/Stella, the Puffer Gilet in recycled polyester costs €62.81 excluding VAT, €2.14 less than the Puffer Gilet 2.0 in recycled nylon.

These prices, taken on 23 October 2026 from our tknp.io product pages, are given for guidance only: they are the public prices shown, without any verified-account discount. They are excluding VAT, per unit, and cover the garment plus an 8 x 10 cm embroidery in one position; they apply at the standard lead time, shipping being charged on top, for the most accessible shade on each page (the base colour). Of the four pages, only the #RESET Windbreaker one adds that its prices are for standard sizes, the larger sizes and some colours costing a little more.

Which is more eco-friendly, polyamide or polyester?

None of our sources ranks the overall impact of polyamide and polyester; the comparable indicator available is the share of recycled fibre. In 2024, about 12.0% of the polyester produced worldwide was recycled polyester, against about 2.3% for polyamide, according to figures from the Materials Market Report 2025, published by Textile Exchange. The bio-based share stays marginal for both, around 0.01% of polyester and 0.4% of polyamide.

What synthetic fibres, polyamide and polyester included, cost the environment, from microplastics in the wash to their raw material, is detailed in our article on synthetic fibre.

Polyamide or polyester: which one should your team choose?

Between polyamide and polyester, choose according to the garment you are having customised: in our product pages, polyester outnumbers polyamide in every family, but for windbreakers as for puffers, both fibres exist.

• For a sports tee, polyester. Our page dedicated to sports tees features ten models that all contain it, and sums up the gap with a regular tee in one sentence: "Cotton absorbs and holds water; polyester moves it."
• For leggings, either one with elastane, like Spiro's Bodyfit or Just Cool's Recycled Tech leggings. If odour after the session matters, the University of Alberta laboratory study published in 2024 gives polyamide the edge after 24 hours; when worn, the 2018 study had seen no gap.
• For a windbreaker, both: at B&C, the Air is in polyamide, the #RESET Windbreaker in recycled polyester, and both fold into a pocket or a pouch according to their product pages.
• For a puffer or a quilted gilet, both, sometimes in the same garment: a nylon shell with polyester padding, or one version of each, like Stanley/Stella's Puffer Gilet in recycled polyester and its 2.0 version in recycled nylon.
• For a fleece, polyester: JHK's Polar Fleece Man and B&C's Reset Polar Fleece are made of it, and our article on fleece and microfleece details the fabric.

B&C's Air and #RESET Windbreaker: two almost identical price grids

On tknp.io, the product page of B&C's Air windbreaker, in polyamide, shows its price with decoration included, at each quantity on its grid, from 10 up to 1,000 units, and for each technique. The page of the #RESET Windbreaker, from the same brand and in recycled polyester, does the same: at B&C, for these two windbreakers, the two grids can be compared line by line, the footer of each grid reminding you that the quote prevails.

On 23 October 2026, for guidance only, the grids of the Air and the #RESET Windbreaker were only 8 to 11 cents apart excluding VAT per unit, at every tier and on every line, for a run of one model with the same logo: public prices shown, without any verified-account discount, at the standard lead time and for the base colour, with shipping on top and the #RESET Windbreaker page also specifying standard sizes. These two product pages do not say how much of that gap comes from the fabric. The chosen model is ordered from 10 decorated units, sizes and colours mixed, whatever the technique.