Cotton Flex Fabrics: Where Performance Meets Comfort

Discover Cotton Flex fabrics: performance cotton fabrics engineered for leggings and shapewear. With natural breathability, dynamic stretch, and durability, Cotton Flex delivers the softness consumers love with the technical performance your brand demands.

Why Create With Cotton?

Cotton Flex combines the comfort of natural fibers with the technical edge of performance. While other brands lean on synthetics, cotton’s inherent natural benefits give you the opportunity to own the fiber story, positioning your products with a narrative that blends innovation, natural comfort, and consumer trust.

Cotton is a versatile material, available across a range of constructions, and it can be blended with spandex or other fibers to enhance stretch and recovery.

  • Differentiate Your Brand: Stand out with a natural cotton story not often told in the performance wear market.
  • Enhance Sustainability Story: Leverage cotton’s natural benefits to support your brand’s environmental goals.
  • Drive Innovation: Use Cotton Flex versatility to design apparel that performs, lasts, and resonates with today’s consumers.
  • Highlight Natural Comfort: Emphasize cotton’s hypoallergenic¹, irritation free feature, ideal for apparel designed to be worn close to the body.

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Cotton Flex for Activewear: Performance That Breathes

Cotton Flex fabrics are designed to move with today’s active lifestyles, delivering stretch, superior breathability, and luxurious softness without a synthetic or plastic feel. By combining cotton’s natural advantages with performance innovation, Cotton Flex enables brands to offer activewear consumers prefer.

Dynamic Stretch

Engineered for movement with shape retention for a lasting fit.

Superior Breathability

Natural comfort that wicks away moisture and resists odor buildup².

Unmatched Softness

A cotton experience that keeps consumers comfortable and fresh.

70%

of consumers prefer activewear made with cotton, according to research from Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle MonitorTM Survey³.

Cotton Flex for Shapewear: Support That Moves With You

Shapewear should sculpt without sacrificing comfort. Cotton Flex delivers flexible support, all-day comfort, and strength for garments that move naturally with the body—meeting consumer expectations for both performance and wearability.

Sculpts Naturally

Cotton-rich fabrics offer breathable compression for a natural, flexible fit.

Confidence in Every Layer

With moisture-wicking, hypoallergenic properties¹, cotton shapewear provides a fresh, irritation-free experience.

Durable & Strong

Engineered for durability and strength, cotton shapewear products deliver a smooth, soft finish.

Strengthening Your Brand’s Sustainability Story

Cotton Flex fabrics provide a natural, plant-based alternative to synthetics. Choosing cotton can help strengthen your brand’s sustainability story and align with consumer preference for natural fibers.

Sustainable Fiber Base: Cotton is a natural, plant-based fiber that forms the foundation of Cotton Flex fabrics. Starting with cotton helps brands build sustainability stories rooted in nature.

Consumer Confidence in Natural Fibers: Research shows consumers associate cotton with trust and sustainability⁴. Using cotton in performance fabrics aligns with growing interest in natural fiber options for active and shapewear.

Designed for Responsible Innovation: Cotton Flex fabrics demonstrate how natural fibers can be integrated with performance benefits to create durable products that may support brand sustainability initiatives and ESG commitments.

Download Digital Fabrics

Download 3D files for select cotton-rich leggings and shapewear fabrics to support your design and development process. Files are compatible with CLO and Browzwear, making it easy to integrate cotton into your digital workflows.

Download Leggings & Shapewear

Explore Featured Fabrics

Discover cotton-rich fabrics selected for their performance in leggings and shapewear applications. Each fabric offers a soft hand feel, supportive stretch, and reliable recovery—ideal for close-to-body styles that require both comfort and structure.

#DK-2861-1
Cotton/Spandex Stretch Double Face Knit
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#DK-2861-2
Cotton/Spandex Stretch Double Face Knit
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Ready to Source or Design?

Explore vetted suppliers offering cotton-rich legging and shapewear fabrics, ready for development and sourcing.

Many of our sourceable fabrics are not published online and are available only through direct consultation. To request swatches, explore sourcing-ready materials, or get tailored recommendations, connect with a CottonWorks™ account manager.

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Page References

1

Product Investigations, Inc. (2019, December 31). Determination of the irritating and sensitizing propensities of TJ Be All mechanically cleaned “True Cotton” on human skin (Report No. PI-40547). Prepared for Cotton Incorporated, Cary, NC.

2

McQueen, R. H., Harynuk, J.J., Wismer, W.V., Keelan, M., Xu, Y., de la Mata, A.P., (2014), “Axillary odour build-up in knit fabrics
following multiple use cycles”, International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 274-290

3

Cotton Incorporated 2022 Global Activewear Survey, U.S. data, n=852

4

Cotton Incorporated. (2023). CCI & Cotton Incorporated’s Global Sustainability Survey N=7,219