Wool Blend Ratios: What 20/80 vs 50/50 Really Costs You

Short answer: Below about 30% wool, a blend behaves like whatever dominates it — you get wool on the hangtag and synthetic performance on the body. Above 50%, wool starts setting the handfeel, the warmth and the price, and the pilling profile changes with it. For a sweater retailing at $60 to $90 I would take 30% wool over 100% cheap acrylic every time. Above $120 retail, go to 50% wool or more, because the customer will feel the difference and the reviews will say so.

"It is 30% wool" is one of the least useful sentences in a sourcing conversation. It tells you nothing about which wool, what the other 70% is, or what the yarn will do after thirty washes. Blend ratio is the single biggest lever on a knitwear price, and it is the lever buyers understand worst.

Why the Ratio Matters More Than the Fibre Name

The Three Bands

Nylon Is the Cheapest Performance Ingredient

If there is one change I would make to most blend specs, it is this: buyers spend on wool content and under-specify nylon.

What the Ratio Does to Your FOB

Take a 2/28Nm yarn on a 7G sweater, using the yarn quotes we issued through 2026:

That is the entire decision. Going from 10% to 50% wool roughly doubles yarn cost and moves FOB by $5 to $7 a piece on a sweater like this. Whether that is worth paying depends on your retail price, not on the fibre.

Pilling: The Thing Blends Are Sold To Fix

Conclusion

Decide the ratio from the retail price backwards, not from the fibre forwards. Under $50 retail, stop pretending — 10 to 20% wool with 8% nylon will outperform a cheap 100% wool in the customer's hands. At $60 to $90, 30 to 40% wool with nylon is the best value in the category. Above $120, go to 70% wool or higher and spend the money on micron rather than on content.

And put the nylon in. It is the cheapest performance you can buy in a knit yarn.

Key Takeaways for Buyers

How We Quote Blends

HONGTEX quotes every blend with the yarn price broken out separately, so you can see exactly what each ten points of wool costs on your garment. Send your target FOB and your retail price and we will work backwards to the ratio that fits, then knit trial swatches at two options so you can compare on the actual handfeel.