Tricot

Run your thumbnail against a snagged jersey tee and you'll watch a ladder form down the fabric. Try that on tricot and nothing happens — the reason is the knitting direction. Tricot is a warp knit: every yarn runs lengthwise and zigzags between needles instead of looping side to side, so each stitch locks to two neighbors rather than one open chain. Most apparel tricot is nylon or polyester, light — often in the 2 to 4 oz range — with a smooth, slightly slick face and almost no crosswise stretch.

It shows up in places you feel more than you notice: the slippery lining inside a varsity jacket, the smooth inner layer of a track jacket, the backing on a lot of moisture-wicking base layers. It slides on over other garments instead of snagging on them, which is the entire reason linings are made from it.

Because tricot is thin, slick, and runs almost entirely lengthwise, it needs a stabilizer or topping under embroidery — hoop it bare and the needle will push the loose knit around instead of penetrating it cleanly. For screen printing, its low absorbency means water-based inks sit on the surface rather than soaking in, so plastisol or a low-bleed print with a proper flash cure is usually the safer call.

People sometimes assume tricot and jersey are interchangeable knit terms. They're not — jersey is a weft knit that runs if you snag it; tricot is a warp knit built specifically so it can't.