From sports bags to life-saving medical devices and even everyday fashion, textiles aren’t only a bedrock to the modern contract sewing industry, but are a bare necessity of life...or, in the very least, a life necessity without which, we’d be bare.

As cut-and-sew experts, it should come as no surprise that we’re incredibly enthusiastic about textiles, which is why we’re celebrating National Textiles Day.

If you’ve never heard of the May 3 holiday, no worries, it’s relatively new.

Valley Forge Fabrics, a company specializing in fabrics for window treatments and bedding, ingeniously registered the day with the national database calendar in 2016, and since then it has been gaining more momentum throughout the sewing world.

“We started National Textiles Day in conjunction with our 40th birthday since textiles are the main focus of our culture and industry,” explained Valley Forge Brand Manager Shannon Francis.

So today, as a way to celebrate those synthetic and natural woven fibers we love so much, we’re taking a moment to appreciate how far they’ve come by recognizing some of the mind-blowingly awesome fabrics that might sound sci-fi but actually exist!

COLOR MORPHING TEXTILES

Inspired by Cuttlefish, these textiles are made with thin microfibers that are able to change color with their surroundings.

MUSHROOM SHOES

So maybe a squid suit isn’t your thing. How about fungus footwear? a team of students from University of Delaware's Department of Fashion and Apparel created a shoe that use a hearty mushroom as the sole their prototype, taking foot fungus to a whole new level

CHEMICAL WARFARE RESISTANT CLOTHING

Recently researchers have been successful in binding a nonwoven polypropylene fabric with this structure, resulting in an MOF-treated cloth that can successfully thwart chemical compounds and be used to drastically improve protective clothing.

FRUIT FABRICS

Oranges and pineapples aren’t just for your smoothies anymore. New, industrious processing techniques have opened the doors for new companies to experiment with turning these fruits into fabrics, including nanotech yarn made from orange peel fibers, and luxurious leather made from pineapples.

ELECTRICITY PRODUCING FABRICS

Imagine using a bag, jacket, or vest to charge your phone. New electrochemical energy harvesting techniques have led to innovations that can generate electrical current from the way humans move clothes, or bags straps are stretched and contract with weight. Just like the Marvel superhero Black Black Panther’s suit converts kinetic energy into power, these futuristic textiles charge use piezoelectric yarn to generate electricity.

TEMPERATURE REGULATING TEXTILES

Electro-osmotic clothes that activate to remove the sweat from your body, super light fabrics that use a silver nanowire polyester/cotton/nylon blend to raise core body temperature more than 100 degrees, thermal nanopolyethylene textiles that are engineered to actively reduce body temperature and keep the user cool — these aren’t some of the smart-fabric technologies that exist right now (mostly for military use) and will find their way onto the consumer market in the near future.

INFECTION RESISTANT SCRUBS

Within the next few years it’s likely we’ll see a change of wardrobe for medical professionals, upgrading their scrubs for ones coated with antibacterial copper nanoparticles, which reduce the spread of infections and viruses. New scientific advancements have recently allowed scientists to bind the antibacterial composite to wearables such as cotton and polyester. The textile breakthrough is expected to save thousands of lives, as many diseases in hospitals spread through contact on surfaces and clothing.