Advantages of ripstop are the favourable strength-to-weight ratio and that small tears cannot easily spread. Fibers used to make ripstop include cotton, silk, polyester, and polypropylene, with nylon content often limited to the crosshatched threads that make it tear-resistant.

Applications

Ripstop fabrics are used in yacht sails and spinnakers, kites, parachutes, and hovercraft skirts. High-quality camping equipment such as lightweight tents, sleeping bags, and camping hammocks tend to use ripstop in order to reduce the wear on their fabrics which are in direct contact with the ground or the wind. Swags, flags, banners, and other applications requiring a strong lightweight fabric use ripstop too.

Ripstop reinforcements are incorporated into heavier fabrics requiring extreme durability, such as those used in Army Combat Uniforms, protective clothing for firefighters and other workwear, outdoor and sports clothing, backpacks, and luggage bags. Self-adhesive ripstop patches are used to repair both rips and tears in other fabrics.

Ripstop nylon

Ripstop nylon is a light-weight nylon fabric with interwoven ripstop reinforcement threads in a crosshatch pattern. The material comes in many different colors, sizes, and thicknesses. It is woven with coarse, strong warp and filling yarns at intervals so that tears will not spread.

Ripstop nylon may be waterproof, water resistant, fire resistant, or have zero porosity (will not allow air or water through), and comes in light, medium and heavy weights. Textures range from a soft and silk-like material to a crisp or stiff fabric that sounds like a paper bag when moved.