Pilling is what happens when small, tangled balls of fibre form on a fabric's surface. It starts when loose fibres rub against something repeatedly, break away from the yarn, and knot together instead of falling away cleanly. It shows up most at points of constant contact, handlebars, saddle rails, pedal cranks, gear cassettes, tyre walls, anywhere the fabric rubs against a hard surface, or against itself, during handling, transit, or storage. Once it starts, the surface gets rough, the colour looks uneven at that spot, and the fabric thins out exactly where it needs to hold up the most.

The Carvico Italian technical fabric used for the NX1 is a warp-knit, micro-porous textile made from a blend of recycled polyester and LYCRA® XTRA LIFE™ elastane. The Carvico Italian fabric used for the NX2 follows the same technical knit principle, combining recycled polyester with elastane with a slightly different ratio. Both are built as a dense, interlaced structure rather than a loosely bonded surface, which leaves very little loose fibre free to break away and tangle under the kind of abrasion that comes from pedal pins, gear teeth, handlebar grip tape, or repeated contact with a tyre. The LYCRA® XTRA LIFE™ fibre in the NX1 has been lab-tested to resist breaking down at up to ten times the rate of standard, untreated elastane under the same conditions — including exposure to oils, sweat, and everyday residue, the exact conditions that cause a standard protective enclosure to pill and thin out within a single season. Both fabrics are OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, and both carry Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification for their recycled composition.