Name change for Stitch Line vs No Stitch Line panels

media1971
Nov 19, 2025
2 min read

Do your panels have a Stitch Line? Are they Tapered? There's a lot of mixed terminology, some outdated, so let's explain.

Over the past two decades we have made incrimental improvements to all our products, whilst still ensuring cross-compatability, and this post applies to our panels and some changes we made in 2023.

What are Stitch Line / No Stitch Line / Tapered / No Taper?

In the beginning there was Flair. And Flair did not take up all the room in the front of the panel. Therefore, it was necessary to support the airbag with a ‘stitch line’ to keep the airbag in the front of the panel in the correct place. If you wished to create extra lift, we could remove the stitch line and support the bag with reasonably firm foam. This creates more thickness in the panel and more lift lower down and is called a ‘no stitch line’ panel.

Flair Mk 2 is a panel that is created from a shaped foam insert with as resilient plate on top that secures small air bags in place in the panel. Because the foam is shaped like a ‘stitch line’ type panel there is no physical stitch line visible, but it acts the same way as a stitch line panel.

In the BBS panel design the airbags are held in place by a cordura bag that attaches to the panel top in such a way that the front airbag cannot move around inside the panel. The airbag does not reach the bottom of the panel at the front, but this doesn’t matter as the airbag cannot move. The transition between the air bag and the bottom of the panel is softened with foam but there is no physical visible stitch line. The foam can be increased in thickness to achieve the same extra lift as a ‘no stitch line’ panel if required without the need to remove a physical stitch line or change the airbag size.

Renamed to Tapered and Non Tapered

All these differing panel types started to cause confusion, so we decided that it was best to rename the stitch line, no stitch line panels as something different.

From September 2023 panels that have a stitch line, or the equivalent are known as ‘Tapered’ panels.

Panels without a stitch line or ‘no stitch line’ panels will be known as ‘Non Tapered’ panels.

In this way we hope to remove the confusion of referring to a stitch line that is not physically present, and all panels will now be marked on the plastics with relevant labels T ( Tapered ) or NT ( Non Tapered ) for ease of reference.