A Short History of Old School Canvas Awnings

Canvas awnings have a vaguely nautical feel, and for good reason. The fabric of those canvas awnings was originally ships' sails. Canvas duck was an oiled, treated form of canvas cotton that was more water-repellant and durable than normal cotton or other fibers, and the toughness that was required for ships' sails was a benefit to holding up to both sun and rain on land.

Like all natural fibers, though, cotton canvas is highly susceptible to UV damage, easily rots in humidity (no matter how well it's treated), and fades and bleaches terribly.
Briefly in the 20th century, awning makers flirted with manmade materials like vinyl. However, vinyl is a solid sheet, not a true fabric. It's not breathable (so it's not as comfortable) and is still vulnerable to the fading, UV damage, and mildew of cotton.

Canvas awnings stuck around as the preferred awning material until another manmade material cropped up in the 1940s: solution-dyed acrylic.

Solution-dyed acrylic is a fiber. It has yarns and is woven into patterns and sewn with thread – just like cotton canvas awnings. The fact that acrylic is a woven fabric means that solution-dyed acrylic has the benefits of canvas awnings – its natural comfortableness – without the weakness of canvas awnings.

The science of solution-dyed acrylic makes it much more durable than canvas awnings. Acrylic is inherently UV-resistant and water-repellant. While the acrylic is made, pigments are added directly into its "recipe." The color is actually part of the fiber, so solution-dyed acrylic is fade-resistant and vibrant.

In texture, breathability, movement, and feel, solution-dyed acrylic mimics canvas awnings. They sound the same, with the same rustle, and they look the same. Some solution-dyed acrylic fabrics have specialized weaves that imitate other natural fabrics, like cotton twill, tweed, or linen.