This is an old thread, but for others that may come across it, here is my experience:
I've had 15 years experience with furniture and cats and recently did a bunch of cat scratch swatch tests on Room and Board and fabrics from a few other companies. I did my tests with two objects: a pointy wine bottle corkscrew and a serrated cheese knife.
First, think of the exercise as trying to find a fabric that is less attractive to your cats and results in less damage when they scratch it. If your couch is less fun than their other scratching options, they usually bother it less. We have a number of SmartCat Ultimate Scratching Posts in the house, which they find more interesting than the couches. And of the couches we have, they are in fabrics that tear less/repair easier than other fabric options. On one couch, we just have to trim the threads they manage to pull out and it looks fine.
Also, when you get your couch, I've found it useful to cover the corners in double sided sticky tape for a while so they don't immediately associate the couch with "fun."
Also, not every cat is a scratcher. We've had one that had no interest, one that is a couch annihilator, and one in the middle.
Ok, with that, here are my views on fabrics:
From my personal experience microsuede is the best. We have a microsuede couch in our basement that our scratch-happy cat completely ignores. They also ignore my leather chair, but if they jump on it their claws can leave some marks.
Sunbrella fabrics are a great option and are extremely strong. They can be a bit dull style wise, but they are coming out with new fabrics that look less like deck furniture. Pottery Barn stocks one Sunbrella called Sahara Weave that's kind of nice, although I don't know if Room and Board has this Sunbrella fabric.
Room and Board's Giza holds up really well to both the corkscrew and the cheese knife test. Its one of the best I've tested. The downside is that it comes in one pattern -- a diamond tweed -- that might not appeal to everyone. I do love their color choices though.
Room and Board's velvet called View is also very good. Its very hard to grab any threads with either the corkscrew or cheese knife. And if you do, they are easily snipped.
R&B has another velvet fabric called Banks which passes the cheese knife text but I can manage to pull a few threads out of with the corkscrew. The good news is, however, that Banks seems to repair well. You just cut the pulled threads down and blend them in. If you have a very determined cat, however, it might start to show over time.
Sumner Linen and Boyer Linen, (both identified as cat friendly fabrics), I'm on the fence about, but they are certainly more cat friendly than most fabrics.
I tried out a few other R&B fabrics, but don't remember what they were.
Pottery Barn has a fabric called Brushed Crossweave (polyester/nylon) that is very promising.
Here are a few general tips:
In general, avoid Boucle fabrics. They are very loopy and easy to snag.
Some fabrics look "more solid" on the back, like they have a glue or some substance on the back binding the threads. Those are generally pretty good. The threads move less if they are snagged when they have this adhesive or whatever it is on the back.
I've had the best luck with artificial fibers. Cotton and natural fabrics seem to really snag.
When looking for fabrics, don't automatically discount ones not labeled "cat friendly" or assume a "performance fabric" will be fine. Get a swatch. Do a test.
And just remember its about finding a "better" fabric, not necessarily an indestructible one.
With that, a little training, and some more attractive materials for your cat to scratch on, both you and your cats should be just fine.
Q