Epic vs Mara

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In the beginning I only offered Mara. This was the thread which got me interested in sewing threads. Eventually the price on this thread kept increasing while the competitors improved their threads. At some point I realized one sewing thread isn't enough to cover my needs and my customer's wishes. As an alternative to Mara I chosed Epic from Coats.

Coats Epic

Finding an equal to Mara was challenging. To me it was nearly the perfect sewing thread. Finally I stumbled upon Coats Epic. To my surprise Epic is actually better than Mara on the paper. Since the price is rather good then the choice was pretty much made.

Gütermann is probably quite known to most sewers, while Coats on the other hand may be less known.
Coats mostly make threads for industrial use and they are in fact the world's largest manufacturer of sewing threads. Additionally Coats also owns many brands, including Opti (zippers) og Rowan (yarn). In other words a gigantic corporate of sewing equipments.

Strength

Epic is both stronger and more elastic than Mara:

Thread	Strength	Elongation
Mara 120	1172 grams	15-20%
Epic 120	1209 grams	16-23%

Higher strength is obviously better, but why does elongation matter?
When wearing a garment it's advantageous that the seam can be stretched before breaking. Not only on stretch fabrics but also true for wowen fabrics.
During stitching it's also imporant the thread is elastic. Notice how frequently the thread is being moved and stretched from it leaves the spool until it finally reach the seam.
The more elastic the thread is the less likely it will break while sewing, especially on high speed.

Aesthetics

Mara is still superior on the visuals.
Epic is a little more "hairy" than Mara, but not as noticable as on cheap threads.

In practice the significance is questionable. The majoriy of the seams are on the inside. Most of the time you would also pick a thread with similar colour as the fabrics.
So the real difference is when top stitching with a constrasting colour.

Spool size

Size of the 1000m spoools are nearly the same;
Coats spools are 12.25mm in diameter while Gütermann are 12.70mm.
Which makes the difference in diameter 0.45mm. Both are 75mm long.
Practicalle they're the same size.

Summery

Epic is terrific for normal stitching and overlock. Mara really shines on visible seams, for instance top stitches and coverstitches. That being said the true differences are minor and they both are excellent universal threads which can be mixed and matched. In the end it's about personal preferences and details.
For me I use both of them - whichever I happen to have available in the needed colour.

Also keep in mind that sewing threads are constantly being developed and improved. The above observations are by no means carved in stone and things can change almost any time. However I believe that both Gütermann and Coats will stay in the lead for many more years to come. If someone else manage to make an even better thread then I'll start offering them too!

Colour Differences

Because there are two lines of threads from different manufacturers the colours will of course be different.
When comparing colours I cannot rely solely on my eyes. Not only would that highly depend on the light, but frankly I won't trust my own subjective view.
Luckily colours are in fact measureable!
For that I have an Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer from X-Rite. This is an extremly precise instrument for reading colours and calibrating monitors and printers.

Colour measuring Objective measuring of colours with equipments.

To calculate and compare the colour values I wrote a little app for this purpose.
Since sewing threads are not flat and smooth surfaces (like a print or colour patches) the result varies quite a bit depending on where we're reading. To counter that the app would take the average of five spots and compare that to the average of five spots on the other colour.
This method proves to be very accurate and totally objective.

Delta E

Colour difference are normally expressed in Delta E (or ΔE). This unit tells the "distance" between two colours. There are many ways to calculating Delta E, both simple and complexed.
I've decided to use one of the complexed algorithm called CMC 2:1. This algorithm puts higher importance on shades and less on lightness, because this is the way the human eyes react to colour.
Wikipedia has a detailed article about this subject.

So what does the numbers mean for the mortal women?

ΔE 1.0 and below are impossible for the human eye to distinguish.
ΔE 2.5 are common tolerance for high-end printing.
ΔE 3.0 starts to be noticeable.
ΔE 5.0 and higher is starting to look like a different colour.

Differences larger than Delta E of 3.0 are highlighted in bold.

Note! Colours on screen will always be differently than in reality. This overview does not represent how the colours actually look like, but merely illustrate the difference between colours of Mara and Epic.

Colour	Mara	Epic	ΔE	Comments
White	800	01700	1.58	The whites actually differ more than I first thought. Epic is slightly more blue than Mara.
Black	000	09700	1.75	Both blacks have a small tint of blue, which makes them look darker. Epic is slightly brighter than Mara, but both appears quite black.
Gray	40	C9375	1.81	Both are pretty much neutral gray, with Epic slightly brighter.
Red	156	03822	0.51	Practically identical.
Green	396	05133	5.40	Epic didn't have anything close to Mara 396. So I picked a darker green since many customers find 396 too bright.
Blue	315	07342	3.41	The closest I could get was a little brighter blue. Both colours are sharp royal blue.
Yellow	106	01279	1.51	Epic is a little brighter than Mara.
Dark gray	36	00229	2.12	Was difficult finding a good match for Mara 36. Epic is tilting towards red while Mara is slightly blue. Both have roughtly same brightness.
Light gray	38	09581	0.55	Practically identical.
Offwhite	802	08135	0.22	Practically identical.
Beige	186	08388	4.88	Couldn't find a good match. Epic is somehow more blue (less yellow). It appears more brown than Mara, which is a little orange in comparison.
Khaki	241	09443	2.98	Had a hard time finding something similar. Epic is a little darker and more blue.
Light orange	350	02412	1.81	Almost same colour. Epic is a little more pale than Mara.
Dark orange	155	S0096	3.30	I was thinking the dark orange I had (Mara) was too bright and too red, so I took the opportunity to find something darker and less red (Epic).
Burgundy	226	00522	1.23	Epic is slightly brighter than Mara but barely noticeable. The shades are pretty much the same.
Red brown	174	00417	8.42	Mara 174 is more like "brown with a red tint" than red brown. Found an Epic substitute with a more obvious red.
Light brown	448	02392	1.19	Epic is tiny more pale than Mara. Otherwise the same.
Brun	650	08762	2.43	Epic is tilting towards blue, otherwise quite same.
Dark brown	23	08989	1.89	Epic is a little darker but the shade is the same.
Old pink	320	208YR	2.26	Epic had several colours close to Mara 320. I picked one which is a little darker.
Baby pink	660	00380	3.35	Mara 660 is a little too yellow for my taste, so I choose an Epic with more red. This also makes the difference between old pink and baby pink larger.
Sharp rosa	728	03665	6.57	On Epic I picked a more purple variant to make it more "hot pink". This colour appears as a sharper pink than Mara 728.
Raspberry	382	03778	2.13	Epic is a little darker than Mara but not so noticeable. The shades are practically the same.
Purple	392	04989	2.69	A little darker and a little more blue than Mara. Appears more "purple" and deeper. Many customers said Mara 392 was too bright. I think the Epic variant would be a better purple.
Light purple	391	04327	3.47	I have the impression Mara light purple 391 was too dark (too little difference from purple 392). So I choose an Epic which is lighter.
Plum	259	04354	8.13	Mara plum 259 was a bit too brown so I'm trying a more vivid variant on Epic.
Baby blue	195	07183	2.86	Epic is less green and more blue. Roughtly same brightness.
Gray blue	112	07566	2.22	Epic is a little more pale than Mara, otherwise same colour.
Marine	13	07994	1.84	Epic is a little brighter, otherwise same.
Dark blue	310	07922	6.43	Mara dark blue 310 is almost black. You may as well use black. Trying an Epic with a more obvious blue.
Dark green	340	05128	3.19	Epic is a little brighter and more green than Mara 340.
Petrol	189	06629	1.36	Epic is tiny brighter than Mara, but hardly noticeable.
Turquoise	736	06911	1.72	Epic is brighter but about the same shade.
Light turquoise	28	06355	4.86	Couldn't find anything close, so I picked a more blue version which matches Hilco interlock 105 better.
Mint	192	06174	2.63	Epic is brighter but the shade is the same.
Pistage	98	05571	2.61	Epic is a little darker than Mara, still pale light green.
Lime	336	-	-	Epic actually doesn't have similar colour. I couldn't find anything I would call "lime" either.
Olive	582	05324	3.28	Epic is darker and less yellow. Can still be described as olive green.