Every year, globally, more polyester yarn is made than all natural fibers combined.
I think this goes without saying, but for the last 20 years (and it feels like more than ever since Covid), big brands have been making worse stuff, charging more for it, and telling us it’s better than ever. Perhaps no industry has lied to us more than the clothing industry and the fast-fashion megaliths of the apparel world. But on the coattails of H&M and Uniqlo come the heritage brands, the American icons, and the household names that have deserted quality in favor of profits and mass production. The same brands with “environmental sustainability” pages on their websites sell clothing with more plastic in it than you used in straws last year.
The uncomfortable truth is that most of the traditional cotton clothing sold today is made of low-quality materials that feel bad on your skin, wear out quickly, and wreak havoc on the environment. In short: those clothes are made of sh*t. Specifically, polyester sh*t.
Why is polyester so bad?
Polyester is plastic yarn. In fact, it’s the exact same plastic (PET) in water bottles, food containers, shaving cream bottles, etc. Think about how many of those things you see around you as litter, trash, or washed up on the beach. While environmentally bad, and an eyesore, the bottle sort of just sits there until it’s picked up and moved somewhere else. But every time you wash a polyester shirt, thousands of microplastics - the same plastic as that litter - flushes down the drain. Synthetic textiles are the largest source of microplastics in our water systems. Not only our own drinking water, but in freshwater and saltwater fish, and in filter feeders like oysters and mussels.
This is to say nothing of the actual production of polyester, which itself is an environmental scourge. For one, it’s made from crude oil, no explanation needed there. Beyond that, the energy required to convert that oil to plastic is significantly higher than a natural fiber, creating more greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions. Additionally, toxic heavy metals are used in the chemical processes involved, and are discarded in the waste water. It should come as no surprise that the majority of the world’s polyester is produced in China - a country with minimal regulation on their industrial production and shady reporting on environmental impacts.
All that being said, the reality is most of the clothes sold today contain polyester. If we can ignore the environmental atrocities above - what about the quality of the damn clothes?
Why are clothes made of polyester?
In contrast to polyester, cotton is a plant. We don’t often think of it as such, but it is just another crop like corn, soy, or wheat. On that note I won’t greenwash it - farming and agriculture have their own fair share of problems and environmental concerns. But, at the end of the day we’ve all got to eat, and we’ve all got to wear clothes, and the only thing we can really do is try and make the best choices we can.
As with any other crop, the whole cotton harvest is not homogenous - one row to the other or one year to the next. The harvested cotton boll is a mass of twisted and gnarly fibers of varying lengths, sizes, and shapes. To produce a workable yarn, this bunch is combed and the longest fibers organized, while the shorter “waste” fibers are discarded. Given the effort, money, resources, and labor to produce the cotton, this lesser quality “waste” cotton is allocated for a different use. Enter: polyester.
To create a yarn from this cotton, some structure needs to be added to it. Polyester fibers can be as long as they need to be, and when blended with the cotton produce a spinnable yarn. Essentially, polyester allows lower quality cotton to be used to produce a higher price item than otherwise. Think about it, if you were using high quality cotton (which feels great, looks great, and lasts a really long time it would cost a lot more per shirt produced - case in point: our shirts.
The Polyester Myths
It’s a hard sell to say “hey, this shirt is made from junk cotton mixed with plastic, but at least it’s cheap”! So instead, we’ve been lied to for years about the so-called “benefits” of polyester. I’ll tackle the biggest ones we’ve all heard before:
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“It’s moisture wicking”!
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Yes, plastic is waterproof. That’s why rain jackets, tents, tarps, and water bottles are made of it (PET plastic). It’s not so much that it “wicks moisture” but rather the material can be made ultra-lightweight, and there’s no cotton to absorb the sweat, so the
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Conversely, cotton actually wicks moisture away from your skin via capillary action. The side of the shirt on your skin absorbs the sweat, which travels through to the outside of the shirt and evaporates. This can happen in a cotton-poly shirt too, but the polyester is not helping the cause.
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“It’s odor resistant”!
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Again, when new, yes it’s odor resistant. But that goes away fast. As the polyester threads in a fabric deteriorate - whether by the salt from your sweat, the UV from the sun, the chemicals in the washer, the heat from the dryer - the material becomes more porous, absorbing smells easier. Think of plastic food containers that never stop smelling like garlic, or never lose that red tomato sauce stain.
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“It’s durable”!
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By definition the plastic polyester yarn is stronger and more durable than a natural fiber like cotton. However, that’s largely due to the fact that cotton is a plant. It is by nature soft and delicate, which is why we make clothes out of it. It’s also why we (Goodwear) use a thicker gauge cotton yarn, and knit a denser and heavier cotton fabric for our shirts. Our shirts use enough cotton that the shirt can actually wear in and that extra-soft feel reveals itself.
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Polyester is “durable” in that, like I mentioned above, it is mixed with cotton that would otherwise not be used for clothing. The shorter cotton fibers can’t be spun into a yarn that holds up, so the polyester acts as a crutch. And, you know, plastics never really go away so in that sense polyester is extremely durable (forever!).
Where to find clothes without polyester
As always, check your labels before buying (or reading the material description online). I will warn you though: this will start to drive you mad. Once you notice how much polyester is in the clothes around us, you’ll realize how hard it is to find clothes without it. The first step is simply shopping with quality brands - you can forget fast fashion. That being said it’s best to double check, particularly in denim, fleece, and bedding.
For your athletic and outdoor gear, and in particular fabrics and applications, polyester can and does solve some problems. It’s hard to go camping in the rain without it.
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Some transparency: You will see a 90% cotton/10% polyester blend used in our Oxford shirts and shorts, used for the particular look and feel of this very particular, vintage style. More importantly, you will see the traditional 80% cotton/20% polyester fleece in our sale collection. We made the decision a couple of years ago to move away from this convention, and invest in our 100% cotton fleece and French terry styles. This was a conscious decision, and an expensive one. It was more than worth it, and if you’ve worn our hoodies and sweatpants, you know why.