[HN Gopher] How Polyester Bounced Back
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How Polyester Bounced Back
Author : mhb
Score : 37 points
Date : 2022-04-21 19:33 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.worksinprogress.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.worksinprogress.co)
| dvh wrote:
| Any fellow European remembers Dederon fabric?
| mr3martinis wrote:
| Great article on the history of performance fabrics. The last bit
| leaves me wanting to learn more about innovations to make them
| more environmentally friendly.
|
| From my own experience, the tendency for polyester to be smellier
| than natural fibers relegates it to my workout clothes. Most of
| the time I'm wearing cotton.
| PKop wrote:
| A huge source of micro-plastics [0][1]. My wife and I have
| attempted to cut out as many plastic sources in our household we
| have to come into contact with, including switching away from
| polyester clothing to cotton, linen and wool where possible.
|
| From article: "A polyester textile is the same PET material
| (polyethylene terephthalate) as a plastic soda bottle, only
| extruded into a filament rather than molded into a container.
| Like the bottle, the fiber repels water. It's hydrophobic. That's
| a nice quality in a fleece jacket but a sweat-trapping horror
| against the skin. To reach its performance potential, polyester
| needed not simply to keep out moisture but to move it.
|
| 'The body is really fussy. It doesn't like hot, humid conditions
| right at skin level. Move that humidity a millimeter away and
| it's a whole different ballgame', explains Randy Harward, who
| spent more than 40 years developing products and materials in the
| outdoor apparel industry. Once off the skin, moisture becomes a
| valuable buffer against wind and chill. In hot weather, it can
| evaporate and keep you cool. The trick is getting it to that
| sweet spot."
|
| Yea, no thanks. For weightlifting and running, switching to 100%
| cotton shorts from Bonobos and Chubbies feels much better,
| lighter weight, cooler, and less sweaty and harsh on my skin than
| polyester synthetic material. In addition to the concern I have
| for potential endocrine disrupting properties of plastics,
| there's already so many plastics we are exposed to on a daily
| basis I'd rather not have them directly against my body and skin
| throughout the day.
|
| [0]
| https://www.technologynetworks.com/immunology/news/microplas...
|
| [1] https://www.naturalclothing.com/what-is-polyester-fabric/
| riversflow wrote:
| >> For many people. . .the polymer is the worst form of
| planetary pollution since oil spills. Some of that attitude is
| cultural snobbery, a marker of class allegiance not that
| different from Ralph Lauren eschewing synthetics in the early
| '80s.
|
| There it is! HN cant help itself. I love that one of the
| citations is literally "naturalclothing.com" that seems like a
| very neutral source.
|
| > Yeah, no thanks.
|
| I mean you are entitled to the subjective opinion about how
| comfortable cotton is to work out in, but the objective reality
| of the mass market is that polyester is hugely popular as a
| technical fabric. I go backpacking and cotton essential doesn't
| exist in the back country, everyone is either sporting wool or
| synthetics. Wet cotton is cold, rough and doesn't breathe. I
| love high performance natural fibers, and own a lot of wool and
| down, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that polyester has
| advantages over wool (less so down).
|
| Is there _any_ evidence that plastic can enter our body
| transdermally? I find it extremely unlikely and honestly quite
| far-fetched given everything I know about the skin.
| silisili wrote:
| It doesn't have to enter transdermally...we just breathe it
| in! The stuff sheds microplastics just in normal wear...
|
| https://www.inputmag.com/style/microfibers-clothes-
| fashion-p...
| twobitshifter wrote:
| Speaking of polyester for athletics, I have not found that
| they've eliminated the problem of the shirt trapping odor. I
| have some golf and workout shirts that are absurdly comfortable
| but smell when they come clean from the laundry. I don't
| perspire that much but the odor seems to get worse the longer I
| own the shirt.
| sizzle wrote:
| What about rayon?
| EL_Loco wrote:
| Endocrine disruption (potential) of plastics in constant
| contact with skin is something I sometimes worry about, more
| for my kids than myself, but I'd like to ask anybody more
| knowledgeable if it really makes a difference: aren't cotton
| and polyester both dyed with synthetic dyes/paints, and that's
| ultimately what's in contact with our bodies? If this is a
| source of endocrine disruption, won't cotton affect me just the
| same? Wouldn't I have to wear undyed, natural color cotton to
| make a difference?
| jbotz wrote:
| Just because something is "synthetic" doesn't mean it's
| toxic. Plastics, or rather the additives used to make
| plastics soft, flexible, water-repellent, etc., are now known
| to have a specific set of toxic (or endocrine disrupting)
| effects on biological systems. Other synthetic substances may
| have none, or different ones. Textile dyes don't contain any
| endocrine disrupters as far as I know, but they certainly
| might have other ingredients that aren't very good for you.
| Also, some bioactive substances may be easily absorbed by the
| body, others not. There's a lot about all this that we just
| don't know.
|
| Personally I'm not very worried about absorbing endocrine
| disrupters through the skin from clothes, but I avoid
| polyester clothes because a) I don't like the way they feel
| on my skin, and b) because of the environmental effects
| (washing them creates micro-plastic pollution, and eventually
| they become plastic trash).
|
| But it should be pointed out that cotton is also an
| environmental villain... in cotton agriculture huge amounts
| of herbicides and pesticides are used, even more than for
| most other crops. And even if the dyes don't have any
| significant effect on the health of the wearer, the process
| of dying textiles produces lots of environmental toxins and
| probably isn't good for the health of the people working in
| that industry.
|
| So in relation to the environment and polyester vs cotton
| you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. The one
| thing you _can_ do is consume less... keep clothes longer,
| mend them whenever at all possible, or just go full naturist!
| ;-)
| decasteve wrote:
| > including switching away from polyester clothing to cotton,
| linen and wool where possible.
|
| I've been going through the same thing lately. My daughter had
| offered to show me how to naturally dye and sew my own clothes
| if I get the undyed fabric. I'm eager to take her up on that.
| ghaff wrote:
| In the outdoor activities space advances in materials have really
| been revolutionary (and not just clothing). When I first started
| doing winter hiking and related activities seriously in the early
| 90s, I was definitely in the natural fibers camp including
| wearing cotton when it seemed reasonable to do so.
|
| These days? I even wear polyester around the house in winter most
| of the time. (Merino wool is actually my go to a lot of the time
| --albeit more expensive and more delicate. I wear a lot of cotton
| Ts in the warmer months however.)
|
| There's also been a real revolution in lightweight packs, tents,
| etc. More broadly. It's all much better than two or three decades
| ago.
|
| Malden Mills is also (only something of) a feel-good story. The
| owner kept paying salaries and rebuilt after a very bad fire in
| the late nineties and received a lot of praise at the time.
| However the company went bankrupt a few years later partly as a
| result.
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| > Unlike wool or cotton, polyester resists rather than absorbs
| water.
|
| This is actually wrong and misleadingly glorifies poliester.
|
| Wool does not absorb water, wool _adsorbs_ water and this makes
| all the difference in the world.
|
| For instance a jacket made from Burel Wool would need hours of
| continous deluge before ever getting you wet on the inside.
| pc486 wrote:
| It's not like polyester resists forever either. Many outdoors
| folk have experienced "wet out." Resistance only goes so far
| and I'd rather wear wet wool than wet polyester.
|
| Synthetics are still great though. They have many other
| benefits and are easy enough to avoid soaking through.
| Infernal wrote:
| Many synthetics have a PFOA or PFOS treatment to provide the
| water resistance, which are pretty terrible chemicals when
| you end up exposed to them all day on your clothing. They
| also wear off rapidly with normal use, so previously water-
| resistant clothing loses that property after a few months to
| a year depending on how often it is worn and washed.
| derbOac wrote:
| Often "natural" means cotton, but I'm fed up with it. It's often
| poorly made and doesn't last long, or takes forever to dry, or
| holds onto moisture too long otherwise.
|
| Polyester just lasts so much longer, even in a blend.
|
| I've gotten to a point where I prefer wool, synthetics, linen, or
| hemp. Some cotton garments I love but for the most part I'd be
| happy without any 100% cotton fabric.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I used to love wool, but the place we moved to seems to attract
| carpet beetles; they are back within a year of fumigation.
| Essentially all of my woolen clothing has holes in it now.
| derbOac wrote:
| Yeah that's a downside of wool for sure. We've dealt with
| similar wool-eating insects and it's no fun. I hope you are
| able to get the problem resolved.
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