Gotta love how really soft t-shirts can make it easy to represent your interests in total comfort! Recently, I wanted to buy a couple of new shirts specifically to show my pride in living in St. Louis to wear as I went to SXSW (some tips I wrote for SXSW attendees).
I did a lot of searches for local companies and found some great designs and immediately went to see what styles of shirts they could put it on. There were shirts that proclaimed a love of St. Louis foods (so many great ones!) and our pride in diversity.
As I looked through the details though, it looked like all the shirts were a cotton-polyester blend. This has become more common than I want to acknowledge since I am a huge fan of the breathability of cotton and prefer natural fibers.
It was the same on some other big websites recently.
Somewhere along the line, marketing and positioning of certain blends have been taken to be the softest t-shirts. I get that in the store on day one it may feel softer than some cotton t-shirts but I take the broader look.
Quality cotton t-shirts only get softer and comfier as they get worn whereas blends can tend to pilling showing the wear. And ring-spun cotton has such an amazing feel just because of the type of machine that makes the fabric!
I decided to reach out to the small business knowing they print shirts to order. They said they would check the possibilities. I never got options from that company, but I did find some soft t-shirts sharing my love of cotton & St. Louis that I am going to enjoy for the long term.
And I will keep asking for 100 percent cotton options… and sharing the love of soft t-shirts old and new!
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