Cotton or Poly
The first shirt I bought was a really nice light blue that would go well with jeans or a suit, although it never did get to experience the second possibility. It was 100% cotton but that meant nothing to me at the time.
It was my very favorite and I wore it more than any other. In 3 months I was shocked that both the elbows had holes in them.
Not long after that I bought a snap button type of work shirt. It was 65% polyester, 35% cotton. I used it just for my time around the house. It lasted for a lot of years before the threads in a seam gave out. I still liked it so I stitched it back together and kept it going.
Not long ago I was hanging it on a clothesline and mentioned to a neighbor that it was now over 30 years old. I added "You should see how dirty the collar is." She thought I was serious and said "Omigod do you think you should wear it?" I enjoyed the reaction and explained I was lying about that part.
The points and edges of the collar were frayed and the color had deteriorated, but there were no holes. It was a much more satisfying customer experience than the cotton shirt. I have been told often enough that cotton feels better. Not to me. It is fuzzy and they have to make it a lot thicker to slow down the wear out time. If you have to do hard work on a hot day with a pair of cotton jeans on, it feels like you have garbage bags wrapped around your legs.
And then there is the energy efficiency. Most of my clothes are a cotton poly blend and my dryer loads are close enough to being done in about 45 minutes. Cotton absorbs more water and being thicker doesn't help. Other people in the house usually with a lot of cotton set the dryer to 2 or more times as long. Since it would take more than a hundred cotton shirts to last as long as my cotton/poly blend shirt did, that is a lot more hard work for humans to do, and another kick at efficiency.
Nope, don't like cotton. It does have its place. The 35% or so in work shirts does seem to be better than just having 100% polyester, and because of the extra absorbency, it does do better for some items like dishrags and diapers.
And while I'm at it, isn't it a bit impractical that a lot of Californian condominiums and districts do not allow clotheslines? Blowing in the wind is just not supposed to include underwear. The solar powered and free wind energy version of the domestic dryer is just not going to happen there, energy problems be damned.
