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Comment by noman-land | Hacker News Reader

When I found out that fleece was made of plastic I instantly stopped wearing it. That is weird.

I don't think most people realize how much plastic they wear.

Have you checked other clothing as well? E.g. a lot of my T-shirts are a blend of cotton and polyester. I hate how much I like them (a lot).

Not OP, but I've avoided those when possible too (except some company issued tees), etc.

Full cotton/wool are the best.

Yeah, that realization led me to re-evaluate my textiles and to basically move to natural fibers as much as possible.

I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not... like, fleece melts and natural fibers don't melt

if the writing on the tag, or the "we make it from recycled bottles" marketing material, etc didn't make it clear before that

Yeah, I've always been wary about wearing plastics that will melt onto your skin should they catch fire.

Wool lasts a hell of a lot longer as well. The only drawback...sheep farts.

Prefer sheep farts to plastic TBH

Polar fleece / polyester is far more durable and longer lasting than wool… a cheap polar fleece jacket will basically last forever, even if used roughly by kids for decades. But the fibers harden and it loses some of its softness and warmth. Wool is much nicer but no comparison in longevity… it chafes through quickly and is susceptible to moths.

New-style wool is softer than traditional wool but it wears out quickly (~5-10 years of seasonal use).

Traditional wool is scratchier but lasts much longer. Things labeled "Donegal" tend to be of that type, but read the description, since that's the name of a town, not the type of wool.

Yeah, modern ultra soft and thin merino wool garments wear out quickly, but even the old fashioned scratchy stuff doesn’t hold a candle to polar fleece. I’ve literally never seen a polar fleece jacket wear out, if they can handle many years of rough outdoors use by high energy toddler boys, they’d last hundreds of years of typical adult use.

As a sailor, I’ve also seen the mind blowing chafe/wear resistance of polyester/dacron. Dacron sails and sheets (ropes) almost never fail from chafe. No natural fiber has that kind of chafe resistance.

I love wool and hate the feel of polyester stuff, but durability isn’t one of polyesters weaknesses.

Wool can also be a huge PITA to wash.

yeah but you don't really need to wash it that often, at least

Clothes that can't be washed is a nonstarter for me outside of a few very specific things (suits, overcoats, etc.). It should be a nonstarter for more people.

Yeah I have a few wool things that are 'dry clean only' which I really dislike.

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