Cotton 101
Most shirts you find on the market tend to be made up of mostly(if not completely) cotton. Now, just because cotton is one of the most common fabrics in shirts doesn't mean that it's a bad material. Cotton has a lot of great advantages over other materials.
- Cotton is flexible in terms of thickness. It can be light or heavy (to keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter)
- Cotton absorbs water well, but at the time "breathes" by being exellent at releasing perspiration (great for use on occasions where you will sweat)
- Cotton is comfortable to the touch. It is soft and won't irritate your skin
- Although cotton shrinks the first time you wash it (you can often find pre-shrunk shirts, so you know the size beforehand), it is exellent at handling many wash cycles, for reliable, long-term use (though not as durable as polyester when it comes to handling hardcore detergents)
- Cotton has amazing usability. It's found in custom t-shirts, backpacks, towels, tents, and even gunpowder!
- Cotton is excellent at combining with other materials. It's often found in conjunction with polyester (for increased durability) and lycra (to give the shirt a better sense of "strechyness")
- If you're looking to go green, cotton is environment-friendly.
- Cotton withstands high heat; you can even boil it and it will still look the same!
- Cotton is very cheap and easy to produce with modern technology. It's economical and reliable at the same time.
As you can see, cotton has its reasons for being the most commonly used clothing material in the world. To get a fuller picture about clothing materials, read up on my guides about polyester and shirt picking.