Polyester 101
Although polyester lives in the shadows of cotton, it has many advantages over cotton that many people are not aware of. Sure, polyester is not the most popular material in the world, but it has its own reasons for so often being found in conjunction with cotton.
Unlike cotton which is a natural material, polyester is man-made. This leads to many advantages which are unique to polyester.
- When it comes to durability, polyester is king. It is extremely resilient and will withstand whatever detergents you need to throw at it (which is why it's often found in clothes which tend to be washed a lot, like aprons)
- Polyester is resistant to absorbing water. If it gets wet, the moisture will dry faster than most other materials.
- Polyester will withstand effects of shrinking and wrinkling better than cotton.
- Designs printed on Polyester fade away more slowly than cotton, for long-time reliable use.
- Polyester has a more silky texture as opposed to cotton's softness (depends on your preference)
- Polyester tends to not reveal sweat stains. Helpful if you're worried about looking awkward in hot, sweaty conditions.
Polyester does have a few drawbacks: for instance, it doesn't breathe as well as cotton (it's made out many of the same materials as plastic), and it is much more flammable than cotton (which isn't too much of a practical concern). However, polyester's unique advantages make it an amazingly useful material when it comes to shirts.
While 100% polyester items aren't very popular, polyester is very frequently found in conjunction with cotton to create shirts that have the advantages from both cotton and polyester.
Hopefully you've gained a little more respect for the material that lives in cotton's shadow. As you can see, ordering custom t-shirts that have polyester in them is not a bad choice at all! When you need something more durable than most shirts, be sure to look for polyester.