[1053r]

Nothing is going to hit the price/warmness combo of plastic based fleeces, but I find the smelliness factor on synthetics to be worth paying extra for high quality natural fibers. Plastic clothing just ends up smelling gross and needs 2x-3x the washing!

Some alternatives I've found. (I'm not associated with any of these, other than as a full price paying satisfied customer):

1) Silkliving.com is a New Zealand company that sells a 100% silk fleece. It's AMAZING to wear, and has a price to match. Pretty hard wearing, but I wouldn't wear it as my outer layer and then do construction or rock climbing or whatever. This fleece is as warm as plastic or wool, weighs less than plastic, is comfy over a wider range of temps, and just literally the best fleece money can buy for anything other than activities where it will get abraded. Sadly, only comes in black. I'm hoping if you all buy one, they will justify more colors because I want to buy more of these.

2) Minus33 is a New Hampshire, USA company (minus33.com) that makes a hard wearing 100% merino wool fleece. Their "expedition" weight is heavy, but WARM. I have two of these.

3) Arms of Andes (armsofandes.com) make Alpaca wool clothing. Alpaca fiber is hollow and smaller than merino wool, so it will be lighter (or the same weight but warmer) and slightly softer than merino. It's not as soft or light as silk though, and you might not notice the difference, whereas you will DEFINITELY notice silk vs. merino. They don't have a full zip hoodie, which is unfortunate, but they do offer non-toxic plant based dyes, which is nice! Remember, you are breathing that fiber in and swallowing it, so while it's an upgrade to go from plastic to natural fibers, it's also an upgrade to move away from to old school nasty heavy metal based dyes.

[deeel]

I have a few items from Arms of Andes that are really great. Highly recommend.

I ran into a similar situation as you after wearing synthetic clothing at the gym. It led me to create unwraplife.co as a database for plastic free clothing (no kickbacks here or anything shady, just a database).

[jorvi]

> Minus33 is a New Hampshire, USA company (minus33.com) that makes a hard wearing 100% merino wool fleece. Their "expedition" weight is heavy, but WARM. I have two of these.

When looking for a good 100% Merino wool beanie, I came across these guys, but sadly they barely retail in Europe and the international shipping they charge makes it absolutely not worth it.

[1053r]

I have a few pieces from loow.com (Wool backwards.) They are out of EU, and what I have from them, I like! (Not associated, just a satisfied customer that paid full price.)

[davidw]

What was your experience washing the various things you got from these places? Did it come out ok?

I'm used to doing cold water washes and hang drying everything, but even with that, some wool stuff... it seems you just look at it wrong and it shrinks in weird ways.

Alpacas are cute animals - there are a few ranches near where I live

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m8XTysD77HcpNx4r8

[1053r]

I wash wool and silk using a ph balanced detergent with no protease. I use cold water, minimum spin, and a super long soak. Then I hang dry. It's more work to wash this way, but they last longer, never smell, and 100% silk and wool only need washing 1/3rd to 1/5th as often anyway, so the total work is lower than with plastic clothing. The brand of detergent I use is literally called "Soak," and I get it on Amazon.

The clothing comes out great.

[djhn]

Can you tell us more about the soak phase or link to some reading on the specifics?

I do the other three things so I’m just curious whether I’m missing something essential.

[eynsham]

I wash quite annoying knitwear that has on occasion shrunk when someone else has washed them or due to my mistakes.

I wash inside out in a clothes bag with no spin and cold water using a detergent for wool (e.g. Woollite, which may not be available where you are).

I dry (also inside out) on a heated drying rack on top of a thin pillowcase or a mesh for that purpose https://www.lakeland.co.uk/25293/dry-soon-deluxe-mesh-shelf-.... This speeds up drying despite the omission of spin, and takes about a day.

This has worked for at least a dozen cycles for a rollneck I quite like.

[rednerrus]

Cashmere has always been my choice.

[ravenstine]

> Plastic clothing just ends up smelling gross and needs 2x-3x the washing!

Yeah, I got some plastic based tee shirts that supposedly are composed in part from recycled bottles, which is cool, but they soak up armpit stank way more easily than shirts of other fabrics. Spray N' Wash works really well for that, though.

[throw337274]

Synthetic clothing is amazing if you live in the tropics. Where the humidity is so high, you start sweating right when you get out of the shower.

Also in countries where line drying is common and most homes don't have dryers.

Cotton clothing that doesn't get enough sun when line drying smells really bad if you sweat. Worse than any synthetic clothing in my experience.

[bootlooped]

Are you sure you're washing the clothing sufficiently, and that the detergent is working? I dry all my clothes on an indoor drying rack that gets zero direct sunlight, including 100% cotton items. I don't have any problems with washed items still smelling. Is the water chlorinated? Admittedly it's usually not tropical-level humidity here most of the time.

[louistsi]

In high humidity environments you need the sunlight to help dry the clothing quickly enough so that bacteria doesn't start to form in the cotton weave. Because even if it gets dry, the minute you begin to sweat wearing that item, it'll stink.

In low humidity your cotton clothing will dry quickly enough that this doesn't happen.

[bootlooped]

Some of my stuff can take quite a while to dry still though. Particularly if the drying rack is very full and it's cold in the apartment. For everything to fully dry sometimes takes 24 hours.