Have you ever experienced one of your darkest moments: spending a little money on a few pieces of clothing, only to flip through the tag and see - 100% polyester? Did your heart feel cold in an instant? The most desperate thing is that you deliberately want to buy something pure cotton. As a result, I bought a cotton coat, and when I saw the tag, it was made of polyester fiber. I bought a quilt and the filling is polyester fiber. Finally, I found that the whole person was covered from head to toe, except for the piece of cotton under my underwear.
With the proliferation of polyester fiber, this common clothing material has quickly become a derogatory term in the past two years.
Two days ago, I was scolded on the trending search topic, #我clad in polyester fiber, how dare I get close to you who are 100% pure wool?
Gradually, polyester fiber has become the business card of our poor people. The rich wear silk and the poor wear chemical fiber. With the arrival of winter, this thing has been charged with the crime of static electricity.
"Winter is coming, and it's the season for us poor people to wear polyester fibers and get electrocuted."
"The boss took off layers of your polyester clothes, and before I even kissed you, I was already electrocuted."
It would be fine if it was just being ridiculed for being cheap. When various videos of "making clothes from waste plastic bottles" began to spread, the style of painting went astray.
"Polyester fiber is made of plastic waste", "poisonous substances are released when heated"... all kinds of myths are spread.
For a time, polyester fiber became a cancer in the clothing industry that could not be worn or avoided.
However, after studying it for a while, Shichao found that it was very interesting.
When polyester fiber first entered China in 1950, it was regarded as a black technology and the alchemy of the 20th century. Many well-informed missionaries should remember a fabric called "Chen Liang".
It was very popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and was equivalent to Labubu in the clothing industry. Not only can it be worn to show off, it is also worthy of being used as a wedding dowry.
Indeed, it was the earliest polyester fiber. It was very expensive and you had to queue up to get it. Shirts and skirts made from it are brightly colored, and most importantly, they will not wrinkle, tear, are slippery, and are particularly durable.
Unexpectedly, a few decades later, the price of polyester fiber would be reduced, and its reputation would be shattered.
Now, in everyone's mind,Polyester = plastic = cheap.
So what is this polyester fiber that everyone is shouting about?
The most common polyester fiber is indeed the same material as plastic bottles, called PET plastic (full name polyethylene terephthalate).
But many marketing accounts immediately tell you that the T-shirt you are wearing is made of eight plastic bottles. This is pure nonsense.If it is true, then the manufacturer would like to write it on his forehead and publicize it everywhere.
Messi's jersey at the 2023 World Cup is made from recycled plastic bottles
Plastic bottles can be used to make clothes, but they are veryNot cost-effective,Time consuming and expensive.
Just washing the bottles is a big job. It takes 10 washes to clean out the remaining cola and glue. Secondly, only the bottle body (PET) is useful, the bottle cap (PP material) and label (PVC material) must be removed manually.
Once a little impurity is mixed in, the entire pot of material may be useless.
Therefore, the vast majority of polyester fibers now come directly from petroleum. Less than 15% of polyester fiber in the world is made from recycled garbage. Most of them are made by brands to promote environmental protection, so you can’t wear them even if you want to.
It is not difficult to process polyester fiber from petroleum. By polymerizing it into plastic fragments, melting the fragments and extruding them from the small holes, the petroleum becomes fine fibers.
These fibers are then twisted into threads and finally woven into pieces of fabric.
extruded fiber
However, everyone criticizes its many shortcomings, and it is indeed not unfair to it.
For example, polyester fiber is indeed a big generator of static electricity.As a plastic, it basically does not absorb water and has a moisture regain of only 0.4%, so it is very dry.
Coupled with the dry weather in winter, electricity cannot be released into the air through moisture. Keep it all until the next time you touch someone's fingertips, release it instantly and burst into flames.
The high level of static electricity will attract dust and dandruff to clothes. In addition, the breathability is relatively poor, so it is easier to smell after being worn too much.
But in addition to static electricity and love of odor, these pots are not made of cheap or inferior polyester fiber.
In fact, I'm not sure whether cotton or linen are great, but polyester fiber is definitely the almighty god. It's wear-resistant and wrinkle-resistant, warm and quick-drying, cheap and strong.
Many people may have forgotten what clothes looked like before there was no polyester fiber.
Take cotton as an example, it can be used as filler, or as home clothes or a four-piece bed set, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
It can be used to make coats and trousers, with one pleat and one seat. Even the cotton that is said to be easy to iron today is treated with chemicals.
Even if it is like this, it is still not wear-resistant and will easily break holes after being worn for a long time. You take out your pure cotton underwear and maybe open a small door near the flowers in the backyard. That's why the ancients invented the patch.
Many people think that breathable and sweat-absorbent cotton is the god of summer.
But in fact, when you sweat during exercise, cotton will be eliminated instantly. The quick-drying clothes of major outdoor brands are all made of polyester fiber.
Cotton does absorb water, but it only gets in, not out. When I first started sweating, I felt quite dry.
When you sweat too much, your clothes will be filled with sweat that cannot evaporate. A cotton T-shirt can become twice as heavy after absorbing sweat. It sticks to your body like a wet rag. It is stuffy and sticky, and you can easily catch a cold when the wind blows.
Although polyester fiber does not absorb water, you only need to make the fiber into a straw shape or a cross pattern. Sweat flows along the gaps and grooves in the fibers to the surface of the clothes, where it quickly evaporates.
This is the cool thing about polyester fiber. It can be molded into various shapes like rubber. It can be thinned, elongated, punched, and deformed.
Whatever shape you shape it into, it can gain the opponent's abilities.
For example, the expanded structure of down can trap air and keep you warm.
ok fine, your ability is very good, now it is mine.
For example, the famous American fabric brand Primaloft has a classic material, P cotton. It is not just a piece of cotton, its warmth retention performance is comparable to that of down.
The polyester fiber is made into a down-like shape to lock in the air. It can not only achieve the warmth retention of down, but also be machine washable, quick-drying, compressible, and much smaller than down.
Many people say,Rich people wear silk and cashmere, while poor people wear synthetic fibers.
That’s completely unofficial, the price of Primaloft Gold Label P cotton is close to that of down. The suede material used in Ferrari and Porsche interiors is also polyester fiber.
However, since it is so awesome, why is everyone still shouting about beating it?
Polyester fiber material itself is a good thing, but it has been cheated by many businesses who love to play word games.
It is obviously a quilt filled with polyester fiber, but it has to be called pleated cotton, cloud yarn cotton, cloud cotton, Tianzhu cotton, pearl cotton, space cotton, etc.
When consumers got their hands on it, they looked at the washing label and discovered that this thing has nothing to do with cotton...
There are also plant cashmere, milk silk, imitation silk, etc., which package synthetic fibers as natural fibers to fool users. The price of polyester fiber is even higher than that of cotton.
Even 100% cotton isn’t pure cotton
Only pure cotton, 100% cotton and 100% cotton are truly pure cotton
Moreover, the polyester fiber raw materials used by many businesses are indeed very durable.
Cheap polyester fiber material can make you suffer. Not breathable, hard to the touch, cheap to reflect, and may even have a bad smell. Liang is actually a typical cheap polyester fiber.
Finally, Shichao would like to say a few words of justice.
Polyester fiber really shouldn’t be demonized, it’s even a major contributor to modern civilization.
Without it, winter would be difficult for many people.
to knowIn the 1950s, the per capita cotton cloth in China was only 4.5 meters, and people bought cloth by ticket.In 2024, the output of synthetic fibers was 72.45 million tons, and that of cotton was only 6.164 million tons.
And cheap polyester fiber allows you to wear warm polar fleece for only a few dozen yuan. It can also be mixed with other materials to make cotton more resistant and linen smoother.
But now in the clothing industry, all kinds of fancy names are used to skirt around the edges, and consumers are treated like stinky dogs. In fact, this is the source of resentment for many people.
Many people don't hate polyester fiber, but they hate the fraud of "clearly selling plastic but pretending to be wool", using cheap and low-quality polyester fiber to sell high prices.
Polyester fiber is a good thing, it just depends on how people use it.