Why We Don't Need Cotton Anymore: A Look at Tencel

[@SirFelixII]

I love the idea of using a modern fiber on heritage looms so cool

[@SilverOilman]

Cotton is primarily used for textiles but it has numerous other uses: animal feed, rope, paper, currency, cooking oil, packaging, and as biofuel. I wouldn’t cut out cotton from the global equation unless lyocell can easily fill that void. Not to mention the sunk costs of cotton farming that would have to transition to lyocell farming.

[@orlog3343]

Pretty sure those are all byproducts of the textile industry anyways and not widely used. No one’s saying to get rid of cotton either, the problem with anything fashion related is over production… funny enough the ppl who criticize materials like cotton and leather are into fast fashion, slave labour, and unnatural materials horrible for the environment

[@SilverOilman]

@@duethe6929 I don’t think you’re familiar with the amount of farm implements that exist entirely for this industry and will not be able to be transformed into the lyocell industry. Farms in the US are already being legislated out of existence. If you cut cotton then you’re putting a lot of families and communities at risk

[@stevenroche9874]

Thank you, Nick, for making me aware of this Tencel fabric. You surely live a life of travel and discovery ! Best regards.

[@Mr.ResaleInc]

Just bought a set of bed sheets that is Tencel and it is amazing. Love the video

[@hantswalker]

I love you and your channel Nick but this is Wrong. I know a lot about Tencel. I work with it. Tencel/Lyocel/Rayon/Viscose are essentially the same. A tree takes decades to grow. Cotton just one season. The process for making these "reconstituted cellulose" fibres involves the use of caustic chemicals. Tencel goes through a recovery process but that makes it very expensive. Don't be conned.

[@joeshmoe9233]

This should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, no expertise needed. When he kept describing the process of turning wood chips into spinnable fibers as "pound it, pound it, pound it..." I wanted to reach into my monitor and smack him. Anyone who says that's how you transform wood chips into this stuff is either stupid and gullible, or just lying. This stuff is about as green as a paper mill.

[@kiyosenl.3889]

Sounds like 90% of these eco friendly alternatives, usually not actually as good and even if they are they are usually crap for the environment and expensive to make less environmentally hazardous, they just leave all those bits out

[@halfpint2971]

Its like everything else these days, our big corps hide many facts to advertise & sell their next big thing. Be very careful with all this cool-aid flowing around. I'm sticking with cotton.

[@Phlegm_Thrower]

I don't know much about tencel but I love my bamboo rayon socks and undies. The only downside is they seem to take longer to dry.

[@RobertKirkpatrick84]

Not a big fan of Purcell sheets. All of my 100% cotton garments, they last longer and are more comfortable. I have experimented with hemp stuff and it's been good not as good for summers than cotton though. Personally think we should focus on improving our cotton than trying to use chemical processes to produce textiles that just aren't as good.

[@Stridewise]

I think it's important to remember that Tencel wasn't as good a few years ago as it is now, as such its reputation isn't really in line with what's available now. Today you could get great Tencel sheets!

[@RobertKirkpatrick84]

@@Stridewise can you recommend a brand? I'll give it a shot, I just don't want sheet that pill and feel slimy, and aren't as absorbent and cooling

[@txdjay]

100% cotton has been used for centuries. My parents both picked cotton to help feed their families. We can't pick tencel and there's no way it's sustainable due to the many chemicals used to process it. I just bought a set of king size cotton sheets for $69 I can even bleach them and grow them in a hot dryer. You cannot put tencel in a hot dryer.

[@gnomersy1087]

Honestly sounds like an ad reel. I get that this guy is very enthusiastic about it but like most things there are always trade offs and it would be far more real to hear about if he were talking about the downsides of the "processes" he vaguely mentions. What is the output per sq. km/acre per year relative to cotton? What are the byproducts? What are the chemicals used in the closed loop system? Where can these forests be grown and is this land currently unoccupied/undesirable? Do these forests have ecological consequences? Do they actually meet the standards of forests that grow naturally for the purposes of serving as eco sanctuaries or are we just trading one kind of farm for another? It's always frustrating to hear people come on and give you a spiel about what they do without them presenting the other side of the argument like I get it be confident in your product but acknowledging the opposition makes it much more convincing to me.

[@brunonjezic6208]

really interesting. I hope they do tencel salvage denim woth all of the character of tencel, shine and all so it shows its own for what it is. I believe that is closest to what raw and salvage denim enthusiasts appreciate. This is extremely cool and im glad you made video about it. I just got my first tencel shirt month ago. Great subject!

[@mdrumt]

What about hemp?

[@jimmccoys5778]

I have to think that utilizing trees for clothing will somehow lead to more trees being cut down. I see that he stated there are particular trees that are self sustaining for this, but will that be the case if tencel becomes more and more popular? I’m not sure. I know water usage is a huge deal currently with river and lake depths at an all time low! I am still skeptical

[@MrBeanMess]

They already cut trees down in order to create more land to grow cotton. At least with a wood pulp product, you can produce a lot more on a smaller footprint than compared with a ground crop like cotton.

[@rubinaaimin578]

You only need 1/3 of the land in comparison to cotton. So the forest will be much more sustainable if its not cut down for cotton fields

[@דרורבוטי-ר3ק]

Hey Nick, can you try out soso clothing denim? They are a swedish company I believe, and they produce the most customizable denim I have seen.

[@Udhwjzjsnxjs]

If it helps I have bought 4 wildly different pairs from them, 3 if them had very minor QC problem and each took about a month from order to arrive, the guys who run it are very quick and helpful to respond and it's one of the only ways I can get a high rise skinny selvedge jeans so I literally don't consider anything else now.

[@דרורבוטי-ר3ק]

@@Udhwjzjsnxjs thanks, I didn't really plan to order one but just was very curious

[@mattbutson6142]

The ™is the weird part. If it's really about sustainability, it should be open.

[@wordinthehoodbringingtruth6294]

link does not work

[@hydroaegis6658]

In 30 years cotton is going to be a luxury product.

[@UnknownUser-rb9pd]

Tencel was used in outdoor base layer garments decades ago (and it wasn't shiny). I'd be interested to know how much damage these mono-culture forests cause. They are usually considered environmental disaster areas due to lack of diversity and the densely planted trees reduce sunlight preventing vegetation from growing below. Plus tree felling normally creates huge damage with a lot of top soil run off as they mostly fell everything at once (as it is planted around the same time) with heavy tracked machines leaving a landscape akin to the WW1 battlefields which turn into mud quagmires when it rains. In addition processing trees into cellulose uses a lot of water and the paper industry is one of the biggest water users. It also produces a lot of acid rain due to the gases released by processing the trees. I'm afraid that there's no easy solution to replacing cotton except buy less. Regarding synthetics polyester is far less polluting than cotton as it dyes much more easily at lower temperatures. It can be washed at lower temperatures and dries more quickly because it doesn't hold moisture like cotton and can generally be dried without artificial heat . Plus it can be recycled more easily than cotton. The amount of oil used to make polyester fibre is tiny compared to the amount of oil extracted for use elsewhere and it is delivered in an energy efficient way via pipelines.And better use of recycling would reduce the consumption further. There's a tendency for people to dismiss synthetics but many oil based synthetics are better than natural materials and natural materials often create as many problems as they solve. Patagonia has done a lot of research into this subject and it is worth checking out some of their articles.

[@blueband8114]

for Denim I'll stick with Cotton, thirsty or not. Surely, if the point is to get people to buy tencel instead of cotton, it needs to be way cheaper.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

Your byline should have said that with the development this tree-based product, it may someday be possible to discontinue the use of cotton. But "why we don't need cotton anymore" is laughable. As your overtyping said, cotton is responsible for the income of a quarter of a billion people. And I cannot imagine that Tencel is going to be capable of replacing the volume of cotton we use at any point in the foreseeable future.

[@tinyarr]

Tencell: ayo im now some piece of fabric?

[@peterbodofsnik9429]

Great video. Thx

[@johnnyregs2378]

Interesting but I think we're quite a ways away from it being overall better than cotton.by products of cotton production are also very useful in other applications. Also I have to assume many steps in the manufacturing process aren't as squeaky clean as we'd be lead to believe.

[@edward101697]

Lyocell. Another solution, another problem. It takes YEARS for trees to grow. Not to mention animal will begin to habitat the "sustainable forest" that will eventually be torn down cyclically.

[@JohnnyVichi]

TENCEL IS TOP G

[@StealthFX9]

Interesting video! I own various clothes made of lyocell. I like that fabric very much! 👌🏼

[@theaviatroy]

May I ask which of your lyocell garments are the ones you like best and what brands?

[@F0XD1E]

Love this guy. He looks and sounds like Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight.

[@Phlegm_Thrower]

More like Oscar Isaac trying to sound like this guy with his fake British accent.

[@theodoricthegoth4027]

Linen and Wool… it’s all we need.

[@chusamusic1409]

Linen, wool, leather and in deep deep winters fur.

[@theodoricthegoth4027]

@@chusamusic1409 exactly

[@orlog3343]

Stop larping and find Christ

[@StealthFX9]

U forgot hemp! 😏

[@theodoricthegoth4027]

@@orlog3343 As far as I’ve seen majority of Christians except orthodox are larping. I’m talking fibers man, don’t know why you brought Christ in this.

[@Islandmidfielder]

The downsides of Tencel is the ability to attach data to the fibers. We call it wearable tech in our times. Its pretty much a gateway to being tracked in what you wear. The other major problem is the amount if energy it takes to turn wood fibers into cloth. Its ridiculous the energy consumption. Imagine we are in a critical climate crisis and yet capitalism pushes forth to create and ask you to consume more power hungry fabrics. what happened to degrowth? Go the distance if you are going to lean on climate friendliness. You have not researched the topic well before putting your thumb on the scale. Part of the proprietary part of Tencel is the amount if energy the process uses. Do your homework please.

Maybe it's a european thing but I've got a lot of lyocell clothes...

[@simongrushka983]

lol at thinking that 'organic' cotton (or any other 'organic') product doesn't use pesticides. also, you forgot to support your claims of '90% less water used' (when compared to the standard variety).

[@ld7599]

first the war on coal, now a war on cotton. When will the woke madness stop?

[@CC-kj4yc]

How is wanting to protect the environment woke?

[@abba9881]

no we need it. lame promotion

[@nunyabeezwacks1408]

I like Tencel clothing when they're new, but eventually they pill 👎

[@StealthFX9]

Can't confirm.

[@henrilaw5650]

Please don't see with your ears and hear with your mouth. Go there and take a good look yourself before buying what Trump said about Xinjiang.

[@dahak972]

Bamboo would be better.

[@yeezet4592]

It's a very similar process.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Tencel sucks. It is really bad at two important aspects of clothing: getting clean in a washing machine, and holding colour over time. No idea what happened compared to viscose, but that fabric outperforms Tencel by a huge margin. We don't need cotton, we don't need Tencell. All we need to wear already exists. And vintage Viscose is excellent.

[@xwhEdward]

My man, update your facts about Xinjiang cotton. All the slave/genocide talks, I am sorry to say, have not been much more than propaganda. Put that aside, quite an eye-opening video that introduces me to this new new fabric that might take over the world. Thanks!

[@CC-kj4yc]

Aww, how much is the CCP paying you?

[@thebigo3752]

African Americans wishing this came out hundreds of years ago 😂