How we choose cotton
Staple length, twist, weight and the hand-feel test. Why our tee costs $10.50 in cotton and knitting alone, and why we think that is the right number.
- Published
- 28 Aug 2026
- Reading
- 8 min
- Topic
- Materials
A tee is mostly cotton and air. The less air, the longer it lasts. That is the short version. The long version takes a week in a knitting mill in Porto and about forty swatches.
Long staple, tight twist
Cotton fibres vary in length. Short fibres poke out of the yarn and pill; long fibres lie flat and stay smooth. We buy combed long-staple cotton and ask the spinner for a tighter twist than usual, which makes the yarn slightly harder to knit and much harder to wear out.
You can feel a cheap tee in the shoulder seam. You can feel a good one after the fiftieth wash.
Why 300 grams
Most tees weigh 140 to 180 grams per square metre. Ours is 300. It drapes like a light sweatshirt, holds its shape and doesn't turn see-through at the back after a summer. It also costs nearly twice as much in yarn, which is why it costs $48 and not $25.
- Grams per m²
- 300
- Cotton & knitting
- $10.50
- Swatches tested
- 40
- Washes tested
- 50+
The hand-feel test
After all the lab numbers, the final test is a table, six swatches and three people with their eyes closed. The one everybody reaches for twice wins. It has been the same mill's swatch four years running.
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