If you’re working toward a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle, we salute you. Today, we’d like to share what we’ve learned so far about improving our own environmental footprint via the use of sustainably-produced fabrics. 

Here’s what we’ll cover: 

• The affordability and quality of eco-friendly t-shirts
• Which fabrics to choose for eco-friendly t-shirts that are perfectly soft and comfy
• Additional tips for sustainably purchasing and caring for clothing

Are Eco-Friendly T-Shirts High Quality and Affordable?

For the most part, the garment industry has not been particularly progressive in adopting sustainability goals and standards. 

Fortunately, that’s changing. There are more environmentally-focused brands to choose from than there were just a few years ago, including: 

• Royal Apparel
• GOEX Apparel
• Alternative Apparel
• Bella+Canvas
• Allmade 

Sustainably-sourced garments perform similarly to their traditional counterparts. Several sustainable fabrics are often blended together to create garments of extremely high quality. 

Companies that prioritize sustainability sometimes have to charge slightly more for their products, but sustainability is just one of many factors that impact price. Eco-conscious consumers don’t typically have to pay much of a premium for sustainably-made shirts. 

At fancysweetstx, we source blank garments from a number of suppliers. Allmade is our go-to brand for blank retail tees. Allmade is a sustainability-focused company that makes shirts using these three eco-friendly fabrics, which we’ll discuss in detail below:

• Organic cotton
• Repreve recycled polyester
• TENCEL™ Modal 

The shirts featured in our eco-friendly collection are cut and sewn in Haiti and the fabrics are spun, knitted, processed, and finished in the USA. 

1 - Organic Cotton

According to the Organic Trade Association, just 0.95% of the global cotton crop is produced in accordance with organic farming standards. 

We don’t eat cotton, so does it really matter how it’s produced? The answer to that question might depend on your priorities as a consumer and your reasons for caring about organic farming. 

When you think of organic vs. conventional (non-organic) purchasing decisions, you probably think of fruits, veggies, and grains. 

Some folks choose organic items because they want to avoid ingesting GMOs, while others are more worried about the environmental and health hazards associated with heavy pesticide use. 

However, non-food crops matter too, and there are some harsh truths about cotton that are hiding in plain sight. 

Here are some findings reported by the Soil Association, an organic products certifier and environmental education group: 

• Conventional cotton uses approximately 2.5% of the world’s agricultural land but demands 16% of its insecticide use, more than any other crop.
• Compared to conventional cotton, organic cotton can be produced at reduced cost and with a 40% reduction in global warming potential.
• Organic cotton production, in addition to reduced chemical applications, tends to use  substantially less energy and water.

Sadly, conventional cotton is sometimes referred to as “the dirtiest crop in the world.” 

Avoiding conventional cotton isn’t easy. Since the vast majority of cotton production is of the conventional variety, the only way to purchase organic cotton products is to seek them out. 

At fancysweetstx, we’ve begun to incorporate organic cotton into our blank t-shirt sourcing. The shirts shown below use blanks from Allmade that were produced using the eco-friendly tri-blend of 25% organic cotton, 50% Repreve recycled polyester, and 25% TENCEL™ Modal.

”Love this shirt! Great quality, I love it.” 
— Stephanie G., ★★★★★ Verified fancysweetstx T-shirt Buyer 

Cotton is the classic fabric for t-shirts, but cotton actually performs better when it’s blended with other materials. Cotton/poly blends or cotton/poly/rayon or TENCEL™ Modal tri-blends combine the softness of cotton with the stretchiness and strength of polyester. 

We’ll learn more about recycled polyester and TENCEL™ Modal below. 

2 - Polyester Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Polyester is a synthetic fiber, meaning that it’s formed through a manufacturing process rather than harvested from a plant or animal. 

Most polyester is made from petroleum. However, polyester’s name and definition don’t refer to any specific ingredient. Poly means many and ester refers to an organic compound formed by an acid + alcohol chemical reaction.

To avoid stumbling knee-deep into a chemistry lesson, let’s cut to the chase: polyester is most often made using petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource with major environmental, social, and political complications. 

Before we get to alternative and recycled polyester, it’s important to note that petroleum-based polyester also has major upsides, including:

• Polyester garments are durable and shrink-proof.
• Compared to other fibers, polyester garments require less water and heat for cleaning.
• Polyester combines well with other materials to create blended fabrics.

Durability is an important aspect of sustainability, and polyester products hold up terrifically over time. Plus, adding as little as 20% polyester into a blended fabric mix can make a garment stronger, more comfortable, and less prone to shrinking. 

Polyester really becomes an exciting eco-friendly option when it’s manufactured using recycled materials. Items like plastic bottles can be melted or broken down chemically and then reformed into new strands of yarn. 

For fancysweetstx tees that are made with recycled polyester, the material comes from Repreve, a global leader in innovative plastics recycling. Repreve has recycled over 30 billion plastic bottles. 

3 - TENCEL™ Fiber Made From Sustainably Harvested Beech Trees

TENCEL™ is a trademarked brand of Lyocell, which is a type of rayon. Let’s step through each of these terms one at a time:

• Rayon is a semi-synthetic cellulose fiber, made from wood pulp and similar agricultural products.
• Lyocell is an eco-friendly form of rayon that avoids the use of environmentally-toxic carbon disulfide.
• TENCEL™ is an environmentally-focused company that produces Lyocell materials from sustainably-sourced wood.

The Allmade blank tees that fancysweetstx uses for our eco-friendly collection use TENCEL™ Modal, sourced from naturally-grown beech trees.

Sustainable Fashion Tips

Choosing sustainably-produced garments is a great way to lower the environmental footprint of your daily clothing choices. Don’t stop there! Here are a few more easy tips: 

• Don’t accumulate way more clothing than you actually need.
• Hand down or donate unwanted garments.
• Repurpose unusable old garments as dust rags or toys for pets.
• Reduce energy use and preserve your clothing by washing with cold water and hang drying.

To learn more about environmentally friendly laundry practices that extend the lifespans of your garments, check out our article on how to care for embroidered sweatshirts.

Sustainable Midwest-Themed Apparel From fancysweetstx

At fancysweetstx, we’re excited to continue supporting manufacturers that prioritize sustainability and develop innovative new ways to make clothing. 

After all, we’re here to celebrate the American Midwest, and we want our favorite places and landscapes here to remain beautiful, full of life, and sustained for future generations. 

”I got the Great Lakes sweatshirt as a gift and the recipient loved it! I have a ton of fancysweetstx items and they’re always the best!” 
— Anonymous., ★★★★★ Verified fancysweetstx Sweatshirt Buyer 

To learn more about fancysweetstx’s products, values, and passions, stop by our blog.

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Gone are the days when eco-friendly shirts were scratchy and stiff, had limited sizes or colors, or were cost prohibitive. 

Every day, we print shirts that are better for the environment. If you're looking for shirts for your brand that are soft, fit well, and earth friendly, we can help.

Not only do we use eco-friendly shirts made of recycled plastic for our retail line, but we print these same shirts for custom screen printed orders, as well.

Our Favorite Eco-Friendly Shirts

We've been printing custom shirts for over ten years now. In that time, sustainability has become a priority for more people and as a result, there has been an increase in requests for eco-friendly shirts. 

Fortunately, the options for eco-friendly shirts have increased as well. You have more made-in-the-USA shirt options, shirts made of recycled material or organic cotton, and more environmentally friendly production practices. 

Here is a short list of our favorite eco-friendly and sustainable shirts to use when we print custom shirts for our customers:

1. Allmade 
2. Alternative Apparel
3. Econscious
4. Royal Apparel

1. Allmade Apparel

We like Allmade Apparel so much that is the primary blank that we use for our retail brand. It's soft, available in a lot of colors, prints well, and is reasonably priced. For these reasons, Allmade shirts have become a fast favorite among our customers. 

Allmade's success seemingly happened overnight. And it's not a surprise either. It was founded by a group of screen printers who wanted to make a better shirt. So it's only natural that they are so great to print on.

Allmade has made a better shirt by using 50% recycled polyester, 25% Tencel model sourced from sustainable beech trees, and 25% organic cotton. They did all of this while maintaining a comfy fit and feel. 

The AL2004 is their tri-blend tee that you will find on our retail shirts. We can't recommend it anymore. 

Check out the details about the Allmade AL2004:

• A 50/25/25 tri-blend shirt: 50% polyester from recycled plastic bottles, 25% organic cotton, 25% Tencel™ Modal
• Saves an average of 145 gallons of water, reduces 4 kg of CO2 emissions, uses an average of 6 water bottles
• Available in 15 colors and available in sizes XS-4X
• Calculate your positive impact on the environment by switching to this shirt with Allmade Apparel's impact calculator

2. Alternative Apparel

Alternative Apparel has been committed to making sustainable clothing since its inception. When we first started screen printing, they were one of the only options available in this space. They have consistently made comfortable clothing with eco fabrics and organic materials. 

Alternative Apparel is one of the few brands our customers request by name. It's popular in the yoga crowd for its flowy styles, comfy fabrics, and casual style.

As a leader in using sustainable fabrics and manufacturing processes, Alternative Apparel is a great choice to meet your sustainability goals. 

In addition to their t-shirts, we're a big fan of their eco-fleece. They make the softest hoodies, crews, and sweatpants. 

3. Econscious

Econscious is a clothing brand built on sustainability. 

With a name like Econscious, it's no surprise that they made the list. 

Econscious is widely available through wholesale clothing distributor, AlphaBroder. This fact is important because it's a sign of their success. 

While other sustainable t-shirt brands have come and gone, Econscious has produced a consistent and quality product for years. 

These shirts are great for both decorators and their customers because they are comfortable and well-fitting. Their most popular shirt is the EC1000 which is a 100% organic cotton tee.

In addition to organic cotton, Econscious uses hemp and recycled polyester fabrics in their clothing.  

Econscious also manufactures eco-friendly headwear, sweatshirts, and tote bags. 

4. Royal Apparel

Back before I started screen printing my own shirts, fancysweetstx was just a little retail brand that made shirts for the Ohio State University. Those first graphic t-shirts I made were printed on Royal Apparel. 

In those days, there weren't many brands making soft, fashion-forward shirts. Royal Apparel checks those boxes as well as being made in America and having a long line of organic apparel. 

Their commitment to sustainable fashion is just as strong today. Royal Apparel has a full line of organic clothing that is made, at least in part, with organic cotton.    

Here are more details about Royal Apparel:

• Organic cotton uses 90% less water and greenhouse gases to produce
• Use of RPET cotton, a fabric made from recycled plastic bottles, saves 2 million single-use plastic bottles from being thrown out each year.
• Full line of clothing is manufactured in the USA

What Do You Do With Old Shirts?

One of the toughest parts about making the apparel industry more environmentally friendly is figuring out what to do with old clothing.

A complaint in the promotional industry is that t-shirts are considered one-time use. They are made, printed, worn once, and then discarded. 

One way we try to make a difference at fancysweetstx is with our trade-in program, Reuse.

We offer customers of our retail brand the opportunity to return old, well-worn fancysweetstx shirts and receive a $5 credit on their next order. Sorry, this is not available for our custom screen printed shirts.

Order Custom Printed Eco-Friendly Shirts 

At fancysweetstx, we have a lot of experience screen printing custom shirts. 

We love that so many of our customers are choosing eco-friendly and sustainable shirts for their custom projects. 

The long-term impact of this trend will be significant. As more people adopt sustainable shirts and clothing, the more common, practical, and cost-effective they will be. 

The sustainable shirts mentioned above are going to match all of the important aspects of a shirt that you want in your standard shirts. They are: 

• Soft and comfortable material
• Quality construction
• Well fitting

If you’re on the team that is working on a new shirt project for your brand and you're looking for a screen printer who has the experience to print on eco-friendly shirts, get in touch with fancysweetstx today.

Here’s what Michael had to say after ordering custom screen printed shirts:

“Very impressed by the speed and quality of my company's shirt orders. They got our order done in less than a week (70+ shirts) and they came out perfectly fabulous. Thank you for your customer service.” 

Especially when the textile industry has gained notoriety as “the world’s biggest polluters.”

However, the textile industry can also be a crucial part of sustainable solutions for the environment. That’s right, your T-shirts can help save the planet.

Take Repreve T-shirts, for instance. If you’ve never worn one, you’ll find it hard to believe that the soft and silk-like garment comes from recycled plastic.

This sourcing provides plastic waste with an alternative destination to landfills and the ocean and is one of the ways by which your Repreve T-shirts can help save the planet.

Repreve is also considered a renewable material because old fabric is used to make new fabric. This recycling extends a fabric’s useful life while limiting the resources needed to produce fabric, such as energy and water.

We’ve gathered four renewable materials that can be used to make sustainable T-shirts. As we delve into their sustainability and benefits, you’ll also learn:

• How organic cotton uses less water than conventional cotton
• Why Repreve manufacturers use both open and closed-loop recycling
• Why organic cotton makes stronger fabric than conventional cotton
• Why some sustainable T-shirt designs use a blend of renewable materials
• Where to find top-quality sustainable T-shirts with customizable branding

1 - Organic Cotton

Sustainable T-shirts are made using organic cotton in order to eliminate the reliance on toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, in their value chain—the organizational activities that go into producing and delivering a product to market.

Unlike its conventional alternative, organic cotton relies on natural farming practices, which are far less damaging to the environment and far more sustainable, such as:

• Weeding over herbicides
• Compost over synthetic fertilizers
• Crop rotation over chemical-dependent mono-cropping

These chemical-free farming practices improve soil quality and promote biodiversity in their respective ecosystems.

Organic cotton also conserves water by eliminating the need for the 150 liters/kilo of cotton fiber that goes into processing conventional cotton. A staggering amount of water is necessary for processing regular cotton because it has such a high chemical content.

Every nine ounces of conventional cotton consists of 17 teaspoons of chemical fertilizers and a teaspoon of active ingredients, such as insecticides, herbicides, and defoliants.

Benefits of Organic Cotton T-Shirts

• Hypoallergenic: The lack of toxic chemical residues in organic cotton means that their T-shirts are less likely to trigger allergic reactions.
• They lack chemical residues, such as defoliants (used in regular cotton farming), which are notorious irritants for the upper and lower respiratory tract.
• Durability: Organic cotton T-shirts last longer than regular cotton T-shirts because of how their raw material is harvested.
• Organic cotton is hand-picked, which is less impactful to the crop’s fiber structure than machine harvesting. Hand-picking keeps the fibers from breaking and fraying, resulting in a longer and stronger cotton structure.

2 - Repreve Recycled Polyester

Repreve recycled polyester is a renewable material that is used to make sustainable T-shirts.

It’s part of a green initiative that provides plastic waste with an alternative destination to landfills, averting the environmental issues caused by such disposal methods.

This recycling process involves an open-loop system where plastic waste from other value chains becomes a raw material for another production system. So, waste bottles, for instance, turn into raw materials for your sustainable T-shirts in the form of Repreve fiber.

Alternatively, Repreve polyester is made through a closed-loop recycling system where old and worn-out Repreve fabric is used to make new fabric.

The Open-Loop Recycle Process

The entire process begins with converting plastic waste, such as bottles, into flakes by grinding.

The ground flakes are then converted into chips or pellets through depolymerization. This process breaks down the polymers in the flakes into simpler forms, called monomers, using solvents (much like digestion).

The chips (now monomers) are then heated into molten polyester through re-polymerization and extruded onto spinning machines that turn them into yarn.

Re-polymerization uses heat and a catalyst to melt the monomer molecules and form new polymer chains that become molten polyester.

Benefits of Repreve T-shirts

• Sustainability: Repreve T-shirts become sustainable when they’re part of a closed-loop recycling system where your old and worn-out shirts serve as raw materials for new ones.
• This cycle limits the environmental impact the T-shirts have by greatly reducing production inputs and waste generated post-production.
• Versatility: Repreve T-shirts mimic the look and feel of natural fabrics while boasting additional features, such as wrinkle resistance and water resistance.
• These extra features stretch the garment’s application potential, allowing you to wear Repreve T-shirts under various environmental conditions.

3 - Tencel Modal Fabric

Tencel Modal is a natural fabric that’s popular when it comes to sustainable T-shirts.

It’s popular because the fabric is extracted from beech wood pulp through a closed-loop process that limits environmental impact.

This closed-loop processing involves capturing and reusing extraction solvents rather than releasing them into the environment (solvent spinning). Reusing the solvents reduces water and energy demands and lowers the overall cost of production to mother nature.

Another reason for Modal’s popularity in sustainable T-shirt manufacture is its biodegradability.

This organic fabric is 100% biodegradable and compostable under home, industrial, and marine soil conditions. This attribute is particularly important considering that textile products eventually end up in landfills.

Benefits of Tencel Modal T-Shirts

• Highly Absorbent: Tencel Modal T-shirts absorb 50% more moisture than cotton shirts, keeping the fabric dry and ventilated.
• This moisture-wicking property prevents bacterial growth, especially at the armpits, making it the ideal fabric for healthy skin.
• Durability: The Modal fibers of your sustainable T-shirt have a strength that’s comparable to that of synthetic fibers.
• The fibers have a dry strength of 42 centinewton (cN)/tex and a wet strength of 37 cN/tex, which is comparable to polyester. The following table compares their dry and wet strengths.

Source: (Goswami et al., 2004, pg 64)

4 - Cotton-Repreve-Tencel Blends

Sustainable T-shirts can also contain multiple blends of renewable materials in their design. For instance, cotton-Repreve-Tencel blends.

This practice helps manufacturers avoid reliance on one material whose supply could be limited.

Renewable materials, such as organic cotton, often suffer supply constraints because of their dependency on non-industrial processing practices, which avoid machinery and chemicals.

As such, the global average yield of organic cotton is 924.27 kg per hectare, which is 1.38 times lower than conventional cotton with 1230.47 kg per hectare.

Material blending also allows manufacturers to combine the individual strengths of each fabric into one hybrid package. So, your tri-blend T-shirt gets the absorbent qualities of Tencel Modal, the toughness of Repreve polyester, and the softness of organic cotton.

Here’s an example of a T-shirt from fancysweetstx that’s 25% organic cotton, 50% Repreve polyester, and 25% Tencel Modal.

This combination gives the T-shirt an ultra-soft feel and the sustainability of recycling six poly water bottles. It’s also durable and fully customizable with various screen print design options available.

Here’s another print style and color from fancysweetstx on a similar tri-blend T-shirt.

This is the standard shirt that we use for our line of Midwest clothing and we also offer it for custom screen printing, as well.

Let’s Help Your Brand Become More Sustainable

And there you have it: four renewable materials that are used to make your sustainable T-shirts. With them in mind, are you looking to make your brand more eco-friendly?

We’d love to help.

Our team at fancysweetstx is experienced in designing sustainable products and branding them. We’ve made branded pencils from denim, eco-friendly notebooks, and T-shirts from recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

Our products are top-quality and our designs are unique. Our prices are also friendly so you won’t feel the pinch of going green.

“The T-shirts are wonderful quality with unique designs and the route to go for personal or gift reasons. You'll even save yourself a few bucks.”
— KK, United States

Contact us today and tell us more about your project.

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It is important that we all starting taking steps to create a more sustainable future. In order to treat every day like Earth Day, we wanted to help you learn about more ways you can promote your business while making environmentally conscious product choices. 

Allmade shirts are soft, comfy, and eco-friendly! 

If you've never worn an Allmade shirt, you don't know what you're missing!

These shirts are so soft and comfy that you'll want to wear one every day of the week. Allmade shirts are made from recycled polyester and each shirt prevents an equivalent of up to 6 plastic recycled bottles from ending up in the ocean. 

We love these shirts so much we started using them for our retail brand. They are better for the earth AND they fit and feel great! What else can you ask for?

Sustainable Stationery for the win! 

Pencils are an every day item, so why not use pencils that are made from every day materials? From pencils made from denim to newspaper to currency, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Do you prefer pens over pencils? Don't worry, we have a solid eco-friendly option for you too! Pens made from recycled PET bottles & materials are another option to get your brand on a sustainable product that will be seen everyday.

Now that you have your writing utensils, make sure you also have something to write your notes on! This notebook is a staff favorite. Not only is the cover made from recycled craft paper, the individual sheets of paper are made up of lined stoned paper. This notebook is not only eco-friendly but also waterproof!

Cheers to eco-friendly drinkware!

Have you seen eco-friendly and microwave safe tumblers and mugs? How about a drinkware option that is made from 100% corn plastic!

These made in the USA drinkware options can be used again and again. From at home use to on the go travel to zoom calls, drinkware is one of our favorite items to use to get your brand seen!

While you're looking at drinkware, don't forget that people need to eat too! This bamboo travel utensil set is reusable, biodegradable, and a trendy sustainable product!

Drinkware is a super practical item that both employees and customers love and get a lot of use out of. Who doesn't drink coffee everyday? Put that in a branded tumbler and they'll always appreciate you for keeping their drink the proper temperature. 

Want to learn more about Earth friendly products? 

From BioAd golf tees, bamboo coasters, to totes made from recycled materials, and more, our team at Jūpmode is ready to help you find the sustainable products you need! 

Contact your rep directly or email us at [email protected] to learn more or to get your sustainable order started!