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He gets less than 30 uses per shirt and considers that a good number? I wear a shirt that many times in a year, and they last many years. Granted, my shirts p

He gets less than 30 uses per shirt and considers that a good number? I wear a shirt that many times in a year, and they last many years. Granted, my shirts probably aren't as fancy as his and don't cost as much, but that's even more reason to be horrified.

muro 6y ago
If you rotate through 20 shirts, wearing one for one day, you would wear each 36 times in 2 years. I think many t-shirts last about that long (or at least start to look quite worn at that time)
- 0xfaded 6y ago
  This inspired me to do my math. I have 8 t-shirts in rotation, most 3-4 years old. Only one is unwearable without a sweater over the top (and yes, I still wear it).
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Nothing wrong with shirts looking quite worn on a regular workday if you aren't in sales.
  - guitarlimeo 6y ago
    Agreed. Especially if you are wearing something on top of them (like a hoodie) most of the time.
- majewsky 6y ago
  My daily wardrobe features a rotation of 15 T-shirts, paired with another rotation of longsleeves for cold seasons, all in plain generic colors to make it easy to match. My accounting data says I got those shirts in August 2018. I have worn one of these 15 T-shirts everyday since then (with very few exceptions, e.g. when formal wear was called for). Let's round that to 2.5 years, i.e. 912 days, i.e. about 60 wears per shirt. I'm not seeing any significant degradation on these shirts, so I can easily see myself wearing these at least another 3 years, which would be over 130 wears per shirt. For reference, this is the model I'm wearing right now: http://www.gildan.se/en/o61001-en-grey http://www.gildan.se/en/o61001-en-grey
Pasorrijer 6y ago
It also depends on how you wear your clothes. Before Covid, I spent a significant amount of time on a plane, travelling, and flying around. Now I'm sitting at home. My same clothes are seeing significantly less wear with the lack of travel
- dopidop 6y ago
  Very good point. Pre Covid I was biking to work.
- t0mas88 6y ago
  Same here, lockdown saves clothes. And also means I'm wearing less formal clothes, somehow business dressing norms feel different via video call than in the client's office. At least with our banking clients which were always the most formally dressed once pre-lockdown.
dopidop 6y ago
I had the same reaction. Some t-shirt in my wardrobe have past the 5 year mark. I switched country around that time, so it’s easy to tell. They have been demoted of course. But the wear is fine as long as I don’t attend a wedding or a job interview.
lottin 6y ago
It depends on the fabric too, for example oxford cloth shirts tend to last a long time, even though they aren't necessarily expensive. Linen shirts don't last nearly as much in my experience.
- iso1210 6y ago
  I've got 20 year old thinkgeek t-shirts that I've worn 100+ times, not exactly high quality.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
__s 6y ago
Agreed. But I'll also keep wearing shoes with holes in their soles for a couple years
guitarlimeo 6y ago
I thought about this and it might be that he favors shirts with printed graphics on them. For me they start to show wear a lot faster than normal shirts (mainly because of the print fading) and tend to devolve into gym sweatshirts after 30 or so uses.
- hoverfalt 6y ago
  Author here. This is such a great discussion! I might have been unclear with what I consider what. In my categorization, shirts are button down shirts. https://hoverfalt.github.io/shirts.html https://hoverfalt.github.io/shirts.html They are part of my "uniform" if you like as a consultant. They tend to last 38-43 times. Then they start looking a little too worn for work. Shirts with print, for me, would fall under T-shirts and tanks. The few ones I have, definitely wear faster. My underwear shirts are the ones that tend to last 20-25 times. After that, they are no longer fresh. And I don't mean fresh as new, but rather unfresh to the extent of not being ok through a long day at work. Some, I continue using as sportswear also :)
dgellow 6y ago
He's maybe sweating more than average. I had that issue when I was younger and wearing shirts, they would either start to have marks or smell I couldn't remove. That improved once I found the good type of fabric and type of deodorant for my personal use, but that takes some trial and error to find the correct combination. Just to say, each their own. The article is interesting on its own without people judging the author's habits.
- hoverfalt 6y ago
  Author here. I don't know in comparison to others, but I feel I really do sweat quite a bit. I guess this might cause significantly more wear than what might be considered normal. This is one reason I have had to find high quality fabrics so that they can take the constant washing and stay looking and feeling fresh. This is especially the case with underwear shirts, where I through trial and error have found the really good ones.
alistairSH 6y ago
Based on his shoe usage, brand choices, etc, I'm guessing he's more stylish than average and clothing is a hobby of sorts (he might not call it that, but it is). FWIW, like the author, I spend a small fortune on clothing/shoes, but I tend to wear items until they're threadbare. A few items here and there end up donated, but largely by the time I'm done with something, it goes into a rag pile for cleaning bicycles.
- hoverfalt 6y ago
  Author here. You guess sounds about right :) I actually also keep wearing many of the clothes until they are really worn out. The exception is work clothes, mainly button down shirts. In this context, I consider something divested when I no longer can wear it in its original intended context (e.g. work). I might continue use at my summer home or digging in the garden. And likewise, eventually if not donated they also end up in a rag pile for cleaning, or into the cotton recycling that fashion stores have to provide.
ghaff 6y ago
I don't know. Thinking about dress shirts like I wore when I was in a business casual office most days? I tended to rotate through my shirts every couple of weeks. And I think it would maybe be a couple of years before collars started to look a little rough around the edges and elbows were maybe starting to get a bit thin. So maybe 50 wears/washes. 30 might be a bit low but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 100. (Of course, they would have been wearable for much longer but really too ratty for the purpose.
- hoverfalt 6y ago
  Author here. These effects, logic and estimate were nearly exactly my hunch before I started collecting data. I though they should last at least to 50. I has rather surprised to find I had overestimated use quite a bit. And yes, mine would have been "wearable" too, only not at work anymore. I did keep wearing some of them in a rather casual way at my summer house for a while. But in that use, I considered them divested.
sgmoore 6y ago
Was also very surprised at this. The only thing I can estimate now are how long shoes last (almost every day for three years), but when I was growing up (several decades ago) I would only have one school uniform which would be worn every school day for a few years. It would have been my older brother's before me and my younger brother's after me. The number of times shorts would be worn would be in the high hundreds. I kinda have similar expectations now - for example, I have a t-shirt that I have been wearing about 20 or 30 times a year for the last twenty years. I'm hoping for another 20 years wear!
shalmanese 6y ago
I wish he would track washes as well. Washing is much harder on a shirt than wearing and shirts definitely don't need to be washed after every wearing.
- hoverfalt 6y ago
  Author here. That is a great point. My own case is such that I wash each shirt (button down shirt) and underwear shirt after every use. I have to. I guess my fast metabolism contributes. I tumble dry the underwear shirts but not the shirts. Washing certainly takes its toll. In my case, wear shows both "technically", as the fabric and details weakening, but also as a general decline in freshness. And i don't mean fresh-as-new, but rather pure whites turning yellowish. They become unfit for my work context. Some of this wear is from washing, some is from deterioration during long days at work. I also was my socks after each use. Here it would seem washing really is the main source of wear as it is very evenly spread.
audiometry 6y ago
Yeah I read it as even undershirts getting as few as 25 wears before disposal. That number sounds crazy to me. I don’t track my usage but I estimate I have 15 which I wear 300 days a year and replace every 2 years? Hmm that implies roughly 40 wears each. That’s a much smaller difference than I originally expected....

muro 6y ago

If you rotate through 20 shirts, wearing one for one day, you would wear each 36 times in 2 years. I think many t-shirts last about that long (or at least start to look quite worn at that time)

0xfaded 6y ago
This inspired me to do my math. I have 8 t-shirts in rotation, most 3-4 years old. Only one is unwearable without a sweater over the top (and yes, I still wear it).
alisonkisk 6y ago
Nothing wrong with shirts looking quite worn on a regular workday if you aren't in sales.
- guitarlimeo 6y ago
  Agreed. Especially if you are wearing something on top of them (like a hoodie) most of the time.
majewsky 6y ago
My daily wardrobe features a rotation of 15 T-shirts, paired with another rotation of longsleeves for cold seasons, all in plain generic colors to make it easy to match. My accounting data says I got those shirts in August 2018. I have worn one of these 15 T-shirts everyday since then (with very few exceptions, e.g. when formal wear was called for). Let's round that to 2.5 years, i.e. 912 days, i.e. about 60 wears per shirt. I'm not seeing any significant degradation on these shirts, so I can easily see myself wearing these at least another 3 years, which would be over 130 wears per shirt. For reference, this is the model I'm wearing right now: http://www.gildan.se/en/o61001-en-grey http://www.gildan.se/en/o61001-en-grey

Pasorrijer 6y ago

It also depends on how you wear your clothes. Before Covid, I spent a significant amount of time on a plane, travelling, and flying around. Now I'm sitting at home. My same clothes are seeing significantly less wear with the lack of travel

dopidop 6y ago
Very good point. Pre Covid I was biking to work.
t0mas88 6y ago
Same here, lockdown saves clothes. And also means I'm wearing less formal clothes, somehow business dressing norms feel different via video call than in the client's office. At least with our banking clients which were always the most formally dressed once pre-lockdown.

dopidop 6y ago

I had the same reaction. Some t-shirt in my wardrobe have past the 5 year mark. I switched country around that time, so it’s easy to tell. They have been demoted of course. But the wear is fine as long as I don’t attend a wedding or a job interview.

lottin 6y ago

It depends on the fabric too, for example oxford cloth shirts tend to last a long time, even though they aren't necessarily expensive. Linen shirts don't last nearly as much in my experience.

iso1210 6y ago
I've got 20 year old thinkgeek t-shirts that I've worn 100+ times, not exactly high quality.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

__s 6y ago

Agreed. But I'll also keep wearing shoes with holes in their soles for a couple years

guitarlimeo 6y ago

I thought about this and it might be that he favors shirts with printed graphics on them. For me they start to show wear a lot faster than normal shirts (mainly because of the print fading) and tend to devolve into gym sweatshirts after 30 or so uses.

hoverfalt 6y ago
Author here. This is such a great discussion! I might have been unclear with what I consider what. In my categorization, shirts are button down shirts. https://hoverfalt.github.io/shirts.html https://hoverfalt.github.io/shirts.html They are part of my "uniform" if you like as a consultant. They tend to last 38-43 times. Then they start looking a little too worn for work. Shirts with print, for me, would fall under T-shirts and tanks. The few ones I have, definitely wear faster. My underwear shirts are the ones that tend to last 20-25 times. After that, they are no longer fresh. And I don't mean fresh as new, but rather unfresh to the extent of not being ok through a long day at work. Some, I continue using as sportswear also :)

dgellow 6y ago

He's maybe sweating more than average. I had that issue when I was younger and wearing shirts, they would either start to have marks or smell I couldn't remove. That improved once I found the good type of fabric and type of deodorant for my personal use, but that takes some trial and error to find the correct combination. Just to say, each their own. The article is interesting on its own without people judging the author's habits.

hoverfalt 6y ago
Author here. I don't know in comparison to others, but I feel I really do sweat quite a bit. I guess this might cause significantly more wear than what might be considered normal. This is one reason I have had to find high quality fabrics so that they can take the constant washing and stay looking and feeling fresh. This is especially the case with underwear shirts, where I through trial and error have found the really good ones.

alistairSH 6y ago

Based on his shoe usage, brand choices, etc, I'm guessing he's more stylish than average and clothing is a hobby of sorts (he might not call it that, but it is). FWIW, like the author, I spend a small fortune on clothing/shoes, but I tend to wear items until they're threadbare. A few items here and there end up donated, but largely by the time I'm done with something, it goes into a rag pile for cleaning bicycles.

hoverfalt 6y ago
Author here. You guess sounds about right :) I actually also keep wearing many of the clothes until they are really worn out. The exception is work clothes, mainly button down shirts. In this context, I consider something divested when I no longer can wear it in its original intended context (e.g. work). I might continue use at my summer home or digging in the garden. And likewise, eventually if not donated they also end up in a rag pile for cleaning, or into the cotton recycling that fashion stores have to provide.

ghaff 6y ago

I don't know. Thinking about dress shirts like I wore when I was in a business casual office most days? I tended to rotate through my shirts every couple of weeks. And I think it would maybe be a couple of years before collars started to look a little rough around the edges and elbows were maybe starting to get a bit thin. So maybe 50 wears/washes. 30 might be a bit low but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 100. (Of course, they would have been wearable for much longer but really too ratty for the purpose.

hoverfalt 6y ago
Author here. These effects, logic and estimate were nearly exactly my hunch before I started collecting data. I though they should last at least to 50. I has rather surprised to find I had overestimated use quite a bit. And yes, mine would have been "wearable" too, only not at work anymore. I did keep wearing some of them in a rather casual way at my summer house for a while. But in that use, I considered them divested.

sgmoore 6y ago

Was also very surprised at this. The only thing I can estimate now are how long shoes last (almost every day for three years), but when I was growing up (several decades ago) I would only have one school uniform which would be worn every school day for a few years. It would have been my older brother's before me and my younger brother's after me. The number of times shorts would be worn would be in the high hundreds. I kinda have similar expectations now - for example, I have a t-shirt that I have been wearing about 20 or 30 times a year for the last twenty years. I'm hoping for another 20 years wear!

shalmanese 6y ago

I wish he would track washes as well. Washing is much harder on a shirt than wearing and shirts definitely don't need to be washed after every wearing.

hoverfalt 6y ago
Author here. That is a great point. My own case is such that I wash each shirt (button down shirt) and underwear shirt after every use. I have to. I guess my fast metabolism contributes. I tumble dry the underwear shirts but not the shirts. Washing certainly takes its toll. In my case, wear shows both "technically", as the fabric and details weakening, but also as a general decline in freshness. And i don't mean fresh-as-new, but rather pure whites turning yellowish. They become unfit for my work context. Some of this wear is from washing, some is from deterioration during long days at work. I also was my socks after each use. Here it would seem washing really is the main source of wear as it is very evenly spread.

audiometry 6y ago

Yeah I read it as even undershirts getting as few as 25 wears before disposal. That number sounds crazy to me. I don’t track my usage but I estimate I have 15 which I wear 300 days a year and replace every 2 years? Hmm that implies roughly 40 wears each. That’s a much smaller difference than I originally expected....