Polyester is not eco-friendly.
The shirts are polyester. Geeknit is a euphamism the company uses instead of saying polyester/spandex blend. Had I known that, I would not have spent 42 dollars on a shirt. Something tells me Geek Tropical knows this, as they make a point to never actually use the word polyester in their product listings. I find this practice disingenuous. I also find their claims about sustainability disingenuous, as all of the eco-friendly inks they advertise are being printed onto shirts made of plastic. Overall, I have not found their products to be worth the money, which is unfortunate considering the company seems to be run by nice people.
Respuesta de Geektropical
Hi Bjorn,
We're sorry this wasn't what you expected, and we really wish we'd gotten the chance to talk it through, because this is a topic we're passionate about.
On the material, you're right that it should be clear before you buy. Geeknit is our own polyester and spandex blend, custom developed for us rather than pulled off a shelf, which is part of what sets the feel and the print apart. It's listed on our FAQ today, and we'd have been happy to clarify the fabric if you'd reached out. Please send us your order number and we'll make this right. We have some fabric updates in the works, so we're refreshing the material details across our listings as part of that rollout to keep everything accurate.
We are firm believers that what we are doing right now is the eco-friendliest considering all of our options. Dye-sublimation is the most common process for vivid, permanent all-over prints and the only made-to-order option. We will skip over the technical details but the important fact is that this process does not work with natural materials alone. Even a natural shirt has to be coated in a plastic polymer to hold an all-over print, so you are still using plastic. And that coating breaks down and fades, so it never holds the print the way the synthetic fiber does. There are alternatives to sublimation, such as reactive printing where the ink does form a chemical bond with cotton fibers, but this is not available for made-to-order because the process takes significant amounts of water, energy, and specific chemical processes. Every material has tradeoffs, even polyester. Made-to-order greatly minimizes waste as we are only producing what is needed at each time and allows us to support as much human art as possible.
Additionally, unlike the vast majority of other made-to-order companies, we happily offer returns and exchanges, a very rare policy for made-to-order. Even rarer, we resell returns despite the time, cost, and management associated with stocking products that did not have shelf space before, all in an effort to minimize waste and our impact on the planet.
Thank you for giving us a try and mahalo for supporting a small business and the artists behind our prints.
— The Geek Tropical Team 🌺
