Originally Posted by
noimagination
Using cotton during aerobic exercise is just evil. I learned that the hard way 30 years ago during a week-long solo backpacking trip on the Long Trail, when it rained almost continuously. I was wearing cotton underwear and t-shirts, fortunately my socks were wool so blistered feet wasn't a problem, but my most prominent journal entry for that trip was "NO MORE F#@KING COTTON!!!" Since then, I haven't worn a scrap of cotton when hiking/backpacking, cycling, skiing, running ...
Note that cotton technology has come light years in the past decade or so. "Charged Cotton" technology added stretch and wicking to cotton, and there is a new treatment called Clarus that promises to make cotton (and wool and silk) comparable to synthetic fabrics for stretch and wicking. Given that cotton is MUCH more environmentally safe than any petrotextile, we shouldn't write it off entirely.
BB