Look at the labels on our clothes and you'll spot a split. The heavyweight tees say 100% cotton. The hoodies, sweatshirts and joggers say 42% cotton, 53% polyester and 5% other fibres.
Seeing "polyester" on a £75 hoodie can look like a corner being cut. Fair question. So here's what each fibre actually does, with sources, including the parts that don't flatter the blend.
The two labels, side by side
All of these figures come from our own product pages.
| Heavyweight tees | Hoodies, sweatshirts, joggers | |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre | 100% cotton | 42% cotton, 53% polyester, 5% other |
| Fabric weight | 305 g/m2 | 350 g/m2 (joggers 345) |
| Thickness (product page) | Moderate | Thick |
| Inside | Not fleeced | Fleeced (stated on the Mk1 and Bagel Boyz hoodies and in the joggers' name) |
| Print method | DTG, ink goes into the cotton | DTF on hoodies and sweatshirts, transfer sits on top |
| Care | 30°C gentle, tumble dry low, no iron on the print | Same |
| Price | £48, or any two £48 tees for £90 | Hoodies £75, sweatshirts and joggers £60 |
The care line is identical. The fibre is not. Here's why that matters.
What 100% cotton does for a tee
It takes the print. Our tees are printed DTG, direct to garment, where water-based ink soaks into the fabric. Printful, a print-on-demand company that publishes detailed printing guides, says DTG performs best on cotton and cotton-rich fabrics, because natural fibres absorb water-based inks well. That's why you can see a little of the knit inside the letters on our tees. There's more on that in how a Padelism tee is designed.
It stays clean on the surface. This is the big one. A pill is a little ball of loose fibre held to the fabric by a stronger fibre that won't break off. Cotton Incorporated's guide to pilling puts it simply: typically, 100% cotton fabrics do not pill. In their lab tumble test on ring-spun jersey, 100% cotton scored 4.5 out of 5 (5 means no pilling at all). On the piece you wear and wash most, that matters.
It breathes and feels like cotton. Printful calls cotton one of the most breathable tee materials for everyday wear.
What it costs you. The same source is clear that cotton can shrink, wrinkle and hold moisture longer than synthetics. A heavyweight tee asks you to wash it with a bit of care. For me, Padelism always had to be heavyweight: cotton tees that hang well and hold their structure.
What polyester does for a hoodie
It helps the shape hold. Polyester fibre is strong, takes up very little water and shrinks very little. Blended with cotton, it can give a fabric that resists wrinkles and tearing and shrinks less than cotton on its own. Printful's hoodie guide describes blends as cotton's softness plus polyester's shape retention. On a boxy, drop-shoulder hoodie, the shape is the whole look, so a fabric that keeps it through the wash earns its place.
It takes up less moisture. Textile courses use standard moisture regain figures, meaning the moisture a fibre takes up from the air under set conditions: 8.5% for cotton, 0.4% for polyester. Put our blend through the usual weighted formula and the cotton and polyester work out at about 3.8%, plus whatever the last 5% adds. Pure cotton sits at 8.5%. So on paper the hoodie fabric takes up roughly half the moisture of the tee fabric. Printful also notes that polyester-rich blends usually dry faster, which is handy on a thick 350 g/m2 fleece.
It suits the print. Our hoodies and sweatshirts are printed DTF, direct to film, where the design is pressed on top of the fabric rather than soaked in. Printful lists DTF as working on cotton, polyester, fleece and blends, so a blend is no problem for it. The Mk1 logo is printed, not embroidered.
Fleece is a build, not a fibre. Printful puts it plainly: fleece describes a fabric structure, usually a soft inner surface, not one single fibre. You can get cotton fleece, polyester fleece and blended fleece. Ours is blended.
What the blend costs you
This section is the honest part.
Blends pill more. The same thing that makes polyester strong makes it a good anchor. Cotton Incorporated explains that long, strong polyester fibres hold loose fibre to the surface and form pills, where cotton fibres would just break away. In their test on ring-spun jersey, blends scored lower than 100% cotton:
| Blend (cotton/polyester) | Pill rating, 30 min lab tumble (5 = none) |
|---|---|
| 100% cotton | 4.5 |
| 60/40 | 2.5 |
| 50/50 | 2.5 |
| 35/65 | 2.0 |
Three fair points about that. Cotton Incorporated is a cotton industry body, so cotton winning is no shock, though the anchor-fibre explanation is standard textile science. The same deck shows the yarn matters as much as the blend: with vortex-spun yarn, the 60/40 blend scored 4.5. And the test was on tee-type jersey, not hoodie fleece. A 2021 study in Heliyon still describes pilling as a common surface defect in cotton and polyester fleece. Cotton Incorporated's guidance for low pilling is a blend with 20% polyester or less. Ours is 53%.
So a blend hoodie is worth washing with care. Cotton Incorporated says most pills form in the wash, from rubbing as clothes tumble, and our full routine for washing, drying and removing bobbles is in how to stop a hoodie pilling.
It's partly plastic. Polyester is a synthetic fibre, and synthetic fabrics shed tiny fibres in the wash. A 2016 study in Marine Pollution Bulletin found polyester-cotton fabric consistently shed significantly fewer fibres than pure polyester or acrylic. Fewer, not none.
It's less absorbent next to sweaty skin. That cuts both ways, and it's a tee topic more than a hoodie one. The full fibre science of sweat, smell and drying is in cotton tee vs technical padel top.
So which fabric is "better"?
Neither, on its own. They do different jobs.
A tee is the thing you wear most, wash most and want to look crisp. Cotton gives it the print, the feel and a surface that stays clean. A hoodie is a thick, heavy layer that needs to keep its shape and get dry again before your next cold session. The blend helps there, and it asks a bit more care to stay smooth.
If you're choosing between our two winter layers in that same blend, padel hoodie vs sweatshirt covers the hood, the cut and the sizing. For how to layer the lot on a cold court, see winter padel: what to wear.
Where to start
- Heavyweight tees. 100% cotton, 305 g/m2, oversized unisex fit. Size down for a regular fit, or take your usual size for the oversized look. £48 each, or any two £48 tees for £90 in the 2 for £90 range. The Padel & Pints tee is a good first one.
- Hoodies. 350 g/m2 blend, fleeced inside on the Mk1 and Bagel Boyz. The Mk1 Box Hoodie is £75, which clears free UK delivery on its own.
- Sweatshirts. The same 350 g/m2 blend with a crew neck, £60. The Heavyweight Fleece Joggers use the same blend too.
All our clothing is made to order, so allow 7 to 10 working days in the UK. Outside the UK, delivery takes 7 to 14 working days, so order early. For Christmas, the last UK order date is 10 December 2026. UK delivery is free on orders of £75 and over.
FAQ
Is a cotton and polyester blend hoodie worse than a 100% cotton one? Not worse, different. The blend holds its shape, shrinks less and takes up less moisture, and polyester-rich blends usually dry faster. Pure cotton pills less and feels more natural. The trade-off is that a blend needs gentler washing to stay smooth.
Is fleece cotton or polyester? It can be either, or both. Fleece describes how a fabric is built, usually with a soft inner surface, not what fibre it's made from. Our fleeced hoodies use the 42% cotton, 53% polyester blend.
Does a cotton and polyester blend shrink less than cotton? Generally, yes. Polyester fibre shrinks very little, and blending it with cotton reduces shrinking. Washing at 30°C and keeping the dryer low, as our care label asks, helps either way.
Does a blend work for a DTG-printed tee? DTG ink is water-based and soaks into the fibre, and Printful says it performs best on cotton and cotton-rich fabrics. Our tees are DTG on 100% cotton. Pure cotton also pilled far less than blends in Cotton Incorporated's ring-spun lab test.
