Tact & Stone Sustainable Performance Tee

Note: this shirt was provided at no cost for review.

Tact & Stone was launched by an industry outsider to make classic men’s pieces with the sustainability focus of Patagonia and Outerknown. They only source organic, regenerative, or upcycled fibers and work with ethical factories. When one of their garments reaches its end of life they will take it back for upcycling and give you a discount on your next purchase.

I was excited to give their Sustainable Performance Tee a try, and I am very impressed.

Material

The 4.5 oz jersey fabric is made of the Orbital Hybrid Yarn (66% organic cotton/34% recycled polyester). This is a filament yarn, so you get a lot less microfiber shedding. The care instructions are wash cold, hang dry (or air dry low), so it’s easy to care for.

To the hand, this feels like a smooth, soft cotton and the drape looks like a standard t-shirt. Having the shirt in white, even though it is lightweight, I had no issues with the fabric being see-thru (it does look a little translucent to darker colors though, see the fit pic).

Fit & Style

The shirt fit is described as “Slim fit but doesn’t hug you.” I think this is perfect, as the trends seem to be going to less form-fitting to tees with some room. The perfect balance is struck here and the shirt looks upscale and put together. It doesn’t look out of place with a pair of shorts, but also looks great under a light jacket with a pair of nice jeans or chinos. Love it.

Performance

The performance of this shirt was surprising to me. Digging into the yarn manufactures website, they present data showing it dries 97-98% in 30 minutes with Nike Dri-FIT (which is 85% polyester/15% cotton) the benchmark to beat at 99%. And this stands true in this shirt.

Let’s rundown the other performance claims made here.
– Moisture wicking: 100% true, wearing this shirt in my warm home office, I never felt damp.
– Fast dry: Already addressed, but can’t help to be amazed by this. It really does dry as fast as a Dri-FIT shirt even though its 66% cotton and looks and feels like a cotton shirt.
– Zero pilling: Haven’t had it long enough to say for sure, but I haven’t seen any fuzziness or indications that it’s going to pill. I even got a stain on the shirt, and used a stain remover and wash warm, and the shirt still looks brand new (and the stain came out with no problems). This is an area where I’ve found other performance tees that look like cotton to fall down.
– Abrasion resistance: Also can’t really speak to this, but I can see it being on-par with 100% cotton, rather than tending to get snags like some polyester fabrics.

I also love how cool this shirt wears. It must be a combination of the moisture wicking/fast dry and light weight of the fabric. This is the coolest cotton/poly shirt I own by far.

The odor resistance here is about on par with your standard cotton tee. No claims are made, so not a surprise. But it’s nice to be able to get a second wear if you don’t get sweaty or at least not have to worry about that polyester stink.

Overall

This shirt exceeded my expectations. I love how cool it wears, the cut works great for me, and it feels just like cotton. Also a bonus, it wasn’t hard to get a small stain out.

At $45 I think it represents a great value, and is a nice middle ground between your standard cotton t-shirt and an expensive merino tee. They currently offer it in black and white, but if they come out with a color that fills a hole in my t-shirt drawer, I’ll be first in line to buy another.