"Sustainable" gets printed on a lot of hang tags without much behind it. So when we put the word on our own products, we wanted to be specific about what it actually means — the yarn, the dye process, and where the garment is made. Here's the honest breakdown of our Ecocycle line: the Ecocycle Tee, Hoodie, Crewneck, Sweatpants, and Sweatshorts.
The Yarn: 50% Recycled, 50% Sustainable Cotton
Our Ecocycle pieces are built on 18/1 EcoJersey, a fabric spun from a 50/50 blend of recycled and sustainable cotton yarns — still 100% cotton, just sourced differently than a conventional tee. Half the fiber content comes from recycled cotton, which means less virgin cotton grown, less water used in cultivation, and less raw material sent to landfill in the first place.
This isn't a synthetic recycled-plastic-blend workaround. It's still a natural cotton fabric with the softness, breathability, and drape you'd expect from cotton — the recycled content changes where the fiber comes from, not how the garment feels.
The Dye: Garment-Dyed, On Purpose
Ecocycle pieces are garment dyed — meaning the finished garment is dyed as a whole piece, after it's cut and sewn, rather than dyeing the fabric first and cutting from dyed yardage. It's a more artisanal, hands-on process, and it comes with a tradeoff worth knowing about upfront: you'll see natural shade variation from garment to garment, and sometimes within the same garment.
That's not a defect. It's the nature of the process, and it's part of why garment-dyed pieces tend to develop character over time in a way that flat, uniformly-dyed fabric doesn't. If you want a completely uniform color match across multiples, garment dyeing isn't the process for that — but if you like the idea of a piece that looks a little different from the next person's, this is exactly what you're getting.
Made in Los Angeles, Start to Finish
Every Ecocycle piece is knit, cut, sewn, and dyed in our Los Angeles facility. There's no overseas leg of the supply chain to track — the fabric is developed and the garment is finished under one roof, which is also why the color and construction stay consistent between production runs even as individual garments vary from the dye process.
Why This Matters More Than a "Buy Less" Slogan
We've written before about the case for buying fewer, better-made garments instead of cycling through fast fashion. Ecocycle is that idea applied to material sourcing specifically: a fabric that starts with a lower footprint, built into a garment that's meant to hold up for years rather than one season.
A recycled-content cotton tee that lasts five years and gets worn regularly does more for reducing textile waste than five fast-fashion tees that fall apart and get thrown out within a year — even if each of those five nominally used "sustainable" materials somewhere in the supply chain. Durability is a sustainability feature, not just a quality one.
Caring for Garment-Dyed Cotton
A few small habits help these pieces age well:
Wash in cold water and skip the dryer when you can — air drying preserves color and shape longer, especially on garment-dyed pieces where the dye sits closer to the surface of the fiber. Turn the garment inside out before washing to reduce surface friction and fading. And expect — even welcome — some softening and slight fading over time. With garment-dyed cotton, that's the fabric breaking in, not breaking down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ecocycle fabric actually recycled, or just marketed that way? The EcoJersey used across the Ecocycle line is a genuine 50/50 blend of recycled and sustainable cotton yarns — it's 100% cotton, with half the fiber content coming from recycled sources rather than newly grown cotton.
Why does my Ecocycle tee look slightly different in color from another one I bought? Ecocycle pieces are garment dyed, a process where color is applied after the garment is fully constructed. This naturally produces shade variation piece to piece — it's an expected part of the process, not a quality issue.
Is garment-dyed cotton more delicate than regular dyed fabric? No, but it does respond differently to care. Cold water washing and air drying will keep the color and shape looking better for longer, the same way you'd care for any higher-quality cotton garment.
What products are part of the Ecocycle line? The Ecocycle Tee, Ecocycle Hoodie, Ecocycle Crewneck, Ecocycle Sweatpants, and Ecocycle Sweatshorts — all built on the same recycled-and-sustainable cotton yarn base and made in our Los Angeles facility.
Does buying recycled-content cotton actually make a difference? Recycled cotton content reduces demand for newly grown cotton, which is a water- and land-intensive crop. Combined with a garment built to last, it's a meaningfully lower-footprint choice than a conventional fast-fashion basic — though the biggest factor in any garment's environmental impact is still how long it stays in use.