Why Thread Count Is Phooey: A Story About the Birth of Our Rating System
You may have noticed that we recently added Expert Ratings and Buyer's Hand Notes to our sheet pages. We've added these to the product descriptions to help make shopping for sheets online as worry-free as possible. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Below is the riveting tale of how these new site-features were created:So we’re sitting around the office one day debating thread count. (I’m not being facetious, we legitimately argue about these things all the time.) I had just read an article describing the trend of thread count inflation and the tug of war between the FTC and the textiles industry over the best way to determine actual thread count, (here and here).
Last year, the industry standard was to count each individual yarn, so that a plied thread made of two yarns twisted together would be considered TWO “threads.” Consumer groups and the FTC felt this practice was deceptive – which it can be, so they suggested the industry change the standard to count plied threads as single threads when referring to thread count. Today, some manufacturers follow the new standard, while others still adhere to the traditional.But let’s back up a little bit. (When you’re surrounded by sheets all day long, it’s easy to forget that not everyone is familiar with some of the jargon, and this could all sound like gobbledygook.)
In sheeting, a thread is made up of one or more yarns of (let’s say) cotton. A yarn is made up of enough cotton fibers to be of a substantial length. Different types of cotton have different “staples” – or natural lengths of the individual fibers. The longer the staple, the better, because long staple cotton creates finer and stronger yarns. Quality high thread count sheets are made with long staple cotton, because the finer yarns make it possible to weave more threads into one square inch. Which brings us to thread count.
Thread count is the number of horizontal and vertical threads per square inch of fabric. The vertical threads make up the “warp,” while horizontal threads make up the “weft.” (To keep them straight, I like to think “weft is left to right.” But you’ll never have to remember that in a million years.) The “weave” of the fabric is the interlacing of these warp and weft threads. Wow, that’s a whole lot of ‘W’s. Naturally, there are multiple ways to construct a weave – and different weft to warp ratios can create very different sheets.
As you can probably guess by now, thread count is only one of MANY factors that determine the quality of a sheet. Normally, the higher the thread count, the higher the price – as the finer cotton needed to achieve a high count is expensive. It’s virtually impossible to make a sheet using single-ply threads in a thread count higher than around 320, so any sheet with a count higher than that is very likely to be made with 2-ply threads or a combination of single and double ply threads. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, with the right cotton and construction, a sheet made with 2-ply yarn can feel extremely nice, and be superior to sheets of lesser thread counts made with single threads. However, it’s all too easy to make a 600 thread count sheet that feels worse than a 300 thread count (although, most 300 thread count sheets feel pretty darn nice).
There are lots of reasons for this. When marketers starting trumpeting thread count, manufacturers tried to sell more sheets by creating super high thread counts at lower price points. To accomplish this, they had to skimp out on finishing processes (there are various treatments done to sheets to make them stronger and resist pilling) and use lower-quality cotton. Another trick was to cram as many threads into one weft as possible – which, while boosting thread count, makes the sheet rougher and weaker.
All of these practices have basically rendered the concept of thread count obsolete. Well, that’s perhaps an overstatement – but thread count is definitely less consequential. Now, it really comes down to how the sheet feels to you. Some people prefer the more blanket-like feel of 1000 thread count sheets made with multi-ply threads. Others will find a 200 thread count percale (plain weave) sheet feels the best. Still others prefer the softness and sheen of a 500 thread count sateen weave. That’s a whooooole ‘nother topic.
So, back to our debate here at Linenplace. We were trying to decide whether to completely do away with thread count – just take it out of all the product descriptions. No more 400, 500, 600, 1000. But we figured it was better to provide as much information about the sheets as we knew, and thread count can still be a useful number. Besides, we make it a point not to sell poorly constructed sheets. We do carry some high thread count sheets made with 2-ply threads at lower prices than fine Italian ones, as some people prefer the weight of a thicker sheet on them. That’s when it dawned on us – it’s all about personal preferences.
Factors like yarn size, staple length, weave construction, thread count, etc. determine things like the crispness and weight of a sheet. Rather than expect our customers to be able to translate how each of those factors make a sheet look and feel, (like Neo finally “seeing” the Matrix code), we’ve used our combined years of linens-industry experience and knowledge to do it for you. That, and we have the advantage of being able to product-test each sheet, so we know exactly how they compare to each other.
Okay, since it all really boils down to one’s tastes and, obviously budget, we decided to keep all the thread counts, plies, and construction information about each product, but ADD a rating for each sheet based on intuitive criteria like crispness, softness, luster, weight and price. I also asked Heather to submit a "Buyer's Hand Note" about each sheet – just something extra that couldn’t necessarily be expressed by the rating alone. Customers can also click on a rating and see how each sheet compares to others. Here's an example of the rating and buyer's note for Lyric sheets:
We toiled for weeks testing each product and deciding on the most accurate rating for each (ok, so it wasn't TOTAL torture sleeping on different luxury sheets every night), so we hope the results are helpful! Happy shopping :)
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