Sorry, it’s been a while since I made a general-purpose post. Life can be like that.
I like wool clothing, and natural fibers in general, more than synthetics, at least most of the time. Sure, synthetics totally have their place, and are sometime absolutely GREAT (nomex fire-resistant stuff, for example, and kevlar for some applications). But for general wear, I figure that God made things like wool, silk, flax, and cotton so comfy and usable for a reason. That said, natural products are not quite as consistent or cheap as all the things derived from oil, like rayon, polyester, nylon, etc.
We eat a lot of beef, lamb, and mutton but processing hides into leather or wool into spun yarn and cloth is intrinsically labor and chemical / energy intensive. So, most of the wool sheered from sheep in the world is literally dumped every year because the market price is below what it would cost to shear, pick clean, wash, card, dye, spin, and weave. So wool clothes are expensive not because the raw product is hard to come by, but because of basic processing costs. Because of this, they tend to also be turned into long-lasting, quality items.
My old wool coat/jacket is wearing out after many years of use, and I went looking for a replacement. The original maker (Woolrich) is still in business, but no longer make a similar jacket. Most similar new ones are $400-$500. Or I can get a long, heavy, Russian military surplus greatcoat for ~$100. Hmmmmm… Tough choice. Or not.
OTOH, there are a lot of inexpensive and reasonable quality tactical / cargo pants. But there are precious few wool pants of similar utilitarian design for cold weather. One of the few is by Filson, which are great, but normally retail for $445 and only come in plaid. (currently on sale for “merely” $223 plus tax).
Cheap cotton hot weather boonie hats are easy to find by numerous manufacturers, but very hard to find a good wool boonie that isn’t ridiculous in price.
On a tangent, linen shirts seem to come in “designer fashionable very light weight” and “period costume” styles, and not “regular collared dress shirt for non-tropical areas, but in flax linen” except at stupid high prices.
On the one hand, I get it, people are price sensitive, and need to buy cheap. But are so many people so far divorced from the natural world that they can’t appreciate natural fiber at all, so only the elites with money to burn buy natural fibers any more, beyond simple cotton mass-produced garments?