According to a recent Fast Company piece, there’s a growing number of start-ups making wool garments that can be worn for crazy long periods of time without needing to be washed.

Companies like Unbound Merino, Wool & Prince, Pangaia, Wool&, and other “wash-less brands” are “[incorporating] wool into clothes that can be worn everyday,” like t-shirts, underwear and socks, which can then “go weeks without being washed.”

Not only does not having to wash these garments mean one less pain-in-the-ass chore each week, it’s also great for the environment.

“Washing machines account for 17% of our home water usage,” the article says, “and a quarter of a garment’s carbon footprint over the course of its lifetime comes from cleaning it.” What’s worse, “90% of clothes washed aren’t actually dirty enough to be thrown in the laundry basket.”

The “new generation of wash-less brands are contributing to the broader effort of helping consumers better understand the environmental impact of caring for their garments.”

Of course, for some, wearing ostensibly “dirty” clothes may sound gross, but it’s important to remember that “decades of marketing from the cleaning industry has conditioned many people to throw their clothes in the laundry after one day’s wear, even though this is rarely necessary.”

As one of startup founder explains, “Sweat itself is clean. It’s when it gets absorbed in clothing that it begins to attract bacteria and smell bad. So the key is finding materials that don’t trap sweat.”

You can read more about it at Fast Company.

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