January 23, 2019 • 12 mins
Is thread count all it's cracked up to be? Listen in and find out in today's edition of Short Stuff!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Welcome to the Short Stuff Podcast. I'm Josh, there's Charles,
there's Jerome, and this is again the short Stuff Podcast.
This one, in particular, is the short Stuff podcast where
we discussed thread counts in betting. Let's begin. Yeah, and
(00:23):
this this one reeks of typical stuff you should know,
and that occasionally we will we will bust a myth
or two and bust a move that probably Yeah, that
probably might disappoint some folks like Dr Seuss lovers. Yeah,
when we we pooped all over his early career. But
now we're gonna poop on thread count because thread count
(00:46):
has become one of these things starting in like the
early two thousand's when you would literally see thread counts
of a thousand. Uh, it became one of those numbers.
And uh, they pointed out in this house stuff works
articles like i Q or gas mileage or something where
no one thought about anything but that number was like, oh, well,
it's a thousand. It's got to be better than the
(01:09):
eight hundred, which is better than the six hundred, which
is better than the three hundred. And I mean, do
you know where that came from the whole thread count thing.
It's not like thread count hadn't been a factor before,
but it was like an industry thing, and somehow I
got brought out to the consumer I'm guessing by some
yuppie scum who boasted about their thread count somewhere, maybe
(01:30):
a movie or on a TV show, and then it
just kind of took off from there. Yeah. Here's the
disappointing revelation everyone. What I read is not in this article,
but I read in a different one that anything over
four hundred. Well, first of all, thread count is the
number of horizontal, horizontal or in vertical threads per square inch. Yep.
(01:51):
So if you cut a square inch out of your sheet,
get a microscope and count every single one of the threads,
not where they crossed or anything like that, but just
the individual threads. That's your thread count, and it's just added.
There's no weird formula. Horizontal uh plus vertical. Well, you
also do the square root of pie right in the
middle of it, right, just for fun. Uh. Here's the
(02:14):
dirty secret though, Apparently anything over four hundred is just
bogus because a square inch is a square inch. There's
only so much thread you can fit in it. And
what I read was that four d is that number
without getting manipulative. Okay, alright, so what I read is
that you can exceed that number without getting manipulative. But
(02:39):
you want to exceed that number, you have to use smaller,
thinner and thinner fibers. But that's manipulative. I guess it's manipulative.
But but you, yes it is, but um, but you
can like there's also outright manipulation where there's just not
that many fibers and there's threat. Okay, all right, but
(03:01):
you if you use thinner and thinner fibers to fit
more and more threads into that square inch, you're you're
giving the thread count that you're saying, but it's not
necessarily going to be a better sheet. Um. It might
feel pretty nice because what you're doing is creating like
one really solid piece of material, but because the thread
(03:22):
you're using is so thin, it might not be quite
as durable. Those threads might break more easily, leading to fraying. Pilling.
Pilling is the worst. UM. It might just catch fire spontaneously.
It might suck the life out of you while you're
while you're sleeping. There's a lot of things that can
go wrong if the threads of your sheets, UM snap
(03:45):
in the middle of the night. Yeah. So there's a
woman named Lexi Sachs who works at the Good Housekeeping Institute,
and she says in this article the sweet spot is
between three hundred and five hundred, or anywhere from three
hundred to five hundred because because higher than at then
it the cotton becomes thin. Because, like you said, that
probably means they're using thinner thread just to get that
(04:06):
number up. Um. But what you're looking for is a
It depends on who you are, But if you want
a soft and durable sheet, then you wanted to be
in that four range, right, which is great. I they
don't even like mention thread counts much anymore, do they.
I haven't bought sheets in a while, but I bet
it's still a thing. Okay, But I think one of
(04:27):
the reasons it used to be, like whether you were
in the market for sheets or not, you were you
were bombarded with thread counts on TV, radio, people in
their car. Yeah. So, um, And it definitely has subsided.
And one of the reasons it's subsided is because we'll
be right back after this message, alright, Chuck. One of
(05:09):
the reasons it's subsided is because again, some people were
just straight up perpetrating outright fraud, purpen fraud. Yeah, yeah,
it's uh, it is weird. I don't hear as much
about anymore like you're talking about And maybe this fraud
being exposed has something to do with that. I think
(05:29):
it definitely is so Like for a period of time
in the United States at least, we were duped into it.
Like I remember thinking like, oh my god, I don't
know what my threadcount is, Like I need to find it.
That became the pickup line. It It replaced what's your sign,
I've got eight hundred threadcounts. She's so we were all
(05:50):
duped for a while. Um, But it really kind of
depends if you're shopping on what you're after in a sheet,
like some people those flannel sheets. I think I had
flannel for a little while in college. It's too hot,
uh for me for sure. Sometimes people cotton to those
all cotton they call them jersey or T shirt sheets.
(06:13):
It's just weird. I went down that road for a
little while. Boy, you've tried them all, haven't you. Yeah.
I've never gone silk or satin. Ah. Yeah, no, what
about setine? No, what is settin? It's a synthetic satin
or yeah, I think it's even like more satiny than satin. Okay, Well,
supposedly a setine we've will float the yarn over a
(06:37):
few rows at a time, which makes it smoother apparently.
So what about per kale, I'm not I don't even
know what that is. So per kale is kind of
like a crisp, sturdy cotton weave. It's kind of like
a basket we've um. But it's funny how like you
can use if you use certain types of fibers and
(06:58):
certain types of weaves, gonna get totally different fields. And
it is it's it's totally personal preference. I'm sure when
I said Jersey just feels weird, somewhere out there is
like your your nuts, Clark. I love Jersey. Who doesn't
want to sleep on a T shirt? It's all just
personal preference. And luckily the the textile industry has has
heard this that there are many different preferences and they're
(07:20):
giving us many different different things to work with. Yeah,
and some of those like jersey sheets and the cotton
sheets like that. Well, then this something I've just learned
by having a young daughter. It will tangle your hair.
A lot if you have long, straight hair or curly hair,
God forbid, because that cotton, when you move around, it
just it grabs hold. So what they recommend is like
(07:41):
a satin pillow case for kids, for toddlers, because you're
and it just makes sense your hair will slip around
on that and not get as tangle. So it's it's
in the mail. It's coming. I'll report back on success rates.
But that is supposedly a big anti tangler is satin sheet. Yeah, um,
you mean has gotten a um silk just pillow cases,
(08:05):
not the sheets, just the pillow cases. Yeah, it's yeah,
it's great. I had no idea why. Now I understand why.
I just thought she was showing off or something. But um,
you're thinking of France, right, we've got we've got silk
pillow cases now. Um, but they, I mean they are
very nice to sleep and I have to admit, Yeah,
it's a small indulgence. I like it, but it's the yeah, right,
(08:26):
it's just a fraction of an indulgence. You get the
whole sheet set or whatever, then you are showing off.
I don't think I would like it. I I just
like it's fine for a pillow case. I'd be afraid
I'd slip off the bed or something exactly because I'd
wear my silk pajamas. Silk on silk. You know what
that means. Well, yeah, your toast, you're just gonna keep
(08:46):
sliding indefinitely until a car like stops you. So everyone's
getting duped. It's in the two thousand's. Uh, they start
coming out with these crazy numbers, like I said, up
to a thousand, and they were able to do this
because there's no FTC mandate on how to determine thread count,
so you can kind of just say whatever you want
(09:09):
and you can't be like tagged for false advertising. Well,
what they were doing also was they were saying, oh, well,
we're using two ply cotton threads, which is two thin
strands of cotton wound together to make a thicker strand
of cotton. So we have three hundred of those in
a square inch, but they're two plies, so we're gonna
call these six hundred thread count. Some people, apparently India,
(09:33):
Pakistan and China were putting out a substantial amount of
sheets that just it didn't matter what what you did,
you weren't going to come up with the thread counts.
That they were being advertised at and so the the
International Trade Commission heard some complaints and they actually authorized
customs agents around the world to see sheets sheets shipments again,
(09:56):
to see sheets shipments bam man, that's a tough one. Yeah,
and um test them. I don't know if they tested
them on the spot or what, but I'm sure there's
some nervous boat captains like standing there like, you know,
is it gonna is it gonna come back with man?
And um they found like a lot of sheets that
were coming out again India, Pakistan and China that weren't
(10:18):
up to the thread counts. And I think that was
kind of like the the um the crest of that
that wave and the fact that the International Trade Commission
actually took action on it, it just kind of beat
back that that little subset of fraud. And so that's
where thread counts went. And apparently one of the other
things that was fraudulent was Egyptian cotton. Yeah. Egyptian cotton
(10:40):
is a real thing, and it is great because it's
a longer fiber, longer staple is what they call it, Yeah,
which means it's softer for sure, and more durable. So
it's not like, if you see Egyptian cotton, it's not
some big scam unless it's not Egyptian cotton. And again,
all kinds of brands are advertising a Gyptian cotton that
(11:01):
we're not Egyptian cotton. So if you go into a
store today and you see a one thousand thread count
Egyptian cotton sheet, be very wary. I would say, yeah,
runaway screaming. Well, unless it's it costs you a pretty
penny and it's from a brand that you know and trust. Well,
I don't know. I think the rules. Well that's true.
(11:22):
I mean, yeah, it's true in this day and age.
But at a time I think if you bought sheets
from a brand, a very trustworthy brand, and they were
expensive sheets, you would think you're probably getting what you're
paying for. This. This article from House to works Um says,
if you see Egyptian cotton and it's inexpensive, you're probably
not getting Egyptian cotton. I'm surprised there's not an an
(11:46):
app delivery service called sheety Oh. I'll bet there's going
to be in about two weeks now. All right, just
give us a small cut, that's all I ask. Did
they ever though, Chuck whenever you come up with these
ideas that they did shark name, do ever give you
any I got no Sharknado money. You got no sugar
from Sharknado? Nope? Did you seize the sheets from Sharknado sugar?
(12:08):
I don't even know what that means. It doesn't mean anything.
I got nothing else. I haven't had anything else for
about thirty seconds. So let's end this, okay. If you
want to know more about this, go to how stuff
works dot com and check out this article, and also
send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff
works dot com
Hi, Welcome to the Short Stuff Podcast. I'm Josh, there's Charles,
there's Jerome, and this is again the short Stuff Podcast.
This one, in particular, is the short Stuff podcast where
we discussed thread counts in betting. Let's begin. Yeah, and
(00:23):
this this one reeks of typical stuff you should know,
and that occasionally we will we will bust a myth
or two and bust a move that probably Yeah, that
probably might disappoint some folks like Dr Seuss lovers. Yeah,
when we we pooped all over his early career. But
now we're gonna poop on thread count because thread count
(00:46):
has become one of these things starting in like the
early two thousand's when you would literally see thread counts
of a thousand. Uh, it became one of those numbers.
And uh, they pointed out in this house stuff works
articles like i Q or gas mileage or something where
no one thought about anything but that number was like, oh, well,
it's a thousand. It's got to be better than the
(01:09):
eight hundred, which is better than the six hundred, which
is better than the three hundred. And I mean, do
you know where that came from the whole thread count thing.
It's not like thread count hadn't been a factor before,
but it was like an industry thing, and somehow I
got brought out to the consumer I'm guessing by some
yuppie scum who boasted about their thread count somewhere, maybe
(01:30):
a movie or on a TV show, and then it
just kind of took off from there. Yeah. Here's the
disappointing revelation everyone. What I read is not in this article,
but I read in a different one that anything over
four hundred. Well, first of all, thread count is the
number of horizontal, horizontal or in vertical threads per square inch. Yep.
(01:51):
So if you cut a square inch out of your sheet,
get a microscope and count every single one of the threads,
not where they crossed or anything like that, but just
the individual threads. That's your thread count, and it's just added.
There's no weird formula. Horizontal uh plus vertical. Well, you
also do the square root of pie right in the
middle of it, right, just for fun. Uh. Here's the
(02:14):
dirty secret though, Apparently anything over four hundred is just
bogus because a square inch is a square inch. There's
only so much thread you can fit in it. And
what I read was that four d is that number
without getting manipulative. Okay, alright, so what I read is
that you can exceed that number without getting manipulative. But
(02:39):
you want to exceed that number, you have to use smaller,
thinner and thinner fibers. But that's manipulative. I guess it's manipulative.
But but you, yes it is, but um, but you
can like there's also outright manipulation where there's just not
that many fibers and there's threat. Okay, all right, but
(03:01):
you if you use thinner and thinner fibers to fit
more and more threads into that square inch, you're you're
giving the thread count that you're saying, but it's not
necessarily going to be a better sheet. Um. It might
feel pretty nice because what you're doing is creating like
one really solid piece of material, but because the thread
(03:22):
you're using is so thin, it might not be quite
as durable. Those threads might break more easily, leading to fraying. Pilling.
Pilling is the worst. UM. It might just catch fire spontaneously.
It might suck the life out of you while you're
while you're sleeping. There's a lot of things that can
go wrong if the threads of your sheets, UM snap
(03:45):
in the middle of the night. Yeah. So there's a
woman named Lexi Sachs who works at the Good Housekeeping Institute,
and she says in this article the sweet spot is
between three hundred and five hundred, or anywhere from three
hundred to five hundred because because higher than at then
it the cotton becomes thin. Because, like you said, that
probably means they're using thinner thread just to get that
(04:06):
number up. Um. But what you're looking for is a
It depends on who you are, But if you want
a soft and durable sheet, then you wanted to be
in that four range, right, which is great. I they
don't even like mention thread counts much anymore, do they.
I haven't bought sheets in a while, but I bet
it's still a thing. Okay, But I think one of
(04:27):
the reasons it used to be, like whether you were
in the market for sheets or not, you were you
were bombarded with thread counts on TV, radio, people in
their car. Yeah. So, um, And it definitely has subsided.
And one of the reasons it's subsided is because we'll
be right back after this message, alright, Chuck. One of
(05:09):
the reasons it's subsided is because again, some people were
just straight up perpetrating outright fraud, purpen fraud. Yeah, yeah,
it's uh, it is weird. I don't hear as much
about anymore like you're talking about And maybe this fraud
being exposed has something to do with that. I think
(05:29):
it definitely is so Like for a period of time
in the United States at least, we were duped into it.
Like I remember thinking like, oh my god, I don't
know what my threadcount is, Like I need to find it.
That became the pickup line. It It replaced what's your sign,
I've got eight hundred threadcounts. She's so we were all
(05:50):
duped for a while. Um, But it really kind of
depends if you're shopping on what you're after in a sheet,
like some people those flannel sheets. I think I had
flannel for a little while in college. It's too hot,
uh for me for sure. Sometimes people cotton to those
all cotton they call them jersey or T shirt sheets.
(06:13):
It's just weird. I went down that road for a
little while. Boy, you've tried them all, haven't you. Yeah.
I've never gone silk or satin. Ah. Yeah, no, what
about setine? No, what is settin? It's a synthetic satin
or yeah, I think it's even like more satiny than satin. Okay, Well,
supposedly a setine we've will float the yarn over a
(06:37):
few rows at a time, which makes it smoother apparently.
So what about per kale, I'm not I don't even
know what that is. So per kale is kind of
like a crisp, sturdy cotton weave. It's kind of like
a basket we've um. But it's funny how like you
can use if you use certain types of fibers and
(06:58):
certain types of weaves, gonna get totally different fields. And
it is it's it's totally personal preference. I'm sure when
I said Jersey just feels weird, somewhere out there is
like your your nuts, Clark. I love Jersey. Who doesn't
want to sleep on a T shirt? It's all just
personal preference. And luckily the the textile industry has has
heard this that there are many different preferences and they're
(07:20):
giving us many different different things to work with. Yeah,
and some of those like jersey sheets and the cotton
sheets like that. Well, then this something I've just learned
by having a young daughter. It will tangle your hair.
A lot if you have long, straight hair or curly hair,
God forbid, because that cotton, when you move around, it
just it grabs hold. So what they recommend is like
(07:41):
a satin pillow case for kids, for toddlers, because you're
and it just makes sense your hair will slip around
on that and not get as tangle. So it's it's
in the mail. It's coming. I'll report back on success rates.
But that is supposedly a big anti tangler is satin sheet. Yeah, um,
you mean has gotten a um silk just pillow cases,
(08:05):
not the sheets, just the pillow cases. Yeah, it's yeah,
it's great. I had no idea why. Now I understand why.
I just thought she was showing off or something. But um,
you're thinking of France, right, we've got we've got silk
pillow cases now. Um, but they, I mean they are
very nice to sleep and I have to admit, Yeah,
it's a small indulgence. I like it, but it's the yeah, right,
(08:26):
it's just a fraction of an indulgence. You get the
whole sheet set or whatever, then you are showing off.
I don't think I would like it. I I just
like it's fine for a pillow case. I'd be afraid
I'd slip off the bed or something exactly because I'd
wear my silk pajamas. Silk on silk. You know what
that means. Well, yeah, your toast, you're just gonna keep
(08:46):
sliding indefinitely until a car like stops you. So everyone's
getting duped. It's in the two thousand's. Uh, they start
coming out with these crazy numbers, like I said, up
to a thousand, and they were able to do this
because there's no FTC mandate on how to determine thread count,
so you can kind of just say whatever you want
(09:09):
and you can't be like tagged for false advertising. Well,
what they were doing also was they were saying, oh, well,
we're using two ply cotton threads, which is two thin
strands of cotton wound together to make a thicker strand
of cotton. So we have three hundred of those in
a square inch, but they're two plies, so we're gonna
call these six hundred thread count. Some people, apparently India,
(09:33):
Pakistan and China were putting out a substantial amount of
sheets that just it didn't matter what what you did,
you weren't going to come up with the thread counts.
That they were being advertised at and so the the
International Trade Commission heard some complaints and they actually authorized
customs agents around the world to see sheets sheets shipments again,
(09:56):
to see sheets shipments bam man, that's a tough one. Yeah,
and um test them. I don't know if they tested
them on the spot or what, but I'm sure there's
some nervous boat captains like standing there like, you know,
is it gonna is it gonna come back with man?
And um they found like a lot of sheets that
were coming out again India, Pakistan and China that weren't
(10:18):
up to the thread counts. And I think that was
kind of like the the um the crest of that
that wave and the fact that the International Trade Commission
actually took action on it, it just kind of beat
back that that little subset of fraud. And so that's
where thread counts went. And apparently one of the other
things that was fraudulent was Egyptian cotton. Yeah. Egyptian cotton
(10:40):
is a real thing, and it is great because it's
a longer fiber, longer staple is what they call it, Yeah,
which means it's softer for sure, and more durable. So
it's not like, if you see Egyptian cotton, it's not
some big scam unless it's not Egyptian cotton. And again,
all kinds of brands are advertising a Gyptian cotton that
(11:01):
we're not Egyptian cotton. So if you go into a
store today and you see a one thousand thread count
Egyptian cotton sheet, be very wary. I would say, yeah,
runaway screaming. Well, unless it's it costs you a pretty
penny and it's from a brand that you know and trust. Well,
I don't know. I think the rules. Well that's true.
(11:22):
I mean, yeah, it's true in this day and age.
But at a time I think if you bought sheets
from a brand, a very trustworthy brand, and they were
expensive sheets, you would think you're probably getting what you're
paying for. This. This article from House to works Um says,
if you see Egyptian cotton and it's inexpensive, you're probably
not getting Egyptian cotton. I'm surprised there's not an an
(11:46):
app delivery service called sheety Oh. I'll bet there's going
to be in about two weeks now. All right, just
give us a small cut, that's all I ask. Did
they ever though, Chuck whenever you come up with these
ideas that they did shark name, do ever give you
any I got no Sharknado money. You got no sugar
from Sharknado? Nope? Did you seize the sheets from Sharknado sugar?
(12:08):
I don't even know what that means. It doesn't mean anything.
I got nothing else. I haven't had anything else for
about thirty seconds. So let's end this, okay. If you
want to know more about this, go to how stuff
works dot com and check out this article, and also
send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff
works dot com
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