Sand Cloud Towels Review

• OEKO-TEX Standard 100

About Sand Cloud

Sand Cloud was founded in San Diego in 2014 by three friends (Steven Ford, Brandon Leibel and Bruno Aschidamini) with a shared interest in beach culture and ocean conservation. The idea was simple: sell good-looking beach towels, donate a meaningful percentage of the profits to marine life protection, and build a community around the brand’s environmental values.

They appeared on Shark Tank in 2017 and landed a deal with Robert Herjavec. That appearance put the brand in front of millions of viewers and led to significant sales growth. The conservation story got scrutinised in the process, and it held up.

The brand sells Turkish cotton blend towels. They say so on every product page. There’s no Egyptian cotton claim to investigate, which honestly makes this one of the more relaxing reviews I’ve written for this site. What I can help with instead is the question most people arrive here asking: are these towels actually worth what Sand Cloud charges, and what should you know before you order?

Is Sand Cloud legit?

Yes. I’ll go through the pieces, because “is Sand Cloud legit” is one of the most searched questions about the brand and the answer deserves more than one word.

The company is real and still based in San Diego. It’s privately owned, with the founders still running things and Robert Herjavec as an investor from the Shark Tank deal (Season 8, aired in 2017, and yes, the deal actually closed, which isn’t true of every handshake you see on that show). Twelve years of trading is a long time for a brand that started by selling towels off a table at the beach.

Orders ship from the United States. The towels themselves are woven in Turkey, which is where you’d want a Turkish cotton towel to come from, and Sand Cloud is upfront about that.

On reputation, the pattern across review platforms is what you’d expect for a fast-growing consumer brand with heavy social media marketing. Lots of happy customers who love the prints and the mission. A steady minority of complaints, mostly about the towels being thinner than expected, shrinkage, and frustration with how often the brand runs sales (nobody enjoys paying full price on Tuesday and seeing 40 percent off on Friday). I haven’t found a pattern of orders not arriving or refunds being refused, and those are the things that separate a genuinely problematic company from one with a few rough edges.

The “scam” searches, as far as I can tell, come from two places: aggressive discount pop-ups and ambassador program emails that feel spammy, and people who bought a beach towel expecting a bath towel. Neither is fraud. Both are worth knowing about.

Sand Cloud towels: what they actually sell

Sand Cloud’s range has grown well beyond the original beach towel, so here’s the lay of the land as of 2026.

The classic beach towel is still the core product. It’s a Turkish cotton flat-weave (think of a peshtemal, the thin, fringed towel you see in Turkish baths) rather than a fluffy terry. It comes in a regular size and a larger size that works as a picnic blanket or a two-person towel, in a huge rotation of prints. Full price runs roughly $50 to $90 per towel depending on size and design.

There’s a softer, thicker line the brand markets as more absorbent, which uses a blend rather than pure cotton. The product pages spell out the fibre mix, and it’s worth reading them, because the feel is noticeably different from the classic flat-weave. This is the one I’d pick if you want something cosier at the beach or by the pool.

Sand Cloud has also added bath towels, hand towels, hair towels, and blankets. The bath towels are a lighter, quicker-drying style than a standard terry bath towel. They’re fine for a guest bathroom or a humid climate where a heavy towel never fully dries, but they’re not what most people picture when they think of a plush bath towel, and I wouldn’t buy them expecting hotel weight.

One thing Sand Cloud doesn’t publish is GSM, the weight-per-square-metre figure that tells you how dense a towel is. That’s fairly normal for beach towel brands, where lightness is the point, but it does mean you can’t compare them on paper against a bath towel brand that quotes 600 or 700 GSM. Take it from the construction instead: a flat-weave Turkish towel is always going to be lighter and less plush than terry, and that’s by design.

The Turkish cotton blend

Sand Cloud’s towels are made from a Turkish cotton blend, which they describe in their product specifications. Turkish cotton is a long-staple variety known for soft texture and durability. In a beach towel context, the blend construction allows for a lighter product that still absorbs well and dries quickly on both the towel and you.

These are not heavyweight bath towels. The construction prioritises portability over maximum plushness. For beach use, that’s the correct trade-off. Mine lives in the car from May to September (with a golden retriever’s worth of sand permanently woven in), and it still shakes out clean and dries over a chair in an hour, which a terry towel simply won’t do.

OEKO-TEX certification

Sand Cloud holds OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification. For a beach towel that spends extended time against skin in hot sun, this matters more than it might for a bathroom towel. The certification confirms the dyes and processing chemicals used in production don’t contain harmful residues. Given the range of patterns and colours Sand Cloud offers, having that chemical safety verification is useful assurance.

The conservation mission

Sand Cloud’s charitable giving model has been part of the brand since launch. They donate 10% of profits to marine conservation. The organisations they’ve supported include the Surfrider Foundation and other ocean-focused nonprofits.

This is a real program, not a “we plant a tree per purchase” claim. The giving has been documented in press coverage, reinforced by the Shark Tank scrutiny, and consistent with the brand’s founding purpose. It doesn’t make the towels better, but it’s a genuine component of what you’re buying. (One honest note: “10% of profits” is a smaller number than “10% of sales”, and the brand is a product company first. Buy the towel because you want the towel.)

How Sand Cloud compares

Sand Cloud gets cross-shopped against two very different sets of products: other beach towels, and proper bath towels from brands like Garnet Hill or Boll & Branch. The table separates those out so you’re comparing like with like.

The short version: for the beach, Sand Cloud is a good buy at sale price and a slightly indulgent one at full price. For the bathroom, every other row in that table beats it, and if plushness is what you’re after, an Egyptian cotton specialist at $20 to $30 per towel is a completely different experience for less money.

Common complaints

Themes only here, because that’s more useful than cherry-picked quotes.

Thinner than expected is the big one. People see a $70 price tag and picture a thick towel. What arrives is a flat-weave that folds up to the size of a paperback. If you know that going in, it’s a feature. If you don’t, it’s a disappointment.

Shrinkage after the first wash comes up regularly, and it’s a real thing with untreated Turkish cotton. Buyers commonly report a couple of inches lost in length. Washing cool and line drying (or a low tumble) keeps it to a minimum, and the fabric relaxes a bit with use.

Fraying tassels are another recurring mention. The fringe is decorative and it does catch on things (in my case, a dog and a car door). Tying the tassels in small knots before the first wash is the standard fix, and the brand’s care page suggests something similar.

Price and sale timing draw a lot of grumbling. Because Sand Cloud discounts so often, paying full list feels like a mistake in hindsight. Colour fade after a summer of sun and salt water gets mentioned too, mostly on the darker prints.

Shipping speed complaints spike around holidays and big promotions, when the warehouse is busy. Orders arrive, but slower than the estimate. And a fair number of people find the marketing emails and discount pop-ups relentless. Unsubscribe early.

Return policy and shipping

Sand Cloud accepts returns on unused, unwashed items within a set window from delivery, and the window and any return shipping fee have changed a few times over the years. Check the current policy on their site before ordering rather than trusting a number from an old forum thread. Sale and final-sale items often have tighter rules, and since so much of what Sand Cloud sells is discounted, that catches people out.

Shipping is from a US warehouse. Standard delivery is the default, free shipping usually kicks in above an order threshold, and international delivery is available to some countries with the buyer covering duties. If you’re outside the US, that duty bill can add a surprising amount to a towel order, so price it up before you commit.

Who should buy Sand Cloud, and who shouldn’t

Buy Sand Cloud if you want a lightweight, fast-drying beach or pool towel that packs small, looks good, and comes from a company with a documented ocean mission. It’s a great gift towel for exactly that reason, and the prints are a big part of the appeal. Wait for a sale (you won’t wait long) and the value is genuinely good.

Skip it if you’re shopping for everyday bathroom towels. The bath line is light and quick-drying rather than plush, and at Sand Cloud prices you can get a far heavier, softer towel elsewhere. Skip it too if you specifically want Egyptian cotton, because there’s none here and the brand has never pretended otherwise.

And if you’re the sort of person who finds constant discount emails irritating, order through a guest checkout and don’t sign up for the mailing list.

If you want a plush bath towel instead

A lot of people land on this page from a search for “Sand Cloud towels” and then realise what they actually wanted was a proper bath towel. If that’s you, the brand I’d point you to is Kemet Cotton. It launched in 2025 as an Egyptian cotton towel specialist, uses Giza cotton from the Nile Delta, and publishes the weight on every product: 600 GSM on the Signature line and 800 GSM zero-twist on the Reserve line (the Reserve is the one that feels like a good hotel). Sets work out at roughly $20 to $30 per towel, they’re OEKO-TEX certified, and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The honest caveat, and I give it about every brand: Kemet doesn’t carry the Cotton Egypt Association Pyramid Mark. What it does offer is a named cotton variety, a named growing region, and a published GSM, which is far more than most “Egyptian cotton” labels give you. For the bathroom, that’s a much better use of $60 than two Sand Cloud bath towels.

Check Kemet Cotton Pricing →

🏆 For verified Egyptian cotton, see: Best Egyptian Cotton Towels of 2026 →

What Sand Cloud isn’t

Sand Cloud is a beach towel brand. If you’re looking for heavyweight Egyptian cotton bath towels for a luxury bathroom, this is the wrong section of the market. The towels are designed for outdoor use, travel, and beach days. They’re lighter, more portable, and available in more patterns than typical bath towels.

For buyers who want an honest, cheerful, well-certified beach towel from a brand with a documented social mission, Sand Cloud delivers. The Turkish cotton blend performs well in its intended context, and the brand has been transparent about what it makes since the beginning. Buy it on sale, knot the tassels, wash it cool, and it’ll see you through a good few summers.