How to Wash a Hoodie Without Shrinking It

Almost every ruined hoodie was ruined in the same ten minutes: a hot wash followed by a hot dryer. Cotton doesn't shrink because it got wet. It shrinks because heat lets the fibres relax back toward the length they were before the mill stretched them, and then agitation locks them there.

Once you know that, the rules stop being arbitrary.

Why cotton shrinks

Knitting puts cotton yarn under tension. The finished cloth is holding a shape it would rather not hold. Add heat and water and the fibres let go and pull back. Add tumbling on top and the whole structure compacts.

Heavy loopback has more yarn in it, so there's more to move. A 480gsm hoodie that gets cooked will lose noticeably more length than a thin one.

The wash

1. Turn it inside out. The face of the fabric is what you're protecting. Let the inside take the abrasion.
2. Cold water. 30C or below. This is the one that matters most. Cold is enough for sweat and everyday wear.
3. Gentle or normal cycle, not heavy duty. Long aggressive agitation is what turns loose fibres into pills.
4. Less detergent than you think. Excess doesn't rinse out and leaves the cloth stiff and grey. Half a cap is usually plenty.
5. No fabric softener. It coats the fibres, kills absorbency and makes cotton feel slick rather than soft. Skip it permanently.
6. Wash with like weights. A heavy hoodie in with jeans and zips is a hoodie getting scraped for forty minutes.

The dry, which is the part that actually kills it

Air dry. That's the whole answer. Lay it flat or hang it over a rail rather than on a hanger, because a wet heavy hoodie on a narrow hanger will stretch its own shoulders out.

If you must use a dryer, use the lowest heat setting and pull it out while it's still slightly damp, then let it finish on air. Most of the shrinkage happens in the last ten minutes when the cloth is dry and still tumbling in heat.

If it already shrank

You can usually get some of it back. Soak the hoodie in cool water with a capful of hair conditioner for about half an hour, which relaxes the fibres. Then lay it flat and gently stretch it back toward its original dimensions while it's damp, working from the hem and the sleeves. Let it air dry in that shape.

This works better on a first offence than on a hoodie that has been cooked ten times. It won't undo felting on wool.

Wash it less

The best care instruction is the boring one. Outerwear and heavy sweats don't need washing after every wear. Air it overnight, spot clean what's actually dirty, and wash it when it needs it. Every cycle is wear.

If something does go wrong past the point of laundry, the seams and the holes are our problem rather than yours. That's what the repair promise is for, and we've written up how to handle a hole you want to fix yourself.