A heavyweight tee is easier to look after than a thin one, not harder. Nearly everything that ruins one comes down to heat, and heat is the part you control.
The rules
- Machine wash at 30 °C, gentle cycle.
- Do not bleach. No harsh chemicals.
- Tumble dry low, or air dry flat.
- Iron on low. Avoid ironing over a print.
That is the whole list. What follows is why each line is on it, because a rule you understand is a rule you actually follow.
Why 30 °C
Cotton fibres are spun and stretched into shape when the fabric is made. Hot water relaxes them and they contract back towards their natural length — that is shrinking, and it is not reversible. It also opens the fibre enough for dye to leave, which is the other half of what a hot wash costs you.
Cold water cleans a shirt you have worn for a day perfectly well. Hot water is for stains and bedding, not for a tee.
Why gentle cycle
A fast spin does not just remove water, it drags the garment against itself under load. On a heavy shirt that load is higher, because the fabric holds more water. The place it shows up first is the collar, which is why a stretched-out neckline is usually a spin cycle problem rather than a quality problem.
Why low heat in the dryer
This is the single biggest one. A hot dryer does everything a hot wash does, faster, and adds mechanical tumbling on top. If you take one thing from this page: a cold wash followed by a hot dry is not a cold wash.
Low heat, or pull the shirt out damp and lay it flat to finish. Which brings us to the other mistake.
Never hang a heavy shirt wet
Wet cotton is heavy and wet cotton stretches. Hang a soaked 300 GSM tee on a narrow hanger and its own weight pulls the body long and the shoulders into two points that never fully come out.
Dry it flat, or on a rack with the weight spread across the bar. Once it is dry, hang it however you like.
Cotton and fleece behave differently
The tees and shorts are cotton, so everything above applies directly. The hoodie is 42% cotton and 58% polyester with a brushed inside, and it plays by slightly different rules.
- Polyester does not shrink much, so the hoodie is more forgiving about water temperature than the tees are.
- Polyester does melt. High dryer heat is worse for the hoodie than for a cotton tee, not better — it flattens the brushed face permanently and the inside stops being soft.
- Wash it inside out if you want the brushed side to last. The pilling that fleece gets comes from the outer face rubbing against the drum.
Colour by colour
- Black fades with heat, not with washing. A cold wash and a low dry keeps it black; a hot cycle turns it into a tired grey and there is no getting it back.
- Off-white is the one that bleach destroys. It does not go whiter, it goes patchy yellow.
- Dark red runs on the first couple of washes. Wash it on its own until it stops.
- Green carries more dye than the neutrals do, so it has more to lose to bleach and hot water.
- Grey shows wear before darker colours do — not because it is weaker, but because faded grey is more visible than faded black.
What not to do
- Do not use fabric softener on the hoodie. It coats the fibre and kills the brushed texture.
- Do not iron over a print or an embroidered logo. Turn the piece inside out and press the back of it if you must.
- Do not wash after every single wear. Cotton lasts longer with fewer cycles, and a heavyweight tee does not need it.
- Do not stack heavy pieces on a hanger rail crammed tight. They crease at the shoulder and the crease sets.
The first wash
Expect a heavyweight tee to soften noticeably after two or three washes, and to stay there. That is the cotton relaxing, not wearing out. If a shirt feels stiff out of the box, it is doing what dense cotton does.
More: what GSM means and why 300 changes the shirt, and how to pick your size.
Shop the Essentials line.
