study no. 06
We tested our tee against other white tees. Nearly all of them shrank. Ours did not — in our tests, our tees kept their size and their fit. This study explains why. Shrinkage is one of the quietest reasons a good tee stops being worn, and it is rarely a defect of the cotton itself. Knitted cotton is stretched as it is made, and when water and heat reach it, it relaxes back towards its natural size. This study explains that mechanism, shows that most of it happens within the first few washes, and that heat — a hot wash, a tumble dryer — multiplies it. It sets out how shrinkage is measured, then examines the two steps that make the difference: stabilising the fabric before it is cut, and washing the finished tee before it is sold — so that the relaxing happens with us rather than in your machine. Untreated cotton knits commonly shrink several percent; stabilised jersey is held to a fraction of that. Tested side by side with other white tees, including another Supima tee, ours held its size where the others did not. The size you choose is the size you keep — because it was decided long before the tee reaches you.
§ 1the tee that no longer fits
It fitted perfectly in the shop. The shoulder sat where it should, the length fell just below the belt. Then it was washed, dried, and put on again — and something had changed. A little shorter. A little tighter across the chest. Not ruined, simply no longer right.
Most people blame themselves, or the dryer, or bad luck. In reality, it is almost always decided before the tee is ever sold — which means it can be decided well.
We decided it well. In our tests, the other white tees shrank. Every one of ours came out of its washes the size it went in, with the same fit across the shoulder and the same length below the belt. What follows is why.
This is not a story about luck, or about one good batch. It is a story about mechanics — about what cotton does when it meets water and heat, and about the decisions a maker can take, or skip, long before a tee reaches a shelf.
§ 2why cotton shrinks
A t-shirt is knitted, not woven: thousands of small interlocking loops of yarn. During knitting and finishing, that fabric is pulled, stretched and held under tension — it has to be, to move through the machines.
Cotton remembers. When the fabric later meets water and heat, the fibres swell, the tension releases, and the loops draw back in towards their natural shape.1 The fabric becomes smaller. Nothing has been damaged; the tee has simply returned to the size it always wanted to be.
This is why shrinkage is mostly about length. The fabric is stretched hardest along its length during making, so that is where it gives back the most.2 A tee rarely becomes narrower in a way you notice. It becomes shorter in a way you cannot ignore.
The finer the fibre, the more this matters. A long-staple cotton like Supima spins into a smooth, even yarn, and a smooth yarn relaxes evenly. Coarser, shorter fibres relax unevenly — which is why a cheap tee can twist at the side seam as well as shrink. Shrinkage and loss of shape are, very often, the same problem seen from two angles.
§ 3when it happens
Shrinkage is not a slow, endless process. It happens early, and then it largely stops. Between seventy and ninety percent of a garment's total shrinkage takes place in its first one to three washes.2
This matters, because it means the first few washes are a verdict. A tee that holds its size through them will, in practice, hold it for good.
It also means something less obvious. If those first washes can happen before the tee reaches you, most of the change has already taken place by the time you put it on. We will return to this — it is one of the most important decisions in this study.
§ 4what heat does
Heat is what turns a little shrinkage into a lot. A hot wash relaxes the loops further; a tumble dryer then tumbles the fabric while it is warm and soft, pulling the loops even tighter as it dries.1
The same fabric, two very different outcomes. The difference is not the cotton. It is the temperature.
The dryer is the larger of the two culprits. A warm, damp fabric is at its most pliable; tumbling it at that moment pulls every loop tighter and holds it there as the water leaves. Air drying lets the fabric settle at its own pace, under nothing but its own weight — which, for a knitted tee, is exactly the right amount of tension.
§ 5how shrinkage is measured
Shrinkage is not a matter of opinion. It is measured, and the textile industry has standard methods for doing so — among them AATCC 135 and ISO 6330.1 The principle is simple, and it is worth knowing, because it tells you what a serious maker is looking at.
| step | what happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Mark | A precise square is marked on the fabric, its length and width recorded. |
| 2. Wash | The fabric is washed under defined conditions: temperature, cycle, detergent. |
| 3. Dry | It is dried under defined conditions — in the air, or tumbled. |
| 4. Repeat | The cycle is repeated, because most change happens in the first washes. |
| 5. Measure | The square is measured again. The difference, as a percentage, is the shrinkage. |
For most garments, a shrinkage of 2–3% or less is considered acceptable.1
Length and width are measured separately, because they rarely move together. A fabric can hold its width perfectly and still lose centimetres in length — which is precisely the change a wearer notices first.
The number itself is small. A few percent. But on a garment that sits on the body, a few percent is the difference between a tee that fits and a tee that almost does.
§ 6the step most makers skip
If a fabric is going to relax, the question is simply where it happens: in the factory, or in your washing machine.
The careful answer is to let it happen first. Before the fabric is cut, it can be relaxed and stabilised — compacted under controlled moisture and heat, so that the loops settle into their natural size before a single garment is made.1, 3 The shrinkage still happens. It simply happens before the tee is yours.
| untreated cotton knit | stabilised cotton jersey | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical shrinkage | 3–7% | 1–3% |
| Where it relaxes | In your washing machine | In the factory, before cutting |
| What you notice | Shorter after the first washes | The size you bought |
The same cotton. The difference is a step that takes time, and costs money — and is invisible on a label.3
It is invisible in a photograph and in the shop. It only becomes visible after the first wash — which is exactly why it is so often skipped.
§ 7washed before it is yours
Stabilising the fabric is the first safeguard. We added a second.
Every white tee we sell is washed before it is sold. The first washes — the ones that, as we have seen, account for most of a garment's shrinkage — happen with us, not with you.2 By the time the tee reaches your hands, it has already met water, already settled, already become the size it will stay.
There is a second benefit, and you will notice it on the first day. A pre-washed tee has already shed the stiffness of the factory. It feels lived-in from the first wear: softer, calmer, settled into its own shape.
Two layers of protection, then. A fabric stabilised before it is cut, and a garment washed before it is sold. Neither can be seen in a photograph. Both can be felt the first time you wash it — in a tee that keeps its shape.
§ 8what we saw
We washed and dried our tee side by side with other white tees — including a Supima-certified tee from a large mass-market label — the same way, through the same cycles.4 Nearly all of them came out shorter and tighter. Ours came out the size it went in.
Same washes. One kept its size. The difference was not the cotton — it was everything done to it before it was cut. A tee built this way does not need to be handled with fear. It is made to be worn, washed, and worn again.
§ 9two simple habits
The fabric does the hard work. Two habits keep it at its best: wash it cold, and let it dry in the air. Cold water keeps the fibres calm and the cotton soft; air keeps the shape exactly as it was made. That is all.
§ 10conclusion
Shrinkage is not bad luck, and it is not the fault of the person wearing the tee. It is the fabric returning to its natural size — and the only real question is whether that happens before the tee is made, or after it is bought.
We chose before. A long-staple fibre that stays calm. A fabric settled before it is cut. A garment washed before it is sold. A tee that leaves every wash the way it entered it — the same length, the same shoulder, the same fit you chose on the first day.
You choose your size once. After that, it is simply yours.
references & notes
- Knit shrinkage driven by heat, moisture and mechanical agitation as loops relax and draw in; untreated cotton knits typically shrink 3–7%, compacted cotton jersey targets 1–3% residual shrinkage. Mekong Garment, How to Control Knit Fabric Shrinkage.
- Length shrinks more than width in cotton knits; 70–90% of total shrinkage occurs within the first one to three washes; hot wash and tumble drying produce 8–12% shrinkage in untreated cotton, cold wash and air drying 1–3%. Natu Clothes, Does a 100% Cotton Shirt Shrink?, citing AATCC data.
- Stabilisation processes include relaxation drying and compacting before cutting. Mekong Garment, op. cit.
- Wash and dry testing conducted by the white tee: several of our own tees, compared side by side with other white tees, among them a Supima-certified tee from a mass-market label. Nearly all of the other tees shrank; none of ours did. An in-house observation, not a laboratory test. See Study No. 04 — On Supima.
a study series · first edition