How to Buy a Quality Hoodie

When looking to buy a quality hoodie for yourself or someone else, two of the most important things to look for is comfort and fit.

Style and design are important, but for now, we will focus on the size of your hoodie.

Why?

You Can’t Unshrink Your Quality Hoodie.

We will go over why it may be a good idea to buy a larger size than what you normally wear and how you can have a long-lasting, comfortable hoodie.

Quality Hoodie Care

Even if you buy a pre-shrunk cotton hoodie, your hoodie will still shrink by as much as 15-35% after washing and drying depending on your dryer settings. 

As the cotton fabric continues to shrink throughout your washing cycles, (minimum 45 washing and drying cycles), your hoodie will fit less and less like the original size.

One way to reduce shrinkage is to wash your hoodie in cold water and hang dry.

Depending on the brand of hoodie or manufacturer, hoodies are constructed and assembled differently from one another.

This means the sizing or fit of one hoodie brand may fit slightly different in length than another hoodie brand. 

For the most part, hoodies sold in the U.S. keep to a relative American size and fitting standard when sold in the US.

This is the main reason we suggest buying a hoodie that is a size larger than what you normally wear.

One brand may have about an inch or two of extra length and another brand may be constructed without any added length. Making your hoodie vulnerable to shrinkage.

Luckily you can always go up a size to get more hoodie.

Hoodie Shrinkage

We’ve printed and personally worn multiple hoodie brands and found that most of the cotton popular brands shrink quite a bit from the original size.

If you’re like me and hate when your clothing shrinks after the first wash and dry, then you may want to consider buying a larger size when looking at hoodies online or retail outlets. 

Now… we’re not saying that the hoodie you select will shrink into a toddlers size. However, this has been our experience in dealing with different hoodie manufacturers.

The shrinking is the natural cause of heat, lots of friction and water mixing in with the cotton fibers.

Cotton and wool absorb lots of water which means more contact and shrinkage of the fibers which fold and tangle up with each other at a microscopic level.

The tighter the knit in your hoodie the less shrinkage the wider the knit, like in your wool sweater, for example, the more shrinkage you will get.

The more friction and agitation in your tumble drying, plus the heat will cause the fibers in your hoodie contract into each other tightening up the yarn in the hoodie.

Comfortable Hoodies

A majority of hoodies do tend to shrink about an inch or two in torso length and about half an inch in the sleeve length after placing them in the dryer on regular tumble dry settings.

When you buy a larger hoodie, you get more cloth, more coverage, and more space to cover your hands and but from the cold come winter months.

More bang for your buck!

This is why we suggest purchasing larger sizes when buying a hoodie online or out in department stores.

If you go up one size and its way too large, then your standard size should fit perfectly.

If it is larger than what you normally wear and you feel like it wouldn’t look good or be too distracting of a difference in size, than order your regular size.

To order Quality Hoodies that don’t shrink as much, we’ve provided some links to our online catalog where you can select the color, size, and quantities.

Our minimum order is 12 pieces and we can ship nationwide within 2-4 business days. 

If you’re looking for hoodies that are stylish, comfortable and have minimal shrinkage these are the ones we recommend. 

Alternative Eco 9595 – Fleece Challenger Pullover Hoodie

Bella Canvas 3719 Unisex Hooded 

Bella Canvas 3729 Unisex Sponge Fleece Hoodie

American Apparel 5495W California Fleece Hoodie