Here are important tips for the best care of your denim jeans. Jeans will last longer and fit better if you treat them just a little differently than your other clothing.
Tag Check
Check the cleaning instructions and type of your jeans which is located on a tag inside your jeans. “Pre-washed” or “pre-distressed” indicates that the jeans have undergone manufacturing processes to create fading and to minimize shrinking. However, these jeans can still fade and shrink if you wash in hot water and dry in hot temperature. To minimize fading and shrinking always wash in cold water and air dry. Even safer is to dry clean.
“Raw” or “dry” indicates that the jeans have not been What is Techwear washed, and the blue color is not set.
“Single wash” means that the jeans have been soaked once in cold water to soften the fabric and set the blue dye.
“Sanforized” means that your jeans have been pre-shrunk. Most jean fabric is processed by this patented technique. It’s been around for 70 years. No chemicals are involved. Shrinkage can still occur if you use hot water to wash or tumble dry with hot air.
“Unsanforized” or “shrink to fit” indicates that the jeans will definitely shrink as much as 2″ on the waist. The longer you soak jeans and the hotter the water, the more they shrink. Dry them in a machine will increase shrinkage.
Washing & Drying
The more you wash and wear your jeans, the more they fade and the shorter their life span. Some believe that never washing jeans will make them last longer, but this is a myth because the acids and oils in your own skin wears on the cotton fabric. It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation! So the best care is the gentlest washing such as turning them inside out and soaking them in your tub and gently agitating them, and then air drying, and as seldom as possible! Again dry cleaning is the safest.