Most kit dies
in the dryer.
Custom teamwear is built to take a season of abuse on the pitch. What it will not take is a hot tumble dry and a cup of fabric softener. Six rules cover almost everything.
The six rules
Wash cold, inside out
30°C or below, garment turned inside out. Cold water protects both the colour in the fibre and anything applied on top of it, and inside-out keeps decoration off the drum.
Wash like with like
Kit with kit. Zips, studs and velcro on other garments abrade printed and embroidered surfaces far faster than washing does.
No fabric softener
Softener coats performance fabric and destroys the wicking that is the whole point of it. It also traps odour rather than releasing it — the opposite of what people use it for.
No bleach, no stain bars
Chlorine strips colour from synthetic fibre permanently and unevenly. Treat grass and mud with a cold pre-soak instead.
Hang to dry, out of direct sun
Tumble drying is the single most common way teamwear dies — heat lifts transfers and sets creases in sublimated panels. Shade prevents UV fade.
Never iron the decoration
If a garment must be pressed, press the reverse on low with a cloth, avoiding crests, numbers and sponsor marks entirely.
By decoration method
The four methods fail in different ways. If you only remember one thing per method, remember the first sentence of each.
Sublimation
The colour is in the fibre, so it cannot crack, peel or wash out. The realistic risk is greying from hard water and detergent build-up. Use a normal dose of detergent — more does not clean better, it just deposits residue — and wash promptly after use rather than leaving kit balled up wet in a bag.
Embroidery
Durable, but the threat is snagging and heat. Turn inside out, close any velcro before washing, and keep it out of the tumble dryer — heat shrinks the backing fabric around the stitch and puckers the crest permanently.
Screen print
Robust against washing, vulnerable to heat and folding. Do not tumble dry and do not fold along a printed area for long-term storage; a crease held through a hot summer becomes a crack.
DTF and DTG transfer
The most heat-sensitive of the four. Cold wash inside out, hang dry, never iron the print directly. Treated that way a transfer will outlast the season comfortably; put through a hot dryer twice, it will not.
Between seasons
- Make sure kit is completely dry before it goes into storage — damp synthetic fabric in a sealed box grows mildew that no wash removes.
- Hang match shirts rather than folding them, especially anything with large printed panels.
- Store out of direct sunlight; UV fades on the shelf just as it does on the pitch.
- Keep one unworn set as a colour reference for reorders — it is more reliable than a photograph.
Looking after this season's kit? Plan next season's now.
Your pattern and colour standard stay on file, so a reorder matches what is already in the kit bag.