Graphic tees are treasured possessions that people care deeply for, especially with limited edition or vintage prints.
With anything that we love, we hope and wish to keep them in our lives forever. Graphic tees are no different. We love them and want them to hang around for a long time.
The sad reality is that all things in this world must face the inevitable, slow decay of time. Graphic tees, unfortunately, are no exception.
However, if you apply the techniques and instructions I am going to teach you, your graphic tees will last for years and even decades.
Who am I and where do I get the audacity to think I have the authority to talk about the care and longevity of graphic tees?
Great question, I'm glad you asked!
For over 22 years, I have worked in the clothing and apparel industry. I started out working at a screen printing shop at 19 and eventually launched my own screen printing business in my 20s.
Over the past 15 years, I've been involved in working with various clothing brands, and am currently one of the owners of Tee Shop USA™ (the website you're on now.)
From hobby to obsession, graphic tees have been a huge part of my life and career.
Through years of rigorous testing for quality control, I have become an expert in graphic tees and how to care for them.
You can trust, with confidence, that what I am telling you is accurate and valuable information.
I know what will kill a shirt and what will keep them healthy and kicking for years.
So join me as we embark upon the quest for graphic tee immortality.
How To Wash Graphic Tees So They Won't Fade or Crack
Graphic tees are printed on shirts of varying composition, but these tips can generally be applied to any graphic tee, whether they're made with 100% heavy cotton, ringspun cotton, or a blend of cotton, polyester and rayon (known as the Tri-Blend).
Always check the tag on your graphic tee to make sure you're following the manufacturer's guidelines and care instructions. If it says don't use bleach or iron the shirt, then don't use bleach or iron the shirt!
(Never iron a graphic tee. That's graphic tee care 101.)
The steps to washing a graphic tee for optimized longevity are quite simple. I'll list the steps here then we'll go over each one below. After that, we'll move into how to dry your graphic tees.
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Pretreat stains with gentle stain removers before washing.
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Turn your graphic tees inside out before washing them.
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Wash with similar colors and in smaller loads.
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Use a low-soil setting on your washing machine.
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Use non-abrasive, gentle, organic detergents.
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Do not use chlorine bleach or fabric softeners.
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Use cold water only.
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Consider hand-washing your tees (optional).
The first thing to consider when it comes to graphic tees is how you're wearing them.
Are you wearing your graphic tees to your construction job? Are you wearing them in the pool? Are you wearing them while hiking in the jungle?
Are your tees being exposed to harsh elements like chemicals, extreme sun/heat, or any substance that could stain or ruin them?
The first step to increasing the longevity of your graphic tees is to treat them well.
Your graphic tee is your friend! Nay, they're family!
If you care about your shirts and want them to last for a long time, wear them only in situations where you're not putting them at risk for premature death.
This brings us to the low-soil setting (or gentle cycle setting) on your washing machine.
Jacking up the vigorousness of a washing machine and setting it to high cycles won't make your graphic tees any cleaner; they'll just slowly (or in some cases quickly) destroy them.
You're not power-washing dried paint off a deck or cleaning a bathroom at an Irish pub, you're washing your shirt. You don't need industrial strength chemical cleaners and maximum power.
Provided you're taking good care of your tees while you're wearing them, you should never need to use harsh detergents or anything more than the lowest possible cycle setting on your washing machine.
Treated correctly, in terms of daily use, shirt fabric is not difficult to clean. Use gentle detergents and low agitation.
The higher the soil-level setting, the more damage your shirt will endure over time. Keep it low, and even consider hand-washing the graphic tees that are most special to you.
One of the reasons why we flip our shirts inside-out before washing them is to minimize the impact that the ink will face under the stress of the washing machine componentry.
Pro Tip: You should wash all of your clothes, even jeans, inside out to keep colors from fading.
You have to be gentle with your tees. They're not Viking warlords, they're shirts.
Graphic tees are so delicate, in fact, that they even hate hot water.
Why is hot water bad for a graphic tee?
Hot water--like hot dryer heat--increases the risk of your shirts shrinking and the printed design fading or cracking.
Always use cool or cold water, because graphic tees are cool like that.
The reason we suggest washing in smaller loads with like colors is to maximize the effectiveness of the cleaning process and to ensure if dyes and pigments (in lower-quality shirts) bleed out, they won't disfigure your awesome graphic tees.
The easy fix there is to always buy premium graphic tees.
Moving on.
Below are two pictures (standard and close up) of a shirt I own, printed by Tee Shop USA.
Because I love this shirt so much, I wear it all the time.
It's been washed dozens of times and still looks exactly the same as it did when I first got it!
That's because I follow all of the tips and techniques that we're laying out in this article.
Following these guidelines, you will ensure your graphic tees live a long and healthy life.
Trust me!
Now that we covered how to properly wash your graphic tees, let's move on to the next big important step; how to properly dry your graphic tees.
How to Dry Graphic Tees So They Don't Shrink or Fade
If graphic tees were around before 1892 when George T. Sampson patented the first electric dryer, the secret to t-shirt longevity would have been revealed and established long ago.
Heat is a graphic tee's worst enemy.
High heat can shrink cotton tees, even preshrunk cotton. The shrinking and stretching cycle will, over time, compromise the integrity of the shirt fabric, causing holes, rips and tears.
Liquid plastisol, DTG, and water-based inks cure at around 290-350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the ink is set and cured, and the shirt is cooled, reintroducing your graphic tee to high heat will deteriorate the ink.
Outside of normal wear and tear, the trademark fading, cracking and peeling of your favorite graphic tee is the hallmark of printing ink being overexposed to high heat after it's already been cured.
The best way to dry your graphic tees is to hang them on your grandmother's clothesline and let the natural fresh air take care of them. Or use a drying rack.
If you hang-dry your graphic tees outside in the fresh air, you will increase the life of your shirts by years, and you'll know the pensive joy of smelling the amazing freshness of the world's greatest dryer: mother nature.
But this is the real world, isn't it?
As we live in the modern age, many people don't have access to clotheslines, so drying graphic tees outside is not always an easy option.
Moreover, many people are lazy (including me at times) and don't feel like drying their shirts in anything but a dryer.
As such, we will teach you how to properly dry your graphic tees in a dryer.
Let's dive in.
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Keep your graphic tees inside out.
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Use the lowest heat setting possible.
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Tumble dry.
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Consider not using a dryer at all.
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Never use an iron on your graphic tee.
- Never dry clean your graphic tee.
By keeping your shirts inside-out and using the lowest possible tumble dry setting, you will increase the life of your graphic tees as opposed to utilizing high heat.
Using high heat will get them dry faster, but you're killing your poor graphic tee.
Don't kill your tee, man!
Use low heat or a drying rack (with no heat) to dry your tees.
Remember, when it comes to graphic tees, heat sucks. Graphic tees are cool and they like the temperature around them to be cool as well.
Less heat = longer life.
Now, let's move on to the final step. How to store your graphic tees for maximum lifespan.
How To Store Your Graphic Tees For Longevity
The main things people talk about when it comes to graphic tees and how to care for them are washing and drying, but there's another step: storage.
How you keep and store your shirts matters. Perhaps not as much as how you wear them, wash them and dry them, but it's worth diving into.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the relative humidity in your house should be between 30%-50%, but other studies suggest that 40%-50% relative humidity is ideal.
Purchase a hygrometer and make sure your house is around 45% relative humidity. While humidity can have an impact on your graphic tees, it can also impact your health.
Goldilocks would agree that you don't want your house too dry or too moist. You want everything just right.
High humidity or low humidity can impact the health of graphic tees.
Exposure to long-term low humidity will make the shirt fibers brittle, and long-term high humidity will often cause a graphic tee to succumb to rot, breakdown and/or mold.
You want to store your graphic tees in an area that has appropriate, moderate humidity that will not damage your shirts.
Pro Tip: Don't store your graphic tees in arid deserts or leaky basements.
As for how you store them (hanging or folding) is up to you.
In my experience--and this could be anecdotal--I have found that graphic tees properly hung up on a clothes hanger in a closet with breathable, clean airflow and moderate humidity is superior to folding them and putting them in a dresser.
But like I said, that's up to you. Both methods are fine. Whatever you feel more comfortable with.
Just remember that good airflow and moderate relative humidity levels are ideal short-term storage conditions and imperative to creating an environment conducive to graphic tee longevity.
For long-term storage, consider using an air-tight preservation bag.
The Bottom Line
Graphic tees are awesome and can be very special to the individual depending on when they bought it, what was happening in their life at the time, who bought it for them etc.
Graphic tees are our friends and they mean a lot to us. As such, we want to keep them around for as long as possible.
In this article, we covered the three main categories of graphic tee care--washing, drying and storage--and provided you with professional tips, techniques and insight into how to make your graphic tees last for a long time.
We thank you for taking the time to learn about graphic tees and how to care for them. Pat yourself on the back, because you're awesome in my book! Graphic tees matter!
Can you tell I love graphic tees?
Thank you for stopping by! Check out our Premium Line of Graphic Tees before you go!
