January 18, 2011

How to Care for your Star Wars Club Apparel

One of the bonuses to being part of fan clubs like the 501st, Rebel Legion, and R2 Builders Club is the cool swag they sometimes make. I know plenty of people who could make their entire wardrobe out of the various graphic T-shirts and embroidered polos offered from these various clubs. Over the years, I’ve accumulated plenty of them myself. One thing I’ve learned is that preserving those screen printed shirts requires slightly different care than my average laundry loads. Here are some tips for keeping those great graphic T’s looking great over time.

Wash Inside Out. That screen printing ink is pretty tough, but washing inside-out will make it last even longer.

Wash in Cold Water. Most of those club t-shirts come on 100% cotton shirts. They almost all say “pre-shrunk”, but the inevitably have plenty more shrinking they can do. To minimize this, wash in cold water. If you are looking for good cleaning even in cold water, I recommend picking up a bottle of Tide Coldwater for these loads.

No Bleach. This should be obvious,but hypo bleach (the big white bottles) is not good for your graphic T’s.

Tumble dry on low heat. Still dry inside-out, but make sure you aren’t using the rough and tumble settings on your dryer. If you are worried about shrinkage, let the shirt dry flat on a drying rack.

Authors note: As some of you know, my day job is working for the Tide brand. I'm a bit biased.

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