Shrink gi

[bhicks51388]

Hello any tips on shrinking a dogi to fit without shrinking it too much 100% cotton?

[P.A.L]

wash cold and air dry gives you minimum shrinkage. hot wash and hot dry give you maximum shrinkage.

[Chunmonchek]

I buy my gi's large, and wash them in hot water, and throw them in the dryer a few times. I Shrink to fit so I don't have to worry about accidentally shrinking in the future. It takes a bit of experimenting to get it right.

[JR 137]

It’s all about shrinking it a little bit at a time. I’ll usually do a medium temperature wash and medium temperature dry. I’ll try it on after each wash & dry to see where it’s at. I’ll usually stop before it fits right so I have some room for that last little bit that typically occurs over the years.

When I get it to that ~ 90% point, I only wash cold and line dry afterward.

Note - I buy a full size larger than I need. My current favorite - Shureido K-11 (100% cotton) shrinks quite a bit until it settles in. Somehow, the magic number has been 4 warm wash and dry cycles with that gi (I own 2). Other brand gis I’ve owned have been less. The K-11 and a few other gis stopped shrinking after I started washing cold and line drying; one or two kept shrinking even though they were cold wash and line dry. I guess different gis behave differently.

Note 2 - Cotton/polyester blends won’t shrink nearly as much. I haven’t owned a blended gi since my first “free with signing up” gi, but every piece of blended or pure polyester clothing I’ve ever owned shrunk minimally if at all.