Let’s quickly define a couple terms. “Color fastness” is a description of how well a material’s color resists change - so if a fabric has low color fastness, it’s likely that that fabric’s color will rub off on other materials, your skin, or other surfaces. “Crocking” is the industry term for what we’re seeing with these hoodies, where the color from one material is rubbing off on other materials around it. If you’ve ever worn a pair of brand new jeans before washing them, you’ve probably experienced some crocking in your life.
Many different things can impact a material’s color fastness like the type of fiber, the type of dye, color choice, and the way that the dyed fabric is finished.
You may have seen washing instructions on some clothes like “wash with like colors.” When you see that, you can safely assume that the manufacturer is using a dyed fabric that is either too difficult - or too expensive - to improve when it comes to color fastness.
With our color block hoodie, we’re using a 100% cotton fabric and we’ve designed it with multiple fun, bright & dark colors right next to each other. We’re working with the mill and manufacturer to add a special dying agent which should significantly increase the color fastness of these garments beyond what we’ve seen on our samples. So unless there’s a very good reason for it, you should never see this type of fastness issue on a finished garment from lttstore.
As with most things, it’s always important to follow instructions. If your pants say wash with like colors, or your graphic tee says hang to dry, you should always assume that the intent behind those instructions is to maintain the look and quality of the garment. Colors can run, artwork can peel or crack, or your Large hoodie could come out of the dryer as a Small. It can be a pain at times, but we (and most manufacturers) run a ton of tests on our garments before production to ensure that they look just as good on wear #100 as they did on wear #1.
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