Barely, if you wash it cold and dry it low. Comfort Colors 1717 is pre-shrunk before it is sewn into a finished shirt, so the large first-wash shrink that ruins a cheap tee has already been taken out. What is left is the small amount of movement that any 100% cotton garment has.
Why garment dyeing matters here
Most printed t-shirts are made from fabric that was dyed on the roll, then cut and sewn. Comfort Colors works the other way round. The shirt is sewn first, then dropped into the dye bath as a finished garment.
That process soaks the whole shirt in hot water and agitates it. In practice the shirt does its shrinking during dyeing, at the factory, before anyone prints on it. By the time it reaches you, the fibres have already been through the worst of it.
It is also why no two garment-dyed shirts are exactly the same shade, and why the colour looks slightly broken-in from day one.
What actually causes shrinking after that
Heat, not water. Cotton fibres relax when they are wet and contract when they are dried fast and hot. A tumble dryer on high heat will shrink a cotton tee that cold water alone would not touch.
- Wash cold. Maximum 30°C or 90°F.
- Tumble dry low, or hang it. This is the step that decides whether your shirt changes size.
- Skip the bleach. It weakens cotton fibres and dulls a garment-dyed colour.
- Iron low if you iron at all. Never press directly on the print.
Should you size up to be safe?
No. Sizing up to allow for shrinkage is a habit left over from shirts that were not pre-shrunk. With this blank you end up with a shirt that was always too big.
The 1717 is cut boxy and relaxed with no side seams. If you like a closer fit, size down rather than up. If you want it oversized, stay with your usual size.
What about the print?
The same rules protect it. Turn the shirt inside out before washing so the print faces away from the drum. Cold water and low heat keep the ink flexible, which is what stops it cracking along fold lines.
The short version
Wash cold, dry low, inside out. The shirt will stay the size you bought.
Every tee we print uses this blank — you can see the full care list on any product page, for example the Winter Magic dog tee. If something does arrive wrong, our Returns & Refunds page explains how we handle it.