Advancement in fabric making has resulted in different apparel manufacturers making specific fabrics to serve particular purposes. However, products made with these fabrics are not cheap. For example, the Nike Tech Fleece fabric provides the best in lightweight warmth that reacts to the natural motion of the person wearing it. But how do you wash the Nike Tech Fleece without ruining it?
You can wash Nike Teck Fleece in a washing machine or hand wash it. If possible, you should use powder detergent since it is more effective on common stains likely to be on your fleece. If you have oil stains in the fleece, mild liquid detergent should be preferred.
In this article, we look at how you can wash the Nike Tech fleece without running it. The article also discusses whether the fleece can be tumble dried, the ideal temperature to wash the fleece, and how to keep the fleece soft when washing.
What Is Nike Tech Fleece?
Nike Tech Fleece is made from a unique fabric that gives the best in lightweight warmth and, at the same time, responds to the natural motion of the person wearing the fleece.
The fleece has a plush foam placed between the layers of cotton jersey. This foam creates a tri-layer fabric, which makes the fleece offer the best comfort and warmth as needed.
How To Wash Nike Tech Fleece
To ensure that you wash the Nike Tech Fleece the right way, you must first understand the fabric used to make the fleece. Indeed, when you want to clean any clothing without ruining it, you first need to understand the properties of fabrics used to make a specific garment.
When garments are made of synthetic fabrics such as polyester and wool, they can be washed with hot water without shrinking or fading them. However, when washing natural materials such as cotton, wool, and silk, you have to use warm water since if you wash the fabrics in hot water, the fabrics are likely to shrink in the washer and the dryer.
Nike Teck Fleece is made from a blend of polyester and cotton fibers. The body of the fleece is 66% cotton and 30% polyester. The fleece pocket bags are 100% cotton, and the hood lining is 69% cotton and 31% polyester.
To clean your Nike Tech Fleece, you can use three different methods. The type of dirt you have on the fleece is the main factor that determines the method you choose to clean the Nike Tech Fleece.
Method 1: Washing Nike Tech Fleece With Washing Machine
You can wash your Nike Tech Fleece with your washing machine. However, since the fleece is made with a blend of cotton and polyester and some parts are 100% cotton, you should wash the fleece in a cold or warm temperature setting.
If you wash Nike Tech Fleece in a hot temperature setting, the fleece could shrink since once the water temperature in the washer is above 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius), the cotton in the fleece will start to shrink.
Here is how you can wash your Nike Tech Fleece with a washing machine:
1. Turn Nike Tech Fleece inside out before washing it. By doing this, you will ensure that the outer fleece will be protected during the wash.
You should also ensure that you have removed everything from the fleece pockets. If you leave some items such as paper towels in the pocket, your fleece might be covered in lint.
2. Load your Nike Tech fleece into the washer. Ensure that other clothes in the washer do not bleed since you don’t want any dyes transferred to your Nike Tech fleece during the wash cycle.
Ensure that you don’t overload your washing machine since the clothes will not come out clean if the washer is overloaded. Moreover, you could also damage the washer’s drum by overloading it.
To know that you have not overloaded your washer, you should try to put your hands inside the drum. If you find it hard to get the hand into the drum, you have overloaded your washing machine.
3. Use mild powder detergent instead of a liquid detergent. Even if liquid detergent can be used to wash Nike Tech Fleece, powder detergent should be preferred since it helps to keep the fleece soft and water-resistant.
Moreover, since liquid detergents are more abrasive, the detergent might ruin the waterproofing coating properties of your Nike Tech Fleece.
Follow the detergent instructions on the packaging to determine the right amount of detergent to use. To avoid soap residue on your clothes, mix the powder detergent with water before putting it in the detergent compartment.
4. Set the washing machine to a warm temperature setting. Before washing the fleece, ensure that the washer’s temperature is set in a warm setting. Do not use a hot setting since the cotton in the fleece fabric could shrink if the water gets very hot. A delicate or regular wash cycle is ideal for washing the fleece.
5. Turn your washing machine on and wait for the wash cycle to come to an end. If your machine is not fully loaded, a light wash cycle will be fine. However, a large wash cycle should be used if the washer is fully loaded.
6. Once the fleece has been cleaned, you can hang it on a hanger and air dry it. If you only washed the fleece on its own, do not dry it on the dryer since drying the fleece on an empty dryer could make the fleece pill. If you had other clothes in the washer, you can dry the clothes with the fleece in the dryer.
Method 2: Washing Nike Tech Fleece By Hand
Unknown to many people, when clothes are washed with a machine, they are on a microscopic level damaged. Thus, to ensure that your Nike Tech Fleece is not damaged in the wash, you can handwash the fleece.
Here is how you can handwash your Nike Tech Fleece and avoid it getting ruined in the wash.
1. Put warm water in a bucket or washbasin. Ensure that the washbasin or bucket you are using is large enough to soak your Nike Tech Fleece completely.
2. Find out the correct dosage of the powder detergent by reading the instructions in the detergent packaging.
3. Pour the powder detergent into the bucket or washbasin. Since you are only washing your fleece, you will not need to use a lot of detergent.
4. Use a spoon or your hands to mix the detergent well with the soap. Ensure that the detergent is well mixed with the water so that there will be no soap residue left.
5. Soak Nike Tech Fleece in the washbasin or bucket by ensuring that the fleece is fully submerged in the water. Using a soft bristle brush, lightly brush the fleece in small circular movements so that any dirt in the fleece is lifted.
To thoroughly clean the fleece, ensure that you scrub every side of the fleece.
6. After lightly scrubbing both sides of the fleece, remove the fleece from the washbasin or bucket and empty the water.
7. Once you have emptied the water, thoroughly rinse the bucket or the washbasin till all the soap residue is removed.
The soap residue must be removed since failure to remove the residue will mean that the residue will be transferred to the fleece when you rinse it.
8. Rinse the fleece with warm water until no soap bubbles come out of the fleece.
9. Wring the rinsed fleece and air dry it by placing it in a hanger and then hanging it in a dry place. To avoid the fleece sun fading, don’t hang it in direct sunlight. The fleece should dry in a few hours.
You can also handwash your Nike Tech Fleece in a sink using dish soap.
Method 3: Spot Cleaning Your Nike Tech Fleece
Since washing clothes wears them down, you should only wash your fleece when necessary. Nike fleece is made of polyester and cotton blend, and this blend does not necessarily have to be washed whenever it’s worn.
By washing your fleece a few times, you drastically reduce the number of microfibers that the fleece sheds into the washer. As a result, the amount of microfibers ending up in the water supply decreases, thus enhancing the sustainability of the environment.
If you have a stain or dirt on a specific section of your Nike Tech Fleece jacket, you can spot clean the stain or the dirt instead of cleaning the entire fleece. Here is how you can spot clean your Nike Tech Fleece:
1. Place the fleece on a flat surface. The flat surface in this context can be a clean floor, craft table, or iron board.
2. Soak a soft clean soap with soap or mild detergent.
3. Sponge directly to lift the dirt and let the soap or detergent sit on the stain for 10 minutes.
4. Use a clean damp sponge to blot out the dirt and the soap.
How To Care For Your Nike Tech Fleece To Keep It Soft
When you don’t take good care of your fleece, it can fade, shrink, and even wear out quickly. To avoid ruining your fleece, you need to take good care of it. Here are some things to consider so that the fleece can be in good condition for a long time.
Avoid Washing Your Nike Tech Fleece After Every Wear
The more you wash your fleece, the shorter the lifespan. Indeed, when the fleece is washed regularly, the fleece will eventually shrink or stretch. For Nike Tech Fleece, it’s OK for you to wear it five or six times before washing it.
If your fleece is smelly but not dirty, you can use anti-odor fabric spray to remove the foul smell instead of washing the freeze.
You can find the instructions on how to use the anti-odor spray on the spray’s packaging.
Use The Correct Detergent
When washing your Nike Tech Fleece, you should always use a mild detergent. The mild detergents are ideal for washing the fleece since they are meant for delicate fabrics such as cotton, which is present in your Nike Tech Freeze.
If you are worried that your fleece might fade in the wash, you should use a detergent that can protect the color. Alternatively, you can add white distilled vinegar to the washer, as the vinegar can help ensure that the fleece will not bleed in the wash. In addition, vinegar also acts as a natural fabric softener.
Wash The Fleece With The Right Setting
How you wash your Nuke Tech Fleece will determine the fleece lifespan. If you wash the fleece the right way, it will last a long time. On the other hand, if you wash the fleece the wrong way, it won’t last you a long time.
To ensure that you wash your freeze the right way, here is what you need to do.
1. Never use fabric softener when washing the fleece. Every time you use fabric softener, it leaves a waxy substance on your fleece, and this coating will eventually impact the breathability of your fleece.
2. Never dry the fleece on its own in the dryer. When possible, you should always airdry your fleece.
3. If washing the fleece in the washer, ensure that the washing machine is not overloaded. If you overload the machine, the fleece will not be well cleaned. Thus, if you have some stains in the fleece, they will set in and become hard to remove.
Use Cold Or Warm Water
When cleaning your fleece, never wash the freeze in hot water. Hot water can shrink and fade your fleece since it is made of a polyester-cotton blend, and cotton is known to shrink in hot water.
If possible, you should handwash your fleece using the procedure already outlined in the article.
Conclusions
How you wash and take care of your Nike Tech Fleece will determine the lifespan of the fleece. You should always handwash the fleece with a mild soap or detergent when possible. If you have to wash the fleece in the washer, make sure that you use a cold or warm water setting. Ensure that you only wash the fleece when necessary.
You can wear the fleece five or six times before washing it. In addition, you can also spot clean the fleece if you have some marks instead of washing it.
