This will be the first of a series of articles that chronicles the amount of obsessive attention to detail that went into engineering your gis. In this article, we will walk you through the painstaking process of preparing the fabric for cut-and-sew phase of production.
Receiving the hemp fabric
Our fabric is typically shipped to us in 160cm long rolls called bolts and are arranged on pallets.
The fabric comes in a raw unprocessed state typically referred to as "greige" fabric.
It has simply been woven from spools of hemp yarn, and has not been washed, dried, bleached, or dyed.
Washing the fabric
Industrial washing machines are used to wash the hefty rolls of fabric. This is the first step in ensuring that our gis do not shrink once you receive them and wash them.
Drying the fabric
As you can see, after the first two washes and dries we've eliminated a substantial amount of shrinkage.
| Fabric width before preshrinking process | 160cm |
| Fabric width after preshrinking process | 150cm |
| Shrinkage (%) | 6.25% |
Dyeing and the finished product
The dye process involves a couple more wash and dry cycles to remove excess particles of dye and to prevent crocking and bleeding. Notice that we further eliminate shrinkage by 8%.
| Dye type | Reactive |
| Fabric width before dyeing process | 150cm |
| Fabric width after dyeing process | 138cm |
| Shrinkage (%) | 8% |
All told, the fabric is washed and dried 3.5 times.
A wash rate of 3.5 is only used in high-end garments.
By the time the time you receive your gi, you will experience less than 1.5% shrinkage!
| Before processing | 160cm |
| After processing | 138cm |
| Overall Shrinkage (%) | 7.5% |
Next up, we'll walk you through the cut-and-sew phase of production.
4 comments
Thanks for sharing the process and an insight into your great quality. I’d be more if there could be white hemp gis. Can you make that happen? Even if off white. Or some other colors not blue or black
I assume the expected shrink rate at home is assuming the gi is always washed in cold and air dried?
When you share as much as you do to educate the Jiu jitsu community, I can’t help to feel like we are family. I appreciate the knowledge and love Flow!
I learn a lot by reading how the process goes with your hemp products it is a amazing thing to read Now I understand the quality of your hemp gi