How to Wash & Care for Hockey Apparel: The Full Guide

Knowing how to wash hockey apparel properly is the difference between a tank you wear for six seasons and one that looks tired by December. The good news: most of what you own is far tougher than you think, and the single most common mistake fans make — cranking the heat to "sanitize" a rink-smelling shirt — is the one thing most likely to ruin it.

This guide covers what your gear is actually made of, how to wash each type, how to store it in the offseason, and how to keep the graphics looking like the day they showed up.

First: know what you're washing

Care advice is useless without knowing the material. Here's what Bench Clearers gear is actually built from — and why it matters at the laundry machine.

Everything above is 100% machine wash safe. But notice the split in that last column, because it's the whole ballgame.

Sublimated vs. surface printed — why it matters

Most of the catalog is sublimated. In sublimation, the dye is turned into a gas and bonded into the polyester fibers themselves. The graphic isn't sitting on top of the shirt — it is the shirt. That means a sublimated tank physically cannot crack, peel, or flake off, because there's no layer to crack. You can scrub the design and nothing will lift.

A surface print on a cotton tee is the opposite: it's a layer of ink bonded to the outside of the fabric. That layer is what cracks, peels, and fades when it's abused — and heat is what abuses it.

So the care rules split cleanly:

• Sublimated polyester (tanks, hoodies, joggers, shorts): the fabric is what you're protecting, not the print.
• Cotton tees: the print is what you're protecting.

Washing hockey tanks, hoodies, joggers & shorts (polyester)

Polyester is genuinely low-maintenance. The graphic is bulletproof. What you're guarding against is heat damage to the fibers themselves — polyester is a plastic, and high heat makes it stiff, shiny, and permanently misshapen.

Do this:

1. Turn it inside out. Not for the print — for abrasion. Inside-out reduces pilling where the fabric rubs zippers and buttons.
2. Cold water, gentle or normal cycle. Cold is not a compromise here. Polyester releases oils and odor better in cold water than cotton does in hot.
3. Regular detergent, normal dose. Skip fabric softener entirely — see below.
4. Tumble dry low, or hang dry. Hang drying is best, and polyester air-mesh is dry in well under an hour anyway.

Avoid:

• Hot water and high-heat drying. This is the number-one killer of polyester gear. Heat relaxes and warps the fibers, and once a poly tank has been baked stiff, that texture doesn't come back.
• Fabric softener. Softener works by coating fibers in a waxy film. On performance polyester that film clogs the weave, kills the moisture-wicking, and — ironically — traps the exact odor you were trying to wash out. If your gear has been softener-treated for years and smells musty straight out of the wash, that's why.
• Chlorine bleach. Bleach doesn't fade sublimated dye the way it does surface ink, but it does break down polyester fibers over time and can yellow whites.
• Ironing directly. If you must, use low heat with a cloth between the iron and the garment. A hot iron on bare polyester will melt a shine into it instantly.

Two details worth knowing

Hoodie lace drawstrings. The hockey-lace drawstrings are a signature detail, and they're also the part most likely to get eaten by a machine. Tie them loosely in a single knot before washing so they don't pull halfway out of the channel — fishing a lace back through a hood is a twenty-minute job you only do once before you learn.

Shorts with metal drawstring ends. The mesh shorts use metal drawstring tips. Tie those off too, or run the shorts in a mesh laundry bag. Loose metal tips in a dryer drum will bang against everything, including the drum itself.

Browse the full lineup: hockey tanks, women's tanks, hoodies, joggers, and mesh shorts.

Washing cotton hockey tees (the print needs the care)

Cotton hockey t-shirts are the one category where the graphic is genuinely vulnerable. Everything here is about protecting that printed layer.

1. Turn it inside out — every time. This is the single highest-value habit for caring for screen printed shirts. It keeps the print from grinding against the drum and the rest of the load.
2. Cold water, gentle cycle. Hot water softens the ink layer and lets it flex and crack.
3. No bleach, no softener. Bleach eats the ink. Softener leaves a film that dulls the colors.
4. Hang dry if you can. The dryer is where prints die — it's heat plus tumbling plus abrasion all at once. If you do machine dry, use low heat and pull the shirt while it's still slightly damp.
5. Never iron the print. Iron around it, or inside out on low. Direct heat on a surface print will lift and gloss it permanently.

Cotton also shrinks. A hot wash and a hot dry will take a tee down a partial size and it won't come back. Cold and low keeps the fit you paid for.

Killing rink smell (without cooking your gear)

The instinct is hot water. Resist it. Odor in synthetics isn't dirt — it's bacteria living in oils trapped in the weave, and hot water sets some of those oils rather than removing them. Heat also can't fix what softener buildup caused.

What actually works:

• Don't let it sit balled up. The single biggest cause of set-in odor is a damp shirt in a bag overnight. Hang it to air out the moment you get home, even if it's days until laundry day.
• Pre-soak in cold water with a cup of white vinegar for 30 minutes before washing. Vinegar breaks down the oils bacteria feed on. It rinses out completely and won't harm sublimated dye.
• Wash a smaller load. Crammed machines don't rinse properly, and leftover detergent residue holds odor.
• Use less detergent, not more. Overdosing leaves residue in the weave. Half a scoop and a full rinse beats a full scoop that never clears.
• Stop using fabric softener. If you take one thing from this guide, take that.

Storing gear in the offseason

Hockey wardrobes are seasonal by nature — tanks and shorts go away in October, hoodies come out. Storage does more damage than people expect.

Fold, don't hang, the heavy stuff. Hanging a hoodie for eight months lets gravity stretch the shoulders and leaves hanger dimples that don't fully drop out. Fold hoodies and heavier pieces flat. Tanks and tees can hang without issue.

Store clean, always. Body oils you can't see will oxidize into yellow marks over months, and they attract pests. Never box up a shirt you wore once and thought was "fine."

Store fully dry. Even slightly damp polyester in a sealed bin will mildew, and mildew stains on light garments are often permanent.

Skip the vacuum bags for structured items. They're fine for tees and tanks. Compressing a hoodie for months sets creases into the fabric that need a full wash to release.

Keep it out of the sun. Sublimated dye is extremely colorfast in the wash, but prolonged direct UV will fade anything. A closet or opaque bin beats a spot by a window.

Getting your rotation sorted for the season? Our preseason wardrobe guide covers what to pull forward and what to put away.

Quick reference card

The short version

Cold water, low heat, no fabric softener, hang dry when you can, inside out for anything cotton, and never store gear dirty or damp. That's genuinely the whole thing.

The reason it matters here more than at a big-box team store is that these designs don't come back. Bench Clearers artwork is proprietary and runs are limited — when a design sells out, that's usually it. A tank you take care of is a tank you still have in five years, long after the design is gone from the site.

If you're building out a collection worth taking care of, start with the hoodie buying guide for fit and fabric, or the women's fits and cuts guide if you're shopping women's sizing.

Shop all Bench Clearers hockey apparel →