Short answer: cold water, gentle cycle, inside out, no fabric softener, and hang it to dry. That's it. Four habits, and a performance jersey will outlast the athlete's interest in the sport.
The reason those rules exist has less to do with the print than most people assume. Polyester is a thermoplastic, which means heat changes the fiber itself. Keep heat out of the equation and the rest — color, shape, stretch — largely takes care of itself.
The four rules, and why each one matters
Cold water. Cold keeps the sublimated dye bond intact, and it does a better job on the thing you're actually trying to remove — sweat is protein-based, and hot water sets protein stains instead of lifting them. Warm water on a grass-stained jersey is genuinely counterproductive.
Inside out. Almost all the abrasion in a wash cycle happens on the outer surface, where the garment rubs against the drum and everything else in the load. Turning it inside out puts that wear on the side nobody sees. It matters most for anything with a zipper, a gripper hem, or a chamois.
No fabric softener. This is the one people are most surprised by. Softener works by depositing a thin waxy coating on the fibers. That coating is exactly what blocks the capillary action moisture-wicking depends on. You paid for fabric engineered to move sweat away from skin; softener makes it stop doing that. Same goes for dryer sheets.
Hang dry, or low heat at worst. This is the habit that does the most work. Elastane is what gives a bib short or a skinsuit its shape and recovery, and it holds that shape indefinitely at room temperature. A jersey hung on a rack is dry in a couple of hours anyway — performance fabric is built to shed water.
Decoration method changes what you're protecting
Not every decoration method wears the same way, and knowing which one you own tells you how much care it needs.
Sublimated gear — everything we make — has the dye bonded inside the polyester fiber rather than sitting on top of it. There's no surface layer, so there's nothing to crack or peel and the color is as permanent as the fabric itself. It's the most forgiving of the three by a wide margin: follow the four rules and a sublimated jersey holds its color for as long as the athlete fits in it.
Screen printed graphics sit on the fabric surface as a layer of cured ink. That layer flexes every time the fabric stretches, and eventually it cracks. Turning the garment inside out genuinely extends its life here, and heat is doubly bad because it can soften the ink.
Heat transfer vinyl — cut vinyl pressed on — is the most fragile. It lifts at the edges and along fold lines. If you have vinyl numbers on practice gear, wash cold, never dry on heat, and don't iron the numbers, ever.
If you're not sure which you have, look at the number from the inside of the jersey. If you can see the design faintly through the fabric, it's sublimated. If the inside is blank and the number has a distinct edge you can feel with a fingernail, it's applied on top.
Stains, in the order they actually happen
Grass and dirt. Rinse cold as soon as you can, before it dries. Work a little detergent in with your fingers, let it sit fifteen minutes, then wash cold. Skip the bleach entirely — chlorine attacks both polyester dye and elastane.
Blood. Cold water only. Hot water cooks it into the fabric permanently.
Sweat and the smell that outlives it. Odor in performance fabric is bacteria living in the fiber, not dirt. A cup of white vinegar in the wash, or a presoak in cold water with vinegar, handles it better than more detergent does. In fact, use less detergent than you think — excess detergent doesn't rinse out of tight synthetic knits and becomes the thing holding odor.
Chain grease, for the cycling side. Dab with a little dish soap, work it gently, wash cold. Don't scrub hard; you'll fuzz the fabric surface.
The pieces that need more care than a jersey
Bibs and shorts with a chamois. Wash inside out, always, and never with fabric softener — the chamois is engineered for moisture management and softener works directly against it. Hang dry with the chamois open to the air. A chamois lasts considerably longer when it gets to dry out fully between rides, so don't leave them balled up in a bag overnight.
Skinsuits, tri suits, and race day suits. High elastane content, which makes them the most heat-sensitive things in the bag. Cold, gentle, hang dry — treated that way, they keep their race fit season after season.
Wool jerseys. Different rules entirely — cold, wool-safe detergent, no agitation, dry flat rather than hanging, because wet wool stretches under its own weight.
Anything with a gripper. The silicone hem grippers on jerseys and shorts hate heat and hate ironing. Never iron them.
The note to send your parents
Most families have never been told any of this, and nearly all of them will follow it if they are. Copy this into your first message of the season:
Uniform care: Wash cold, gentle cycle, inside out. No fabric softener or dryer sheets — they block the moisture-wicking. Hang to dry; please don't put uniforms in the dryer. Rinse grass and dirt out cold before it dries. Don't iron the numbers.
Four sentences, sent once, in the same message as the sizing chart. It's the cheapest thing on this list and it's what keeps a set of uniforms looking like new kit in April.
Common questions
Can you machine wash a jersey?
Yes. Cold water, gentle cycle, inside out. Hand washing isn't necessary for sublimated performance fabric and doesn't extend its life meaningfully.
Can you put a jersey in the dryer?
Skip it. Hang drying takes a couple of hours, costs nothing, and is what keeps stretch garments holding their shape.
Why does my jersey still smell after washing?
Almost always too much detergent, not too little. Residue trapped in a tight synthetic knit holds bacteria. Cut the detergent, add a cup of white vinegar, and wash cold.
Will washing fade a sublimated jersey?
No. Sublimated dye sits inside the fiber rather than on the surface, so cold washing and hang drying keep the color looking new for the life of the garment. Sustained high heat is the only thing that dulls it.
How often should uniforms be washed?
After every use. Sweat left sitting in synthetic fabric is what breeds odor, and gear that dries out between sessions stays fresh far longer than gear that doesn't.
Ordering for a program and want the care instructions printed into the process rather than left to chance? Talk to us about a team store — we can put them in front of families at checkout.