Should You Wash Your Jeans… Ever?

One of the most common questions we get asked is whether or not you should wash your selvedge denim. 

It’s question with a surprising complicated answer, so our founder Brandon Svarc teamed up with Stridewise on this video to address it.

The short answer? Wash them whenever you want. Especially if you think that your jeans feel gross or smell like an unwashed roadie.

The long answer? 

“If you want to have that very high contrast fade, then we recommend waiting as long as you can before the first wash,” says Brandon Svarc. “If you want to see those really pronounced  honeycombs and marks on the back pocket and whiskers on the front, then you have to kind of hold off a little bit more on your washing now.”

The more you wash, the faster the denim will fade overall, but the fades will be lower in contrast.

“I think it’s a myth that, once you wash your jeans they won’t fade anymore,” he says. “Of course, they’re going to still fade. You can wash your jeans lots of times and they’ll still start to fade. It’s just that they won’t fade as high contrast the more you wash.”

If you know, you know. For more information on putting your jeans in the freezer or if it’s unhygienic to not wash your denim, watch the video below or check out the full article on Stridewise.