Compacting
Treatment — one of 37 in the glossary
A mechanical finishing process that squeezes the knitted fabric lengthwise, pushing the loops closer together before the garment is cut. It forces the shrinkage to happen at the mill instead of in the customer's dryer, which is what most "preshrunk" claims actually rest on. A compacted tee holds its length and its printed image far better through repeated washing. It is one of the quieter quality differences between blanks, and it is the reason two shirts of identical fibre and weight can behave completely differently after a month.