Tribe Australia | Swim Care
How to care for your swim wear
Keeping your swimwear looking fantastic it is pretty straight forward.
Most of the fabrics I use are Nylon / Elastane which means they have rubber / elastic woven into the fabric to make it stretch.
Rubber does not like extreme heat - like a spa, a dryer, drying your swimwear in front of a heater or washing it in really hot water - it will eat away at the rubber / elastic and make the swimwear go sloppy or the colour may also bleed or the print will fade.
The other thing that eats away at your swimwear is chlorine - which is technically a bleach.
I always use the analogy of cooking bacon in a pan - if you wash the pan out afterwards just with water and no detergent then the pan will stay greasy. Chlorine is the same, just water will not wash the chlorine out and it will stay in your swimwear and eat away at it. Detergent or washing powder will remove the chlorine from your swimwear like grease from a pan.
Just washing your swimwear under the shower after a swim in a chlorine pool is not enough, you have to submerge it in cool or warm soapy water - give it a nice little wash and then rinse it out. Nothing wrong with popping your swimwear in the washing machine - by themselves would be the best or with soft fabrics like t-shirts, in light coloured so you don't get any cross dye transfer, and straight after washing put them on the line to dry - don't leave them for hours wet in the washing machine.
If you understand how the fabric works it makes it a bit easier to understand how to care for your swimmers.
Also if you have white swimmers and have a mark on them use a mild stain remover that has Bi carb of soda or eucalyptus oil (natural) as the cleaning agent - do not use a bleach as it will turn your lovely white swimmers off white or a yellowy colour because of the Elastane. Here in Australia the store Aldi has a fantastic stain remover called Di-San - it is cheap as chips and works fantastically.
If you have any problems or questions regarding the care of your swimwear we are always here to help
We hope that you enjoy your purchase & Happy Swimming
Bettina Andretic
Tribe Australia Creator & Designer