Fabric, printing and care
Why does my new printed T-shirt smell?
Short answer
Freshly cured screen and DTG prints can carry a faint chemical smell, and DTG garments are usually treated with a pre-treatment solution before printing that leaves a slight residue. Both are normal and both wash out in a single cycle.
DTG pre-treatment is the more common cause. Before printing on a dark garment the fabric is sprayed with a solution that lets the white underbase sit on the surface rather than soaking in. Some of it remains after curing, and it can leave both a faint smell and a slightly stiff, sometimes discoloured square around the print.
Cured plastisol ink from screen printing has its own mild odour when new, particularly if the garment has been sealed in packaging shortly after curing. Airing the shirt for a day usually clears it without washing.
One cold wash removes both, along with the pre-treatment residue and any faint square around the design. This is the one case where washing a garment before first wear is genuinely worth doing.
A smell that persists after washing, or a strong chemical odour rather than a faint one, is worth treating differently — that suggests something other than normal print residue, and the garment is better returned than worn.
More detail: Washing and Caring for Printed T-Shirts covers this subject in full.
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