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I've only heard that working for jeans, which have a natural fiber.
I don't think it's going to make much, if any, difference with synthetic fibers. It won't hurt anything to try it and see what happens, but I'm pretty sure the idea of wearing wet clothes until they dry to get a better fit is a holdover from the days before pre-shrunk jeans were the norm. You used to have to buy jeans in a larger size with the expectation that they would shrink down to your size over the course of several washes. People used to put them on wet and wear them until they dried so that when that shrinkage happened it would conform to their body shape.
If you want your leggings to remain as stretchy as possible for as long as possible probably the best thing would be to hang-dry them rather than putting them in the dryer. The heat from the dryer can cause elastic to wear out prematurely.
The wet jeans were from when jeans weren't tight enough. You'd buy them in the tight side, get them wet and wear to dry. This supposedly stretched them out just enough.
Synthetic materials won't be affected by water like cotton or animal fiber. So no, it won't do anything.
In knitting it's called blocking. If you are interested in the details you can look into that.
Gotta say I've never heard about this tip before. But I've never really had an issue with my leggings losing elasticity and I still have a few from more than 10 years ago lol. I think what's key is to wash cold/gentle and air dry. Also, don't wear the same pair consecutively, kind of like not wearing out bra straps.
Do your thighs rub together when you walk? The reason basically every pair of pants I've ever owned got tossed was because they eventually get holes in the inner thighs. I always wash almost all of my clothes cold/gentle & air dry.
I still have a few from more than 10 years ago
no creases whatsoever? no loose waist?
don’t wear the same pair consecutively
how many leggings do you own? because I wear them most days, like 5 to 6 days a week.
Nope, granted I've also managed to maintain the same weight with little fluctuation. I've also never really had synthetic fabrics crease on me, in fact a lot of the advertising around synthetic fabric is about it being wrinkle-free and from experience it's true (for my drape-y synthetic clothing, I'll maybe have to hang them out if they've been folded in storage for a while for the fold lines to smooth out).
But I will say I own like 10+ pairs of leggings some with different use cases (and materials): workout, hiking, and lounging. The brands I have aren't even particularly special, a combo of Uniqlo, Athleta, PopFlex, and a few no-name brands.
Edit: to avoid consecutive wear, you could have two or three pairs a week and rotate them each day.
Edit 2: added info about my experience with synthetic fabrics.
Are you scientifically inclined?
Get two (or many more if you want to be rigorous) and try. I'm genuinely curious but I never wear leggings because I'd end up as a "only at Walmart" pictures of weird guys.
Leg hair sticking out of the leggings and said hair being constantly yanked on with every movement is enough to keep me out of them behind closed doors, nevermind walmart.
reminds me of those 1980s Levi’s jean’s advertisements - people taking a hot bath wearing their denim
Hipsters were doing that around 2009 too.
Go watch Quadrophenia if you can. There is an early scene of Jimmy sitting in wet jeans to get them to shape correctly. The film was released in the '70s depicting the early '60s.
So it's a multigenerational conspiracy by King Cotton.
I would think so. Blocking knitwear has been a thing just about as long as fiber art itself. As to how well it will work on synthetics specifically I couldn't tell you. Now all that said, you would have to allow the garment to fully dry on your body, and washing them would likely reset the fibers.
I think it would depend on how much, if any, cotton was mixed in. I don't think synthetic fibers will shrink at all when air dried.
Oooh, so that's why some clothes could shrink?
I remember hearing that shrinking clothes could be a problem, but I never actually encountered it in my adult life.
Wool is really bad about shrinking when cleaned wrong. Wool is also expensive and itches so it would be no surprise if you have never had anything with it. Cotton shrinks too, but not near as much
For the question if they mold better to your figure you could simply ask the men around you there.
/s
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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