Eli5: why isn’t clothes sold already pre-shrunk?

Question

I don’t see why they wouldn’t just wash the material before they cut the form.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

1. The process of washing multiple hundreds of pounds of fabric sheeting at an industrial scale isn’t the same process as throwing it in a washing machine.

2. There is a relatively common process that called sanfordization that does pre-shrink stuff.
It’s also another step in manufacturing and therefore changes the cost of the process.