Shirts are laundered in a machine that’s not too different from your home washing machine. But a commercial laundry machine like ours is the beneficiary of a paradox: it is at the same time both more powerful and more gentle than the machine you have at home. Our machines have the capacity to clean a large load of shirts, and clean them rigorously using a proprietary blend of cleaning agents developed and tested to provide the best results. But at the same time, the process is more gentle than you would expect of a home machine. Shirts can get beaten up very easily, and heavy friction shortens the life of the garment. So our laundering has to be gentle enough to keep friction minimal.

Once shirts have been laundered, those that aren’t going to receive any starch are pulled out of the machine, while those due to receive starch go through a second cycle in the machine that applies it. Then, while the shirts are still damp, they head to the presser. The shirt press has two separate stages, for the sleeves and the torso, to get them crisp and wrinkle-free.

It’s the mechanical shirt press, more so than any other element, more so even than our great big washers, that is the key to a shirt cleaning operation. The ability to use a machine press to get shirts crisp and wrinkle-free, as opposed to having to iron every shirt by hand, is what allows us to keep our costs low and in turn keep prices low. Most shirts are going to be in perfect shape right off the press. But some may need a little manual touch-up. Each and every shirt that comes off the press will have to be inspected to make sure there isn’t a stray wrinkle. That’s part of the inspection process, and it’s the next step.

1. Why are shirts laundered rather than dry cleaned?
2. What shirts can be laundered, and what must be dry cleaned?
3. Why do women’s shirts sometimes cost more than men’s?
4. What’s the value in putting a bar code on your shirts?
5. What is starch, and should I get it on my shirts?
6. How do we remove those nasty collar stains from your shirts?
7. What machinery is used in cleaning and pressing your shirts?
8. What kind of quality control measures are in place for shirts?
9. What is 'finishing,' and what does it mean in regard to shirts?
10. What's the expected lifespan of a shirt, and how can I prolong it?