Ribbed Cuffs

Grab a hoodie sleeve at the wrist and the snug, stretchy band you're holding is the ribbed cuff, a knit strip — usually 1x1 or 2x2 rib — sewn onto the sleeve opening to pull it in against the hand instead of leaving it open like a tee sleeve. Most run about 2 to 2.5 inches wide with a few percent spandex or a tightly twisted cotton/poly yarn so the band stretches over a hand and snaps back. On a Gildan 18500 or an Independent Trading Co IND4000, that rib is knit as a separate tube, turned, and set into the sleeve with a coverstitch.

Recovery is the number that actually matters more than any ratio on a spec sheet — a band with poor recovery stretches out permanently the first time it's pulled over a fist and never fully closes back up, the baggy-sleeve look you see on cheap fleece after a few washes. Customers have blamed shrinkage for that look, when the real culprit was cuffs with no spandex, blown out from being tugged on instead of pulled off.

For merch worn daily — team fleece, work crews, anything ordered in bulk for people who'll wear it weekly — spec a heavier rib with spandex content rather than the cheapest all-cotton version; it holds shape through far more wash cycles. Sleeve prints have to stop clear of the seam anyway, since ink or thread won't lay flat on a ribbed, stretchy surface.

A common assumption is that ribbed cuffs are interchangeable across suppliers — cotton is cotton — but one with even 5% spandex behaves completely differently from an all-cotton rib after a hot dryer cycle, and switching garment sources without checking that detail is how reorders end up feeling different from the original batch.