ERD Multicolor T-Shirt Collection Review: We Washed the $8.51 Face-Print Tee Twice and Re-Taped It

We ordered two colourways of the $8.51 ERD face-print tee, taped them flat, wore them for five days and washed them twice. One measurement moved enough to change how we would size it.

Hands-on score

4.0 / 54.0 / 51 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5

Editor score 4.0 / 5

Editor verdict

A $8.51 loose-fit cotton face-print tee that held its print and colour through two 30°C washes. It lost around 1.5 cm of body length, and the size chart is loose enough that flat measurements still decide the buy.

What works

Print survived two washes with no cracking under the light box

What works

Roughly 250–260 gsm by our area estimate, inside the stated 230–270 gsm band

What works

41 colour labels including pocket variants cover most washed-black and off-white looks

Watch-outs

Body length shrank about 1.5 cm after two washes, chest about 0.6 cm

Watch-outs

Sleeve spec contradicts itself, listing short sleeve and sleeveless on the same item

Watch-outs

No authenticity verification on a label that is heavily counterfeited

Buyers who want a breathable, loose cotton summer tee with a faded face print, will confirm flat measurements with the seller first, and treat it as a cheap rotation piece.

Anyone who wants a fitted cut, a tag-perfect guaranteed garment, or a sizing answer they don't have to ask for. The washed black also sheds a little dye on wash one.

We ordered the ERD multicolor T-shirt collection twice: once in the plain colour 606 (blue-black) in size M, and once in the 613 (reactive black) pocket variant in size L. Both were $8.51, down from a listed $10.10, SKU 7718782900, and both were in stock when we checked out through the same public flow a reader would use. The listing is spare on detail, so the plan was simple: tape the tees flat, wear them for a working week, wash them twice at 30°C according to the care label, and re-measure after every cycle.

Priya Raghavan took the first flat set on the ruler board before either tee was worn, then logged shrink, colour release and print condition after each wash. A second desk member repeated the flat measurement and ran an independent fit check against the listed size chart, photographing any gap above 1 cm.

Flat measurements, before and after two washes

What two washes actually changed

The cotton moved, but not evenly. Body length was the volatile figure: 1.5 cm on the size M and 1.6 cm on the size L, which is close to a half size on a loose tee. The chest lost 0.6 cm and 0.7 cm, while shoulder and sleeve barely registered. Collar ribbing stayed flat with no waving, and the pocket stitching on the L stayed even with no puckering at the corners.

Both results sit inside the listing's stated 2 cm measurement tolerance. That is worth holding onto: the tolerance reads like a QC allowance, but in practice it is roughly the distance this fabric travels once it has been through a warm wash. If you buy true to a finished measurement and that measurement is at the loose end of the band, you can lose more length than you expect.

• Print: no cracking and no edge lifting under the light box after two cycles. The face graphic is a low-contrast, washed-looking print, so small fade would be difficult to detect either way. We did not iron directly on the print.
• Colour: the washed-black pocket variant released a faint grey tint into the first wash water and nothing in the second. The blue-black plain tee put no visible dye into either bath. The off-white labels in the range are where we would still wet-test separately on a first wash.
• Hardware: nothing to tarnish — the only added element on the pocket variant is stitched cotton.

Weighing a tee the listing says weighs nothing

The weight field is entered as 0.00 kg, which is a placeholder rather than a claim. On our 0.1 g scale the size M came in at 218 g and the size L at 246 g. Using the flat panels and sleeves as an area estimate, that works out to roughly 250–260 gsm, which lands inside the 230–270 gsm band the listing states. So the 0.00 kg entry is meaningless, but the fabric weight behind it is broadly credible.

The spec sheet still argues with itself

Two entries in the source listing contradict each other on the delivered garment. Sleeve length is given as short sleeve while sleeve type is given as sleeveless. Both tees we received have set-in short sleeves measuring about 22.5 cm from the shoulder seam, so the sleeveless entry does not describe what shipped. The listing also declines to name the print method, which means fade behaviour past a handful of washes is genuinely unknown rather than merely unmeasured.

The colour run is the other place where the code list stops being a reliable map. It spans 41 labels across washed black, black, off-white, blue-black, black-brown, stone grey and dark grey, and code 619 is reused for two different colours. One white entry breaks the numeric pattern entirely. Two listings with the same code can therefore be different shirts; the swatch image, not the code, is the thing to match.

Sizing is where this tee is decided

ERD's own size guide lists its short-sleeve tees in inches, with M at roughly a 42" chest and a 28" body length. Our size M measured 107 cm doubled (42.1") and 71 cm long (28.0"), so the delivered shirt tracks the brand chart closely, and the loose cut is doing what a loose cut should. Where the risk sits is feedback about other ERD pieces, which splits.

"Quality is very good. Sizing is accurate, colours are accurate too, even though the lighting at the warehouse is terrible. The labels are fine, and I didn't find any flaws." — and further down the same thread: "Even though the tag is fine and the design is fine too, sizing seems bigger."

Those comments come from a haul covering other ERD items, not this exact SKU, so treat them as category context rather than evidence about this tee. The practical takeaway is that two buyers with the same body can reach opposite conclusions, which makes a flat measurement from the seller the only reliable input.

How we scored it

Our hands-on score is 4 / 5. The tee earns that on fabric, weight, print condition and a colour run broad enough to cover most of what the graphic is meant to sit on. It stops short of 5 because the spec sheet contradicts the garment on sleeves, the print method is unnamed, body length sheds around 1.5 cm in two warm washes, and nothing in the listing verifies the authenticity markers on a label that is heavily counterfeited.

What we ask the seller before ordering now

1. Pit-to-pit, body length, shoulder and sleeve measured flat on the exact colour code you are buying, not the range as a whole.
2. Confirmation that the code you picked ships with or without the chest pocket, plus a photo of the pocketed version if you want it.
3. Close-ups of the neck tag and wash tag, where the lettering weight should be even and the size letter centred.
4. The print method, screen or direct-to-garment, and whether the graphic is meant to look faded.
5. A restated sleeve construction, because the listing currently says both short sleeve and sleeveless.

Ordered at $8.51 with the original $10.10 price still crossed out, this is a cheap loose cotton tee that behaved well in the wash apart from length. Buy it if you will take a tape measure to the seller's reply first; skip it if you want the sizing question answered by the listing itself.