Can you shrink a gi belt without ruining it?

[drmckool]

As the title of the thread asks: can one shrink a gi belt, and can it be done without ruining it?

I'm fairly new to BJJ (6 weeks) and I've realized that my gi belt (A4) is a little too big -- I probably should have bought an A3 -- and it would be nice if I were able to shrink it

I assume any process would be similar to that of an entire gi.

Thank you

 

[H0ney Badger]

Funny that you bring this up because today I was doing laundry and threw my belt in to wash. I Unusually just hang dry to make sure it doesn't shrink. When my wife came home she threw all of the laundry including my belt in the dryer, it still had 30 min to go when I found out and took it out, it was still a little damp. It didn't look like it really shrunk but it may have but not noticeable. Mines a koral, I bet they all shrink a little because there cotton, but probably not as much/drastically as Gis do. I say try it and see what happens, wash hot and dry hot.

 

[R1ceRocket]

I have a Fuji belt and I wash it like 1x a week in hot water; even hang drying it made it shrink several inches, which almost made it too short.

In order to remedy it, I just stretch it out when I pull it out of the wash (while still damp) and then let it finish hang drying.

In any case, just wash it. Belts are pretty durable so it's not going to fall apart that easily.

 

[SUPERGRAPPLER]

If you want like 2-3 inches off I'd hot wash then high dryer that fucker.

 

[Knock Out Ned]

Yeah, hot water and then dry the thing.