Whether you want to pack your favorite hoodie for an overseas trip or you need to ship a hoodie you just sold on eBay, you will need to figure out how much your cozy hooded sweatshirt actually weighs. If you don’t have a scale on hand, don’t panic! You can learn how to find out how much a hoodie weighs with examples in this handy guide.
The average midweight hoodie for men and women weighs between 16 to 25 ounces. That said, the weight of a hoodie varies a lot based on the thickness of the fabric and the size of the garment. The addition of elements such as zippers or metal frogs on the ties will also add weight.
In this article, you will find out how much hoodies usually weigh. You will learn how to ship a hoodie based on its weight. Finally, you will find an overview of some popular brands and learn how to discover the weight of each one.
How Much Do Hoodies Usually Weigh?
On average, most adult-sized hoodies weigh between 16 to 25 ounces or 453 to 708 grams. That said, every piece of clothing has slight differences even when made by the same manufacturer. This can lead to tiny or significant discrepancies in weight.
But first, what exactly is a hoodie? Do you count any bulky outwear with a hood in this category, or only hooded shirts made out of sweatshirt fleece? For that matter, what about zip-up sweatshirts with hoods?
Most fashion experts agree that a hoodie is a garment made out of sweatshirt fleece with a hood and often features muff or muff-like pockets in the front. A hoodie can have a zipper or be a pull-on type garment, but it will always have a hood and a drawstring in that hood.
Basically, you can think of a hoodie as any kind of sweatshirt that has a hood.
But even within this quite narrow definition, you will find a lot of variation in weight.
Two major factors determine the weight of a hoodie. First, the size makes a huge difference. A kid-sized hooded jacket will weigh much less than a women’s medium or a men’s XL!
The second major factor is the type of material used. While most sweatshirts feature a light fleece with a smooth knit on the outside and soft fleece on the inside, some use a heavy fleece for extra warmth. The thick, heavy fabric that provides added insulation will weigh more than a light or medium-weight fleece.
The material used to make this sweatshirt fleece can also play a role. Polyester, cotton, and 50/50 blends of the two will weigh different amounts, for example.
Finally, you can also find much smaller differences in weight because of little things like how the hoodie style is cut or what kind of decorative elements it contains.
Casual lightweight hoodies sometimes come in a fitted style these days that nips in at the waist. These will contain less fabric than the traditional baggy, bulky pullover. The addition of a zipper or other decorative elements like beads on the hood drawstring can also add to the weight.
With so many different factors to consider, can you accurately predict the weight of a hoodie? Keep reading to find out!
How Much Does a Hoodie Weigh
The weight of any hoodie depends on its size, style, and the type of fabric used in it. You can easily find out that the average hoodie weighs around 20 ounces, but this will not help you pinpoint the weight of your specific garment!
To pin down the exact weight of a garment, your best bet is to buy or borrow a postage scale. This flat scale will allow you to measure the exact, specific weight of any garment. Typically, you can buy one of these scales on Amazon, like this model.
Some digital scales even come with tools that can translate the weight into ounces, grams, or pounds for you.
If that seems like a lot of trouble, you can almost always find weight data from the garment manufacturer or seller. For example, sellers on Amazon often post the weight of an item in the product description.
Men’s vs Women’s Hoodies
In most cases, women’s-sized hoodies contain significantly less fabric than men’s sizes. Of course, this can vary from brand to brand and style to style. Plus, a women’s large could contain just as much as a men’s small, depending on the sweatshirt type!
All the same, most of the time, you can expect a women’s hoodie to weigh a bit less than a men’s sweatshirt.
However, keep in mind that some hoodie brands come in a “universal” or unisex cut, just like some t-shirts. This may mean that the brand chose to avoid gendering styles and offers a one-size-fits-all shape for everyone. In this case, you won’t have any indication as to the weight of the hoodie unless you can find specific shipping info in the product description for that garment.
Child or teen sizes also typically contain less fabric and weigh much less. These smaller garments also roll or fold up into much smaller shapes, making them easier to fit in standard shipping containers.
Lbs vs Grams vs Kg vs Oz
Does it matter if you weigh your hoodie using pounds, ounces, grams, or kilograms?
Yes and no. The United States Postal Service uses measurements of pounds and ounces, but many international sellers use the metric version comprised of grams and kilograms.
If you’re flying internationally, you may need to know how many grams your hoodie weighs to ensure your luggage will get on the plane without incident. If you’re shipping a Christmas present to a friend in the States, though, you probably want to know how many ounces the shirt weighs before you head to the post office.
The good news is that you can easily find weight convertors online to help you with this process. This handy calculator, for example, can quickly translate one weight system into the other for you.
Weight By Size
One of the biggest factors in the weight of a hoodie is its size. It makes sense that a size L uses more fabric than a size S, after all!
The other thing you have to consider is that more fabric means more bulk as you try to roll up your sweatshirt to squeeze it into a shipping package or suitcase. Hoodies provide the ultimate in stylish comfort and coziness, but they often get quite bulky and difficult to pack!
If you’re wondering specifically how much does a 5XL hoodie weigh or how much does a medium hoodie weigh, you will have to find info on the particular brand of hoodie you own.
On average, you can anticipate that a medium-sized unisex hoodie will weigh roughly 19 oz. A large will weigh about 21 ounces and a 2XL will weigh approximately 25 oz. A 5XL hoodie can easily weigh in at an average weight of 30 to 31 oz.
Remember that those are average weights, though! Your specific sweatshirt might have a zipper, extra-thick fleece material, or even have no sleeves! All of these factors will alter the weight significantly.
How Much Does a Thick Hoodie Weigh?
A thick, heavyweight hoodie usually weighs at least 24 oz, much more than an average sweatshirt, because of the type of fabric used. Of course, larger-sized thick hoodies will weigh even more than that, and small heavyweight sweatshirts may clock in at slightly less than the average 24 oz.
Is a 10 Oz Hoodie Heavy?
A 10 oz hoodie falls considerably under the average weight for a medium-sized sweatshirt and is not considered heavy. In fact, at that little weight, it probably either has no sleeves or comes in a very small size!
It may also feature a lightweight knit fabric instead of the more traditional sweatshirt fleece, making it more of a warm-weather garment than a typical hoodie.
How Much Does a Midweight Hoodie Weigh?
The average weight of a midweight hoodie is 19 to 20 oz. This does vary based on the size of the garment, though. Typically a midweight hoodie has a thin knit side facing out and a soft but not too deep fleece layer on the inside of the garment.
Some brands, like Carhartt, actually specify the weight of the fabric they use for a lightweight, medium-weight, and heavyweight hoodie. For example, Carhartt uses fabric that weighs 10.5 oz per yard for midweight sweatshirts and 13 oz per yard fabric for heavyweight hoodies.
What is the Heaviest Weight Sweatshirt?
Most clothing manufacturers class any hoodie that weighs at least 24 oz as a heavyweight sweatshirt. This kind of hooded sweatshirt uses a particularly deep, thick fleece. Most of the time, this sweatshirt fleece still contains cotton, polyester, or a polycotton blend.
Most manufacturers measure the thickness and weight of this fabric using a term called grams per square yard, or GSM. For example, a very heavyweight hoodie might contain fabric that weighs 400 or 500 GSM.
It’s confusing that different brands and sellers use ounces per square yard or grams per square meter to describe the weight of the fabric used in these sweatshirts. Unfortunately, you may just have to use your handy online converter because international brands and sellers tend to use the metric system.
The weight of the fabric used in the sweatshirt helps you know how bulky the sweatshirt is but does not tell you specifically how much the garment as a whole weighs.
How Do You Ship a Hoodie?
To ship a hoodie successfully, you need to know its weight, figure out how to fold it efficiently, and place it into the right kind of shipping package.
You could have a lot of different reasons to ship hoodies. You may run an Etsy shop using a heat press to put vinyl logos onto clothing for customers. In this case, you almost certainly sell customized hoodies!
Or you might want to move across the country and ship your clothes ahead for convenience. Either way, a few helpful tips will give you a leg up on this tricky shipping process!
First, you need to keep a sharp eye on the shipping costs. This is especially true if you need to ship items as part of your business because you do not want to spend more on shipping than you needed to or underpaying and have angry customers who had to pay the extra amount on receipt of the package!
The best way to avoid this calamity is to weigh the individual garment before packing it. If you do not have a digital scale, you can look up the original manufacturer of the sweatshirt and see if you can find weight info online.
Secondly, you need to fold up the hoodie carefully to use as little volume as possible. You can find several efficient space-saving folding techniques, including the super-famous KonMari method. This simple method is quite easy to follow, though!
- Spread out the hoodie facedown on a table or bed.
- Now drag the right sleeve over the top of the left sleeve, but do not move the right cuff all the way down to the left cuff. Instead, stop when the top of the right shoulder lines up just beneath the hood.
- Fold the right sleeve over so that it lines up along the right side of the sweatshirt, with the cuff now touching the bottom right side of the hem.
- Repeat this method with the left sleeve. Drag it over and then fold it over the fold so that it lines up with the left side of the shirt, cuff near the hem at the left side.
- You should now have a narrow, rectangular shape of the shirt with just the hood sticking out of the top.
- Fold the hem one-third of the way up the sweatshirt. Then fold the bottom fold over once again so that only the hood is left.
- Fold the hood over the top of this small rectangle.
If you want your hoodie as small as possible, consider using a vacuum storage bag to suck any extra air out of the fabric, too.
Finally, you have to decide what kind of packaging container to use. If you only need to ship one hoodie once, you might want to consider a flat-rate post office box. This will make your life easier as you do not need to worry much about the weight of the garment. It does have to fit inside the box you choose, though!
If you plan to ship a lot of hoodies, you probably want to narrow down the most cost-effective shipping method. In most cases, this means using a nice rectangular plastic bag to seal up the hoodie and then using a plastic shipping bag and paying the shipping fee for the hoodie based on its weight. Bags often work better than boxes for hoodies because of the squishy, bulky shape of these garments.
In general, it costs between $4-$6 to ship one hoodie. If you have a bulk shipment, you may get a better deal on this. The same goes for buying hoodies–you often get a better deal on shipping if you buy more than one!
Average Hoodie Weight
Check out this quick overview of some common brands, sizes, and weights of hoodies!
| X-Small | Small | medium | Large | XL | 2XL | |||||||
| Material / Brand | oz | gm | oz | gm | oz | gm | oz | gm | oz | gm | oz | gm |
| Cotton | 15.5 | 450 | 16.5 | 468 | 17.7 | 501 | 19.7 | 558 | 21.6 | 612 | 23.9 | 690 |
| Polyester | 16.5 | 480 | 17.7 | 500 | 19 | 540 | 21 | 590 | 22.5 | 640 | 25.1 | 712 |
| Zip Hoodie | 14.7 | 416 | 16 | 454 | 17.3 | 490 | 17.4 | 495 | 22.5 | 640 | 25 | 710 |
| Gildan | 16.5 | 480 | 17.7 | 500 | 19 | 540 | 21 | 590 | 22.5 | 640 | 25.1 | 712 |
Many brands do not provide the specific weight of a hoodie in each size but instead tell you how much the fabric weighs per yard or meter. As you saw earlier in this article, Carhartt uses this weight system.
So does Hanes. For example, all Hanes medium-weight hoodies use a fleece that weighs 7.8 oz per yard, while a heavyweight Hanes hoodie uses fabric that weighs 9.7 oz per square yard.
Most hoodie brands feature cotton, polyester, or a blend of those fibers. Others, like Lululemon, use a more expensive blend containing merino wool. For example, a heavyweight Scuba Hoodie will weigh around 26 oz, quite a bit more than the average heavyweight hoodie weight of 24 oz!
Conclusion
The average weight for a midweight hoodie is roughly 19 oz, while the average weight for hoodies generally falls between 16 and 24 ounces. Heavyweight hoodies featuring thick, fuzzy fleece on the inside of the fabric will weigh over 24 ounces.
All hoodies will vary in weight depending on the size of the garment, the style of the garment, and the kind of fabric used. Lightweight, medium-weight, or heavyweight fabric all impact the weight. The kind of fibers in the fabric can also add or subtract weight, as will the addition of pockets, zippers, or decorative elements.
What is your favorite technique for weighing a hoodie? Have you ever successfully shipped a hoodie? Leave a comment below to let us know!