Picking a Size From Flat Measurements, Not a Guess

Three centimetres. That’s the entire gap between a medium and a large on a Sp5der hoodie, and it’s also the gap between a hoodie that hangs the way you pictured and one you spend all winter tugging at. Most of us order the way we always have — I’m a large, send a large — and then the parcel lands, the shoulder seam is halfway down the bicep, and the sleeves have opinions. Oversized cuts don’t follow that habit. So before anything goes into a cart at Spidershoodies, find a tape measure and give two minutes to a hoodie you already wear.

Measure a hoodie, not yourself

Body measurements are where this usually falls apart. Your own chest measurement? It settles nothing here. The pattern was never drawn to follow anybody’s ribs, so a number off your body has no column to sit in. Flat measurements are a different animal.

Lay a hoodie you like face down on a table, smooth the wrinkles out, and run the tape straight across from one underarm seam to the other. That single number — the flat chest — is what you hold against a size chart. Then the body length — top of the shoulder seam down to the hem, nothing stretched. Two numbers, done.

What the chart actually tells you

Spider Canada publishes flat centimetres instead of small-medium-large shrugs, and the ladder climbs in a fairly tidy rhythm: roughly three centimetres across the chest per size, two down the body.

Double the chest figures if you think in full circumference — a medium at 61 cm flat comes out near 122 cm around, which on a 102 cm chest leaves something like 20 cm of room to move in, and that slack is the oversized block rather than a mistake at the factory. XXL keeps climbing on the same pattern.

The dropped shoulder trips people up

On these hoodies the shoulder seam never lands on your shoulder bone. It sits down the arm. Which is why the armhole looks enormous on a hanger and the sleeve far too long before you have even tried it — fine, that’s the pattern, not a fault.

And it’s exactly why sizing up for comfort backfires. Go one rung bigger. Now the seam has slid further down the arm, your hand has vanished into the cuff, and the body hangs like something borrowed off a much bigger friend. Hood, pocket, ribbed cuffs — all of them scale with the size you picked, which means an extra rung wrecks the balance rather than handing you a bit more room.

Between two rungs, take the smaller one

Both shops say this and they’re right. Your number lands halfway between two rungs? Take the smaller. There’s enough structure in 380 GSM brushed cotton that it never clings, even at the snug end — the cloth simply refuses to collapse. Go up instead and you’re piling slack on slack, which is where a hoodie stops looking oversized and starts looking shapeless.

XS to 3XL against S to XXL

The two shops don’t stock the same spread, and at the edges of the ladder that decides where you shop. Spiders Hoodies Canada runs XS through 3XL across its 150-plus pieces, which helps at both ends — an XS gives a smaller frame the oversized look without the hem arriving at mid-thigh, and a 3XL covers shoulders an S-to-XXL chart ignores. Spiderscanada keeps a tighter range, S up to XXL, over 156 products.

So check the range before you fall for a colourway. No point falling for a Beluga hoodie and then finding the chart stops a rung short. Through the middle of the ladder they overlap anyway.

Tees and joggers need their own numbers

Don’t carry a hoodie size straight across the catalogue and hope. Tees come in about three centimetres narrower through the chest and slightly shorter in the body, which is plenty to notice if you wear them loose. Joggers are the surprise: they track the tops’ sizing rather than a separate waist chart.

• A tee in your hoodie size reads closer to the body, so anyone chasing a boxy shape often takes one rung up.
• Joggers run relaxed through the seat and thigh, with a drawcord waist and cuffed ankle doing most of the fitting.
• Crystal-set and raised puff pieces measure the same as plain ones, since the graphic sits on top and doesn’t change the panel.

Frequently Asked Questions

I’m dead between M and L. Which one?

Medium, almost always. The smaller rung on an oversized block still leaves plenty of air, and it drops the shoulder seam roughly where the cut wants it. Go to the large and you’ve bought three more centimetres of chest plus extra sleeve. Bigger jump than it sounds on paper.

Can a wash move me into a different size?

It can, and honestly that’s the only sizing problem you’re fully in charge of. Cold water, inside out, hung up to dry — nothing moves. A hot wash plus the dryer is how heavy cotton tightens on you, and two centimetres off the chest means you’ve resized the thing by accident. So skip the dryer. Anything crystal-set wants a mesh bag as well.

Does a tracksuit size as one unit?

Same ladder top and bottom. Your hoodie rung is your jogger rung, so a Websuit or Beluga set turns up matched. Waists are the wrinkle. They vary far more between people than chests, so when yours argues with your chest, size for the top and let the drawcord settle it.

What happens if the size I picked is wrong?

Unworn, unwashed, tags still attached: on that basis both shops take a wrong size back. Spiders Hoodies Canada gives you 14 days from the day it arrives. Spider Canada puts its own window in the order confirmation email, so hang on to that message. One catch — an exchange goes through as a return plus a new order, and anything that’s gone through a wash drops out of the policy entirely.

Two minutes with a tape beats three weeks of hoping. Chest, length, hold them against the chart — that’s the whole job, and the chart prints centimetres instead of a letter. Measure your favourite hoodie tonight and stick the figures in your phone. Next Sp5der order, there’s nothing to gamble on, and the only decision left is the colourway. Which is the fun part anyway.