I sport. I sweat. Other people also sweat on me because it’s a contact sport. And over time, especially synthetics like rash guards can start to be hard to clean.
You’ll find a lot of instructions online for how to clean your Gi or Rashguard, geared towards the US market, with US products and US measurements. On top of that a lot of them simply did not work for me. So I thought I’d share the European version that works for me every time.
Monthly Deep Clean
It says monthly, but I do this depending on training volume. And I do the smell test. No need to clean more than necessary.
- Soak 4–6 hours in 5 liters of warm water with 70g of sodium carbonate and a dash of fragrance-free detergent. DO NOT use too much detergent. Tablespoon max.
- Rinse thoroughly with clean water.
- Soak 15–30 minutes in 5 liters of fresh water with 250ml of white vinegar.
- Rinse again and hang dry, inside-out. In the summer: hang outside in the sun.
Maintenance, ASAP After Gym
The sooner after the gym you wash, the less time bacteria have time to multiply.
- Turn gi/rashguard inside out.
- Short cold pre-rinse ~10min. My shower sometimes takes a while to heat up, so I use the cold shower water to pre-rinse.
- Main wash at 30°C with detergent (again DO NOT use too much detergent, this is the cardinal sin), high rpm spin dry.
- Add 50–100ml vinegar in the softener compartment for the final rinse.
- Hang dry: never use a dryer or fabric softener.
Your training partners thank you.