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As an avid mountain biker and owner of some pretty expensive Oakley and Pearl shorts and t-shirts, I couldn’t figure out why, over time, my gear smelled like a musty, moldy towel after I pulled it out of the wash. It got so bad that I really couldn’t bear to even put on my biker outfit. Not only was my clothes smelling, I was beginning to notice that it was starting to feel like sandpaper and losing its absorbent properties.
I felt like our laundry detergent wasn’t doing anything to clean my cycling clothes, at the same time it didn’t really do anything about the gross smell. I began a desperate search to find out why and if there was a solution that would clean the dirt, not dissolve or weaken the synthetic fibers and most importantly, remove the smell from my cycling clothes.
So I started where we all started a research project, the Internet. I wanted to find out if others had the same problem, why it was happening, and ultimately what to do about it. So, to my delight, others were also in stinky heaven. What was interesting was that most of the problems tended to be with high-tech fabrics. It seems that the more expensive, the more they sucked over time. So why do high-tech or synthetic sportswear start to smell over time? The answer lies in how densely the material is woven. The denser the material, the better it breathes and ultimately the better it absorbs. Here is the root of the problem. As your body sweats, these fabrics are designed to wick moisture away from the body, but in the process trap fats and oils deep within the fibers. Because these fabrics are so dense, regular laundry detergent is not molecularly small enough to get into these areas and wash away fats and oils. Over time, bacteria begin to hide in the fibers and eat away at the oils and fats. The digestive byproduct, yes…you guessed it bacteria shit, is what caused the odors. Some sportswear is beginning to be advertised as antimicrobial. For the most part, these are chemicals that wash into the fibers, but after multiple washes they lose their ability to fight bacteria. Silver synthetics have been the only long-term proven method, however, most of these products have been withdrawn from the market due to fears of groundwater contamination.
Therefore, over the last 3-4 years, specially formulated detergents designed to adequately kill bacteria and remove trapped fats and oils have come onto the market. For the most part, these products use hydrogen peroxide as the active cleaning agent. Basically, hydrogen peroxide is water with an extra oxygen atom. One of these detergents is WIN Sports Detergent. They were the official detergent of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was the first time sponsorship of a detergent was allowed at the Olympics. In my WIN test trial, I found that it worked. I especially liked the way it left my clothes smelling. After several washes, I also noticed that my clothes were noticeably softer. It certainly has bonuses! If you are concerned about the smell of your sportswear, I hope this helps you solve the problem like it did for me.