Anyone who has ever owned a pair of boxing gloves or borrowed a pair of boxing gloves from their local gym or boxing club will understand just how important it is to clean them. After constant use and sweaty hands locked into their confined space things can start to smell a little worse for wear.
This is a common problem in any combat sport that involves wearing gloves. Kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai and many other martial arts are also a breeding ground for bad smells. 9 times out of 10 simply throwing your gloves in the washing machine or spraying them with disinfectant is not enough to get rid of that bad odor inside of the gloves.
In this article, we will take a look at why you need to clean your boxing gloves, how to clean your boxing gloves and also the best products to help make the cleaning process a little bit easier.
Why Do You Need To Clean Boxing Gloves?
Nobody wants to be the one in the gym that everyone is avoiding training with due to the hugely offensive smell coming from their gloves. That is why it is super important to keep on top of cleaning your boxing gloves and more importantly, cleaning the inside of your boxing gloves to stay as hygienic as possible.
Put it this way, would you do a hard workout and not wash your clothes? Probably not right, so why would you not clean your boxing gloves?
While boxing gloves do not have to be cleaned as often as clothing items, the principle still stands. After consistently using your boxing gloves in training sessions where you are emitting a lot of sweat, your boxing gloves will begin to develop a huge amount of excess moisture and also a very unpleasant smell which if not cleaned will get progressively worse every time you lace your gloves up.
If you are a gym owner or boxing club who provides boxing gloves for people to borrow then it is even more important to take proper care of your boxing gloves. This is because these gloves will have a build-up of multiple people's sweat within the gloves making them extremely a breeding ground for bacteria and also extremely stinky.
Cleaning your boxing gloves and boxing hand wraps every week will keep your gloves smelling fresh and make sure that you do not have everyone in the gym trying to avoid you and your smell.
Why Do Your Boxing Gloves Smell So Bad?
The smell that we all know too well comes from the constant build-up of sweat that occurs when wearing them during intense exercise. This sweat and excess moisture is then trapped inside your boxing gear and creates a very moist environment. If the gloves are not then left to dry in a well-ventilated area, the humidity and moisture within the gloves will start to breed bacteria which then lead to the smells.
Bacteria thrive in dark and damp environments, therefore, if you do not do anything to help clean your gloves then the bacteria will continue to breed and therefore continue to build up the smell.
Yes, that is right, the horrific smell coming from your gloves is bacteria growing within your gloves. If that does not scare you into consistently cleaning your boxing gloves then I do not know what will.
How Do You Properly Clean Boxing Gloves?
There are a number of extremely effective ways that you can clean your boxing gloves to ensure that they are as hygienic and as fresh as possible even with consistent use. We would recommend washing your boxing gloves and hand wraps on a weekly basis to avoid a build of harsh odours.
These are the most common and effective ways of cleaning your boxing gloves:
Use Antibacterial Sprays Or Deodorizers
One of the most common and effective ways of cleaning your boxing gloves and eradicating the horrific odour is through the use of antibacterial deodorisers. The deodorisers help to remove the moisture and kill the bacteria within the boxing gloves therefore leave your gloves fresh and dry.
Eradicating the moisture and bacteria inside boxing gloves helps to get rid of unwanted smells and uncomfortable damp feelings. This will make your gloves far more pleasant for you to use and keep them fresher for much longer.
Brands such as No Stink have taken the market by storm with their phenomenal deodorisers that simply slip inside your gloves, and remove the moisture and bacteria, leaving the gloves both smelling great and feeling great.
As an alternative to these, you can even use products such as essential oils to help deodorise and eradicate the smell coming from your gloves.
Wipe Down After Every Use
Something else that you should be doing after every use is thoroughly wiping down your gloves after every use with a clean towel or dryer sheets. While this will not provide the deepest clean to your gloves it will keep on top of the cleaning and therefore help to avoid the buildup of unwanted odours.
Simply wipe down your boxing gloves with a towel both inside and out to ensure that you have gotten rid of all the moisture. This will help to stop bacteria from growing within your gloves by getting rid of all the moisture that they need in order to grow.
In addition to keeping them smelling fresh, this will also help to keep your gloves looking a lot fresher for longer.
Leave Them Out To Dry
It is super important to make sure that you are letting your gloves air dry in direct sunlight after every use. Straight after use your gloves will often be very moist and clammy which creates a very humid atmosphere within the glove.
If you were to put your gloves straight into your gym bag then you are not giving the gloves any time or space to breathe and dry out. This means that they will remain damp and therefore be a breeding ground for the bacteria that creates the smell that we are trying to avoid.
Allowing your gloves the chance to get some fresh air and dry out will ensure that they do not become the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. If your gloves are dry then there will be nowhere that bacteria can grow which should therefore mean that your gloves stay fresh.
Saltwater Soak
A saltwater soak is a much more drastic approach to cleaning your boxing gloves. However, it is an extremely effective method of killing bacteria and therefore getting rid of the smell for good. This will make sure that your gloves do not become unbearable and the reason why no one will take you up on your sparring offer.
Simply create a solution of saline water in a large empty container, place your gloves in the container and then leave it to soak overnight or for an extended period. Then let them dry in a ventilated area for a few hours and they should look as good and smell as good as they did brand new.
Baking Soda
One of the oldest tools in the book for cleaning boxing gloves is baking soda. This method is infamous for its incredible ability to kill the odour, no matter how bad, of boxing gloves.
Simply sprinkle the magical powder around the inside of your boxing gloves and leave it to do its job for a couple of hours. After a few hours simply shake out the baking powder and enjoy your gloves. Just a few hours covered in baking soda should help to fully alleviate the awful odours and have your gloves smelling unbelievably fresh.
Boxing Accessories To Help Keep Boxing Equipment Smelling Fresh
Here at Geezers Boxing, we stock a huge range of boxing equipment and accessories from the sports leading brands. we have a range of products that are perfect for helping to clean your boxing gloves such as No Stink Deodorisers, Rival Deodorizing Pounches, TITLE Equipment Deodorizer Balls and many more boxing accessories.
