[Guide] How to wash your BJJ Gi
Here is a quick checklist for washing your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi. This method removes sweat, bacteria, and odour while mitigating shrinkage + wear and tear and protecting the health and safety of you and your training partners.
Do:
✅ Wash immediately after training (or at least take it out of your gear bag)
✅ Use fragrance free detergent
✅ Wash your gi in warm or cold water
✅ Always hang to dry
✅ Wash your belt
✅ Boost the clean by adding vinegar, baking soda, or Stink Bombs to the load
Don't:
🚫 Leave the gear in your training bag
🚫 Use fabric softener or scent boosters
🚫 Wash in hot water
🚫 Use dryer
It doesn't take long to realize that your usual laundry routine doesn't cut it for your gi.
You probably tried extra detergent and scented fabric softener. Now, your gi smells like BO + Axe + Downy—a unique malodorous experience (you're nodding your head).
Scented products do not remove the bacteria and buildup that cause bad smell. In fact, these products work by using silicone polymers to coat each strand of the material. This seals everything into the garment - including the bacteria that causes the bad odour in the first place.
Fragrance can also cause direct harm to you and your training partners. Fragrances in scented laundry products can trigger asthma attacks, skin reactions, respiratory difficulties, and even fertility issues. This may not concern you, but someone in your gym needs their puffer to get through class. And taking care of your BJJ fam is what matters.
How to remove odour from BJJ training gear
If you're like me, you started with the natural route. Dumping a cup of baking soda into the tub of your HE machine and adding vinegar to the rinse cycle for good measure. At the end of this labour-intensive process, you are left with a mostly clean training outfit, but the sour smell lingers.
I'd seen Nature Clean Stink Bombs at my local health food store while stocking up on magnesium and diaper cream (shoutout to moms training BJJ everywhere). Still, I always assumed these could not possibly do a better job than my baking soda + vinegar combo. Right?
But I was getting desperate. Years of sweat and odour combined with hard water buildup and embedded in my gi and rashguard. My sports bra smelled rotten. So I gave in and bought a pack. At $6.99 for 10 pods, it wasn't a huge investment.
After years of having to wash my gis one at a time and a specially dedicated load for rashguards only, I tested this product by using a single pod along with my regular detergent to wash a full gi, 3 rashguards, and the repugnant training bra.
It worked! My training laundry came out clean, soft and free of the sour smell and the layers of product residue from my training partners. I now order Stink Bombs by the bucket for jus $.34 per pod on well.ca!
Now go tap people out and smell good while doing it!
P.S. I also tested Nature Clean Stink Bombs on a load of pool gear after my kids’ swim lessons. I washed two swimsuits and two towels. While the chlorine smell lingered a bit, it was much decreased. I strongly suspect that if I used two of the pods it would be gone altogether.
