There’s only one thing worse than opening your kit bag and being hit by that grim odor of old sweat and unwashed kit, and that’s when one of your training partners opens their kit bag and you get hit by the odor of their old sweat and unwashed kit.
With cloth handwraps being crammed inside leather gloves they spend however long your sessions are soaking up sweat and not getting any air, which makes them the ideal bit of kit to absolutely stink if you don’t take care of them. Because of this we’ve put together a quick guide for you on the best way to take care of your wraps and keep them smelling fresh.
Buy more than one pair
First up, do yourself a favour and buy a few pairs of wraps. They aren’t expensive and it means you can have a pair ready to go while the others are in the wash.
Get them out of our bag as soon as you’re home
Keeping dirty kit zipped up in your bag is the fastest way for it to become disgusting. If you aren’t able to get your wraps washed before your next training sessions (and you haven’t got another, already clean, pair ready to use) then the best thing you can do is hang them up and air them out. It won’t be a permanent solution but it will give you more time before they start to smell.
Wash them regularly
Ideally you should hand wash wraps, especially stretch ones as you want to protect the elastic. If you’re going to machine wash them then you can buy yourself a mesh bag to stop them from tangling with all your other laundry – make sure you unwrap them before putting them in the bag though. At the end of the day, follow any instructions on the labels and packaging of the handwraps before you wash them.
Air dry, don’t use a dryer
This is to stop them from shrinking or damaging the elastic in the heat of the dryer. Hang them up and leave them to air dry to keep them in top condition.
Store them rolled
Once they’re totally dry make sure you roll them up to store them – you can even buy a handwrap roller to make life easier if you have multiple pairs. Rolling them stops them from getting tangled in your bag or the velcro sticking to stuff and wearing out. You can even roll them so they’re ready to go next time they come out your bag to save yourself a bit of time.
We hope this guide is helpful, if you do anything to care for your wraps that we’ve missed out then let us know in the comments!