Struggling to get rid of odors in your gym clothes or activewear? Don’t worry, the main culprit isn’t you, it’s the fabric these clothes are made of! Thankfully, Laundry Sauce is here to hep you refresh your favorite set before your next sweat session. 

Why Do Gym Clothes & Activewear Smell After Washing?

Most active and gym wear is made to wick away moisture from your skin, which makes you feel dry when you are sweating from a hard workout. This works because most active wear is made from synthetic fibers, also commonly known as plastic. Synthetic fibers is they hold onto sweat, bacteria, and oil more than natural fibers do (like cotton). Over time, this combination of soil produces malodor which is often hard to get rid of. Some Laundry detergents alone do not do a good job of penetrating synthetic fibers, which doesn’t remove the stinky stuff. So, what can you do? 

How to Take Your Activewear from Smelly to Scentsational 

Here are five pro tips to make your workout clothes smell better.

1. Don’t Throw Sweaty Clothes in The Laundry Hamper

After your workout do not throw your sweaty gym clothes into the hamper to be washed days later. The dampness and darkness of the hamper will allow bacteria to grow and the bad odors will be amplified. We suggest air drying your sweaty gym clothes before putting them in the hamper. Or wash them as soon as possible! 

2. Ditch The Synthetic Fibers 

Another solution is to switch to cotton based workout clothes. Natural fibers do not hold on to the oils, bacteria and sweat and retain less odors. Cotton workout wear will retain more moisture, and stick to your skin when working out than synthetic fibers, but will not retain odors

3. Pre Soak Your Clothes

To help block those pesky sweaty scents, adding a ½ cup of baking soda to the basket, or drum, of the machine and ½ cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener tray will help. Baking soda absorbs odors and vinegar counteracts odor causing bacteria. Make sure to turn on the fabric softener icon on your washer too. 

4. Skip the Fabric Softener

Note that using fabric softener on your activewear is not recommended. Softener products will leave a coating on the fabric which will lead to odor retention, which will make the problem worse.

5. Add Your Favorite Premium Smelling Laundry Sauce

Our favorite solution includes using Laundry Sauce’s premium scented detergent. Laundry Sauce is formulated to remove odors in gym wear with our proprietary blend of x2mes, surfactants and fragrance oils which should do the trick. The added benefit of Laundry Sauce is that your clothes will have a bold, soulful scent from the world’s best smelling laundry detergent and not your sweaty body odor.