> The polyester T-shirts smelled significantly less pleasant and more intense, compared to the cotton T-shirts.
This is consistent with my experience. I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing many years ago because they only last a season before they smell too bad. Instead, I buy them at the end-of-season sales or at discount retailers like Winners [0].
Unfortunately, in Canada it isn't feasible to hang them out in the sun to dry - for much of the year they'd just freeze.
> in Canada it isn't feasible to hang them out in the sun to dry
Collapsible drying racks are a thing. IKEA sells them for cheap. Just leave them by your window, vent or fan.
> I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing many years ago because they only last a season before they smell too bad
I'm very confused.
It still smells despite washing with laundry detergent after each use? My gym clothing has zero smell & I've had them for >5 years, with weekly use for each piece.
Collapsible drying racks are a thing. IKEA sells them for cheap. Just leave them by your window, vent or fan.
I live in a cold climate - Norway - and this is the common drying method. Dryers aren't common in homes. Folks will put the rack on a balcony on nice days, and wherever they will fit in when it isn't.
> My gym clothing has zero smell & I've had them for >5 years
I don't understand this either. I've been seeing loads of articles and posts about smelly gym clothes but I have both gym and outdoors clothes that have been going strong for much longer than 5 years and none of them smell after a wash. In fact, most can be worn for multiple sweaty sessions before they even start to smell.
Once the smell gets in, it’s very hard to get it out again, ime. If I’m always able to wash the stuff ASAP after wearing and with hot water, it’s fine, but if I’ve only got access to cold water washers and air drying for a month or so, they’ll never be the same again, even if I boil wash them.
Right, but staying damp over a period of time because they’re air-drying in a humid country presumably allows the bacteria a more hospitable environment? I’ve found clothes can smell musty from air-drying unless you’re able to get them in the sun very quickly
Where I live, it is common to air-dry clothes on dryer racks. It isn't as common for folks to have dryers inside the house.
The catch: I'm in Norway, and can promise you these clothes aren't seeing sun for most of the year. People don't stink - and it isn't due to being used to the smell. Folks didn't stink when I moved here a decade ago either. Clothes don't stink more in the winter, even though they take more time to dry due to colder house temperatures. You can't leave them for hours in the washer, but that's true even if you are using a dryer.
Of course, there are exceptions. You really should hang them up soon after you take them out of the washer.
> even though they take more time to dry due to colder house temperatures.
However when it is very cold the air is much drier. Contrast that to a temperate but humid climate where everything sits at 20C - 25C w/80% - 100% humidity. Practically a microbial incubator.
That's basically the UK and I haven't experienced a problem with indoor air drying. I would give some basic guidelines though. It's the sort of things that you don't think you need to tell people until you see what they do...
- ideally machine washed with a significant spin to remove water. Air drying hand washed items that are sopping wet is a lot harder - might take 4x longer
- hang in a room with decent ventilation and some active air flow. Trying to air dry in the equivalent of a cupboard would be doomed
- hang fully spread out with decent space between the clothes. Drying time will be significantly extended if densely scrunched together with pieces touching. Buy multiple racks to get enough hanging space.
- don't put used wet gym clothes in a laundry bin to fester. If you aren't washing them immediately, hang them up to dry first and put them in the bin later
I've done the second for a few years when I lived in the US - Indiana, to be exact, which is quite humid. I couldn't really afford the driers at the laudromat, so I brought stuff home to dry inside.
No issues, summer or winter.
Drying time here (Norway) in winter is about the same as high humidity was in the US. Summer is the dry season here - there is often a forest fire watch and a ban on open flames/fires.
In general, as long as there is air flow, you are fine. It'll take longer/shorter depending on humidity and air temperature.
Atsko (also known as Penguin) sport wash will get out that smell, guaranteed.
In the wintertime just hang your washed clothes on a drying rack, either wall-mount or free-standing or what have you. "Free" humidification. Also air-drying works a lot better with front-loaders, which you should be using anyway because they use vastly less water and detergent and are much gentler on clothing.
My expensive-ish cycling clothing, after a ride, goes straight into a bucket of lukewarm water (spandex/lycra deteriorates in strength and stretch very rapidly at surprisingly low temperatures) with about a third of the bottlecap of sport wash. I give it a good swish and go shower. I give it some agitation after I'm done showering and changed. At some point I'll rinse it thoroughly. The cycling shorts get rolled up in a cotton towel and stepped on to wring them of excess water. Everything goes on a clothes hangar out in open air. If I'm riding again in the morning, or if it's humid, I point a small fan at everything so that the pad dries out quickly.
In the wintertime just hang your washed clothes
on a drying rack, either wall-mount or free-standing
or what have you. "Free" humidification
I agree with this.
I have tried a number of humidifiers (evaporative and ultrasonic) and they are all freaking maintenance nightmares in one way or another.
Nothing comes even remotely close to wet towels or wet clothes on a drying rack with a little fan pointed at them. I sleep with a fan on for background noise anyway.
Thick bath towels will soak up enough water to last a whole night or more.
Can you share your thinking here? That doesn't seem right.
A cubic liter can hold 0.017 mL of liquid water at an average room temperature. If I'm borrowing this math correctly that comes to less than a liter of water in an average room at 100% humidity.
Certainly, when we look at the tanks of popular humidifiers on Amazon, the tanks hold less moisture than a rack full of wet laundry particularly if there are wet towels.
I haven't measured this objectively but commercial humidifiers and the "wet clothes on a rack plus fan" method both palpably raise the humidity in a room.
A 3 meter cube is 27000 liters. So, yeah that holds about half a liter of water.
That’s great if it’s a sealed box, but it’s not. Homes are leaky, and typical HVAC systems will replace all that air at least 5 times an hour.
So that’s 2.5 liters, or about 2/3rds of a gallon… per hour.
Now of course this is assuming worst case of going from bone dry to fully saturated, but even if you want to raise it 20 or 30% the numbers would be a third of that, but still.
Humans are very sensitive to humidity. I don’t doubt your towel setup makes things feel more humid, but if you were to actually measure it with a hygrometer I bet the actual number is changing way less than you think.
I just throw my cycling bibs in the wash on warm (with the rest of my laundry) and then pull them out to air dry. Spin cycle is pretty good at getting most of the water out, with any airflow they're dry in the morning.
I grew up in northern Alberta. Yes there are less daylight hours, but the sun was often very intense during those hours. Winter tends to be dry so you have bright winters with little cloud cover, for the hours of sun you do get. It just happens to set at 4pm.
Of course eventually that changes if you go far north enough, but very few people actually live past the artic circle. People living on the coast will probably also have very different weather.
Of course i dont think i ever saw anyone hang clothes outside in -40 weather. I feel like drying is not what would happen but i dont know
I never have issues with highend work gear smelling. They advertise they have silver ions infused into the fiber to control bacteria growth. Seems to work.
Personally I prefer cotton since we have dry heat and cotton keeps me cooler than synthetics or wool.
I have the opposite experience with cheap, synthetic "moisture wicking" style clothing.
My experience is that it lasts literally forever (assuming I don't tear it) and does not develop an odor problem over time. It actually feels fairly miraculous to me: space-age style comfortable breathable indestructable clothing.
We have active lives here in the NE USA where summers are hot, humid, and tropical. We sweat a looooooot in these clothes: dog walks, tennis, gym wear, yard work, etc. A loooot.
I get the majority of this clothing from Old Navy because they're cheap and sell most items in tall sizes. I've used other cheap brands that are also just as good; I don't think Old Navy is doing anything special in terms of materials but I think they deserve a shout-out for consistency and dedication to extended sizes both large and small.
I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing
many years ago because they only last a season
before they smell too bad
Good news! Absolutely doesn't have to be this way.
Something in your clothes washing routine needs an upgrade.
It may be as simple as cramming less laundry into the washer for each load so that the water:clothing ratio is higher. Another common mistake is using too much laundry detergent. Or maybe the washer is musty.
Assuming it's not either of those things a method that works for me is occasionally doing the "laundry stripping" hot water presoaking method.[1] "Recipes" for this vary and I'm not sure that the commonly recommended triple-ingredient mix is necessary; I suspect a few drops of laundry detergent alone would work just as well. However all of the ingredients are cheap as dirt and this method works so I haven't felt the need to experiment. Note that this isn't specific to synthetic fibers; cotton clothes can have their life multiplied this way as well.
Seems like a lot of work but it really isn't. I have a plastic bin in my basement next to the washer and dryer. I have Load B pre-soaking in the hot water mix while Load A is in the washer. You don't need to do this every time you wash your clothes. Just once every $SOME_OTHER_NUMBER loads.
Vinegar is also really effective in destroying odors. I have saved extremely moldy clothes with vinegar. Vinegar stinks but evaporates fast. If you truly can't stomach the smell (some can't) then tumble dry in the dryer until the vinegar smell is gone.
Also, for goodness' sake, don't toss wet sweaty clothes into the hamper. Let them air dry somehow first.
One more tip: try Gear Aid Revivex Odour Eliminator (formerly Myrazime). In my experience it’s like a reset switch for your synthetics - no matter how far gone.
I bought a bunch of clothes from the techwear brand Outlier and found their synthetic pants are basically indestructible, but the wool shirts get holes in them if you scratch them on anything.
I wear only merino wool underwear. It gets holes often. That and the cost are the only downsides. Merino wool is incredible for temperature regulation and odor prevention.
I bought a pair of socks from them a few years ago. They are definitely my favorite socks. Definitely second the merino wool train for comfort.
They had discontinued them as they were like $30 for a pair! It looks like maybe they’ve refined the process as I’m seeing similar looking socks on their website for $70 for ten pairs.
Nope, had the same experience. The wool was very fragile, the pants after 5 years and >1000 wears have stitching that's coming loose but the textile is still totally fine, with the exception of some holes from campfire embers (user error).
Not OP, but I have socks, underwear, and a shirt. The shirt I feel a bit meh about, because the durability hasn't been great and it was expensive (but very comfortable). Socks and underwear have been great for skiing, cycling and just days when I walk a lot. I can wear my Darn Tough socks to Disneyland in the summer and they have no smell after a day, whereas cotton socks would be very unpleasant. The ski socks are nice since as long as they're dry they're usually good to go the next day. I have gotten my merino stuff to smell eventually, but it's taken multiple days of heavy usage. And in the meantime, it's a much more comfortable to wear material.
Not OP, but I run, hike, bicycle, ski, backcountry ski, practice yoga, indoor rock climbing, and more in merino wool t-shirts, underwear, and socks.
I find Ibex makes the highest quality tees (their tencel/merino/nylon shirts are incredible for hot summers) and underwear. Icebreaker also makes a variety of good stuff.
I generally look for some amount of nylon for durability, but I have a few 100% merino shirts from icebreaker that I've worn intensively for years with no problems.
I did have some pilling issues with the merino/tencel blend from ibex which is a shame. Gorgeous fabric at first; still feels luxurious.
Laundry is a bigger deal since it's wash cold and dry flat with many of these; that can be a cost, equipment, and/or lifestyle adjustment.
I'm often able to wear the same clothes many days in a row without issue.
For pants, I prefer nylon+elastane blends, but it's hard to find. Prana used to make good things here but their Brion II line was a significant drop in quality.
Probably depends on the biodegradable fiber? Organic cotton uses a _ton_ of water. I'm not sure about viscose/rayon/tencel but I imagine it's often less water-intensive but it can be pretty chemical-intensive.
I don't know how bad nylon is to produce, but the durability it adds to clothes is probably an overall net win for the environment; compared to other plastics we consume, it does a lot of work (I've worn some items for years).
Note Prana has recycled nylon in their Brion II line, but unfortunately the quality is way worse; it pills immediately. Environmentally, I'd much rather buy non-recycled plastics that last a lot longer, so I consume/waste less overall.
Not the op, I have some winter running base layers made of meriono wool and and I swear by merino wool glove liners to wear when running outside on the cold. I don't think anything wool would be suitable for exercise when it's warm, but I've never tried it.
The merino wool mixes from REI work well in warm weather, especially when hiking where the temperature experienced can swing wildly due to sun exposure, sweat, and wind. It has the benefit of keeping warm even when wet much like wool but it breathes better.
I am a long distance rec runner, and I use merino wool throughout the year (4 seasons in Canada). Since I started running ~ 15yrs ago I tried various blends/synthetics, nothing comes close to reduced odor, nor performance in general.
Can you tell me what brands and styles you use in the different seasons? I'm also in Canada, run a lot, and have a hodge podge of stuff. Always interested in what other people have found good.
Straight up Smartwool. I use the same weight usually and just change out the height based on winter vs summer. But some of the other brands of 100% wool work well for me too.
I would hand wash in a sink and air dry, and my wool stuff gets holes pretty easily even with delicate care. Depending upon your sweat odor and which layer of clothes the wool is used in, it may pass a sniff test and you may not need to wash it after each use unlike polyester.
You should use special wool detergent or just soap, regular detergent destroys the protein in wool and ruins it with time. This is a common mistake and why people get holes in their garments.
I’m curious to learn more about your suggestions, but Icebreaker’s website [0] suggests this isn’t necessary:
“Use a normal warm or cool machine wash cycle with regular powder or liquid detergent. Separate light and darks as usual. Don’t use softeners or bleach.”
I own Icebreaker garments btw, here's what Miele says:
Biological detergents contain certain enzymes that are there to remove proteins from a garment. This is how they are effective at cleaning things such as egg from clothing. However, silk and wool are also made up of proteins. Biological detergent cannot differentiate between a bit of egg stain and a bit of silk so the enzymes will eat away at it.
This results in very small, randomly placed, holes on a garment. They won’t appear after the first wash, but tend to appear after several washes once the enzyme has gradually eaten the fabric away.
Garment bags also help me remember which things have to be taken out before getting tossed into the dryer. Otherwise I tend to just throw the whole washer load into there like a big dummy. =)
Sounds like a moot point because cotton chafes and synthetic doesnt. I hang up my clothes outside after I exercise (and before I have a chance to wash them) and it makes all the difference. In general, odor is not about the acute sweat - at least anecdotally, exercise sweat doesn't really smell, it's about what happens when you bunch up your clothes and let bacteria grow in them. So getting them dry and out in the sun matters more than the fabric.
If I wear a shirt with any polyester my pits will stink shortly after I start sweating.
100% cotton doesn't do this.
It's quite annoying how cheap 100% cotton shirt packs often have a gray one thrown in there with some %age of polyester. Those always become garage shirts.
I hate cotton and generally go for at least a poly blend for this reason... also because cotton inevitably ends up with a weird texture and pilling. Unless it's high-end weave in a dress shirt or something I'll take a synthetic every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Though there’s definitely differences in how cotton wears, I’m not sure there’s a strong correlation with what grade it is.
I have a few pure cotton undershirts and tshirts I picked up at the equivalent of a dollar store for ¥100 a piece as a broke college student in Japan around a decade ago, and while they’re showing plenty of wear from having seen hundreds of workout hours and laundry cycles, they’re not exhibiting pilling or texture change at all.
The only time I've seen pilling on cotton is when it's a cotton/poly blend. 100% cotton doesn't, or at least not in my experience of wearing cotton Ts (mostly 100, occasionally cotton/poly) for the past 10 years.
Anecdotally, sweat starts to smell after it has soaked for a bit in bodily hair. The sweat on my forehead, back and chest never smells of anything, but the sweat on my scalp and in my armpits does. My theory is that the smell develops from sweat reacting with (or releasing something from) perhaps the sebum.
With your anecdote you've mostly described the difference between apocrine and eccrine sweat glands, their locations, and their effect, with the former generally causing the noticeable odour from bacterial enzymes breaking their secretion. Body hair does have a significant effect in those areas, too. Some people also don't experience this, or in a very limited manner.
I did the same for a while when I was young, and it definitely reduced the build-up of odour after exercise and sports. The flip side was that I lost a lot of "wicking" ability and consequently had ridiculously large wet spots under my arms and a feeling of being "slippery" or lubricated under my arms already from just light exercise.
There seems to be a big debate in popular culture re: whether or not armpit hair keeps you cooler.
I certainly don't think it does. Evaporative cooling works via evaporation and armpit hair seems to do the exact opposite, at least if it's trapped under clothing and not exposed to a breeze.
But... you have had the opposite experience and I am sure you are not hallucinating or lying!
It’s also a lack of bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria will generally eat up the nasty smelling compounds. But most of us basically exterminate all of them whenever we wash ourselves.
They might be essential to good skin health. We’d be covered with them in the environment that evolved in. But there’s not much research being done yet in that field.
I experimented with it a bit myself a while ago, both «mother dirts» commercial product and making a growth medium for them myself and adding some soil. Did a blind test with my wife to see if they affected smell, and there was a very clear difference. But where I live mother dirt is not available and it’s rather expensive anyway. The experiment encouraged me to use only the mildest body soaps and a gentler washing process which anecdotally has been good for my skin. Maybe I have a healthier skin microbiome now
It's remarkable how I manage to get none of that on my body besides on the head and under my arms, and practically none on my clothes. My sweaty t-shirts build up smell only under the arms.
On the other hand cotton fabric tends to absorb sweat better and is more airy thus allowing the human body to cool down much better than synthetic fabrics.
Not in my experience. Cotton takes your sweat, and makes you feel like you are soaking in it (and that's why it chafes more - skin loses elasticity in prolonged contact with water). Nothing is airy about it.
Does not sound like pure cotton at all - Since the earliest days of cotton cultivation, this fabric has been prized for its exceptional breathability and lightness. Cotton fabric is also incredibly soft ... Cotton is very water absorbent, but it also dries quickly, which makes it highly moisture wicking. - https://sewport.com/fabrics-directory/cotton-fabric
You literally quoting a piece of commercial copyrighting (=ad) to contradict knowledge by experience. It's not like one data point, cotton is highly unpopular in hiking, and athlete communities. 1. Because it's strongly hydrophilic it absorbs water, and keeps it. 2. It's sorta breatheable while it's dry, but not so much when wet, and see p.1. 3. I guess you can find a type of cloth which dries worse than cotton, but plenty of synthetics do it better anyway
Your experience doesn't trump scientific facts about cotton's properties. But on re-reading your comment it sounds like your experience may be based on using cotton in cold climates - obviously in a cold climate, the sweat absorbed by the cotton won't dry fast enough making you feel like you are wearing a wet clothe around you (and hence the chafing experience). In hot weather, when you sweat, the cotton absorbs it and when it evaporates it helps in cooling down your body. That is why cotton is the most preferred, and recommended fabric, in any hot climate.
Dunk a cotton shirt and a moisture wicking shirt into a bucket of water. Pull them out and tell me which one weighs more. Now hang them up and tell me which one drys first.
There's a reason why cotton clothes are preferred in hot climates - Cotton is very water absorbent, but it also dries quickly, which makes it highly moisture wicking.
Btw while cotton dries slower than PE, or wool in any case, it also worth to note that moisture wicking doesn't mean just drying quickly. It means water absorption happen in such a way that it makes skin drier. Cotton regretfully absolutely doesn't do it. Its microthreads literally keep water around themselves (that's why it's called hydrophylic). While drying, water constantly redistributes itself around threads. So even slightly wet cotton textile touches your skin with water.
Yes, I understand that synthetics are hydrophobic and thus don't absorb water. I guess our personal preferences are biasing us - I live in a country that is hot, and so I prefer cotton as it absorbs sweat and cools down my body faster, where as synthetics just makes me feel like I am bathing in sweat and makes me feel hotter because it traps heat better (which is why it makes me really uncomfortable when exercising).
- Vinegar destroys odors the best in my experience. Pour some in with your usual laundry routine. Can get jugs of concentrated vinegar from the hardware store or cleaning aisle in the supermarket, cheaper than food grade. I have rescued disgusting moldy clothing from a flooded basement this way (don't mix with bleach, you'll get tear gas)
- Presoaking your clothes in hot water and small amount of detergent (and/or borax) prior to washing once in a while for a deep clean. Also gets rid of deodorant/antiperspirant buildup in the armpit areas of your shirts. Google "laundry presoaking" or "laundry stripping"
Vinegar works so astoundingly well for laundry odors that I've never felt the need to try enzyme or oxy cleaners.
(However, I've used enzyme cleaners for pet accidents on carpets to great success)
There are enzyme based washes that work well. They are sometimes marketed for sporting equipment (hockey pads and the like) but I’ve used them for other types of garments that have persistent odors after stabsard washing. Mirazyme Odor Eliminator being one.
Along these lines, pet stain and odor removers also can work extremely well on human smells. Not all do, but then again, not all of them work well on pet odors either. I've had the best luck with enzyme-based treatments.
Buy a steam cleaner, they're quite inexpensive now if you buy a "steam mop". Just make sure to get one that has attachments for cleaning clothing. They're great for cleaning everything else as well.
I've soaked them in vinegar periodically if I find they get really gross.
I think there's also accepting that after a bit exercise clothes don't smell great close up. If circumstances require really odor free ones (a workout date?) I'd probably buy new clothes.
1)Stop washing your body with the awful, artificial-perfumed crap sold by P&G and the likes. Guess what all that artificial perfume crap smells like after a few hours? Use naturally scented soaps and shampoos, with a washcloth or loofah (gently) to remove dead skin, and rinse with the washcloth or loofa unsoaped to removed excess soap.
2)Stop using fabric softener (which you shouldn't be using on sports clothing anyway.) It's basically rendered fat loaded with artificial perfumes. And people wonder why their clothes are rank...
3)Stop using scented laundry detergents. On sports clothing, use a "sport wash." Atsko band is the cheapest I've seen. If you want to "test drive" it, Penguin Sport wash is the same stuff, just sold in retail stores for more $/oz. Exactly the same stuff.
4)Use a bit of vinegar in the first or final rinse. You can get 20% vinegar in some places for convenience, just beware that it will knock you on your ass if you get a really good whiff of it, and you should rinse it off your skin quickly. Vinegar will among other things help kill mold spores (bleach does not!)
5)Clean out all the nooks and crannies in your washer, the dispensers, door seals, etc. Once in a while run the hottest cycle and a cup of citric acid, or a bunch of vinegar.
My expensive-ish cycling clothing, after a ride, goes straight into a bucket of lukewarm water (spandex/lycra deteriorates in strength and stretch very rapidly at surprisingly low temperatures) with about a third of the bottlecap of sport wash. I give it a good swish and go shower. I give it some agitation after I'm done showering and changed. At some point I'll rinse it thoroughly. The cycling shorts get rolled up in a cotton towel and stepped on to wring them of excess water. Everything goes on a clothes hangar out in open air. If I'm riding again in the morning, or if it's humid, I point a small fan at everything so that the pad dries out quickly
I don't use deoderant. Multiple partners have complemented me for my body smell, or lack thereof. Because I don't coat my body and clothes in shit cranked out of some frankenlab at Proctor and Gamble.
This may work for you, I’m not positive that the recommendations are globally applicable though…
Argument based largely on things not occurring in nature… especially loaded phrases like ”frankenlab,” “artificial perfume crap,” and “naturally scented” actually weaken your argument here by appealing to some sense of “what’s natural” instead of a less inflammatory description of what’s worked for you.
Body odour is surely partly genetic though - some people just never seem to have it, others do even straight out of the shower.
I'm more curious though whether your laundry habits help lycra/sportswear last longer - it typically starts to wear embarrassingly thin and fade within 3 years of regular use for me.
It has mostly to do with whether you’re infected with a stinky bacteria or not. That part is chance. Also, how much food you produce for them while sweating, genetic.
I learned this the hard way—never share bar soap with anyone else. Once you have been introduced with a stinky strain it’s too late.
> It has mostly to do with whether you’re infected with a stinky bacteria or not.
The bacteria is determined (partly) by your genetics and the type of sweat glads you have. Eccrine sweat glands go directly to the surface of the skin (secrete: water, NaCl, K), while apocrine sweat glands connect into hair follicle (secrete: protein, lipids,): the bacteria feed off the latter.
i stopped using ALL personal hygiene products except for generic unscented soap over a decade ago. for laundry i use unscented arm and hammer detergent. i used to stink after workouts or stressful workdays but now i basically do not smell at all, ever. confirmed by multiple partners after sexytimes over the years.
as i entered my late 20s i got weird scalp issues and that prompted me to look into it - turns out NOT using the products is what helped.
I'm a nearly scentless freak (confirmed by friends, acquaintances, lovers) and will, at the end of a 10 hour hike, smell less than my old housemate did fresh out of the shower. It's body chemistry I reckon.
Yes, I know people with kids. They did do multiple loads daily for the first few months but stopped doing laundry every day once each baby was ~6mo. (Though neither parent found time to make workout clothes sweaty during those months.)
When I was a kid, our three-kid family did laundry once a week and there were fewer than 7 loads.
Exactly. I wear all-synthetic when I run or hike, because cotton will get damp and heavy and uncomfortable (potentially unsafe when hiking). I throw it in a hamper with a lid - separate from my regular one - when I'm done, and I do laundry a couple of times a week. I have shirts and smalls that I've been using nine years without a problem under this regime. One key, I think, is that I use a "color booster" (bleach alternative) specifically to eliminate the poly funk.
Doing a load of laundry for a single set of workout clothes is horrible environmentally. Even when our kid was young, it was every other day at most, and I was running more than that at the time.
I would certainly hope that nobody throws wet sweaty balled up clothes into a hamper. Got to let them dry out first. Cotton or synthetic, that is an absolute mold/odor recipe.
Yeah, and I think that's a pretty poor method. It seems like more of a simulation of "what happens if you accidentally leave wet gym clothes in your gym bag in your car" or "you wear a sweaty shirt for three weeks straight, possibly because you are fighting in a war" instead of what happens during typical use.
i wear rashguards for BJJ. The key is to oxidize the molecules that stink.
very light amounts of bleach work great. For example if you let them soak in a swimming pool (typically around 5ppm) for 10 minutes they will be stink free.
You can do the equivalent with 1tsp of bleach in a few gallons of water (really about 20ppm or a little more).
Obviously products like oxyclean can also oxidize the molecules.
I've never understood how polyester become the defacto choice of fitness/sports/performance clothing. I'm guessing its cheaper to manufacture, but they can still get very expensive.
I made the mistake of buying a bunch of this stuff a while back and I can't bring myself to wear it. I feel like it makes me sweat far more and it stinks very quickly.
I have far less of a problem wearing cotton and and a great experience wearing merino wool.
Unlike cotton they keep their colors and fit even after many washes. Also they quick airdry after washing and don't need ironing which is very practical for daily gym use.
This experiment design feels pretty useless to me.
The T-shirts were collected, sealed in plastic bags,
and stored at room temperature in the dark, so
bacterial growth occurred
[...] The bags were kept at room temperature (20°C)
in the dark for 28 h.
Bad experiment, IMO. This is not a remotely useful approximation of what happens when you are actually wearing and using the clothing.
It's more of a simulation of what happens when you accidentally leave wet sweaty clothes in your gym bag, or are forced to wear sweaty clothes for multiple consecutive days without a wash. (It certainly be nice to have fabrics that could survive such conditions without stinking, I admit)
When actually wearing synthetic "moisture-wicking" fibers, I find they stay much fresher smelling as long as they are exposed to air so that they can actually do their job by encouraging evaporative cooling. As opposed to cotton, which soaks up gallons of sweat and takes ages to fully dry.
Remember, fresh sweat doesn't reek -- that's why you don't smell bad in a sauna, with fresh sweat pouring out of every pore. It's stale sweat that reeks. Specifically, it is the waste products of bacteria living in stale sweat. That is what eventually smells bad.
> This is not a remotely useful approximation of what happens when you are actually wearing and using the clothing.
They are trying to correlate materials with biological growth that causes BO in clothes in order to find out if certain types of material or treatments to material could be used to construct activewear that doesn't stink when you sweat in it.
The benefit of "moisture-wicking" synthetic materials is that they promote evaporative cooling relative to cotton, which tends to retain more water and takes longer to dry. In this experiment they've placed sweaty clothing into sealed bags for 28h before studying them, so that's pretty different than real-world usage.
I will admit, though: if they cook up a fabric that stays fresh after such a torture test it should certainly perform well in the real world.
I wonder if there's ever been research on why some people smell so bad at my gym. Are they smell-blind, or are they acclimated to their own powerful fumes? There's a couple of guys that will trigger your gag reflex from 6 feet away.
Is there any polite way to tell a stranger, "you smell really bad"?
No, not actually. It's a shared space, and if someone has somehow still not heard of deodorant, and/or taking a shower, and/or washing their clothes, that's not actually acceptable.
I'm taking about paint-stripping, eye-watering, thriving microbial ecosystem stink here, where the air around them is warm and thick. No one should have to suffer that.
A clean person wearing clean clothing shouldn't typically have BO after an hour or two of sweating.
Fresh sweat has a small, but doesn't reek. The reek comes after the bacteria have had time to grow.
If somebody absolutely reeks at the gym they are doing something wrong. They are using smelly dirty gym clothes or are showing up with some nasty body odor already.
I don't expect anybody to take a full shower before hitting the gym but it only takes a literal minute or two to clean the armpits and crotch with a washcloth and I would expect anybody hitting the gym to do that type of bare minimum.
Personal opinion but I don't really expect people to wear deodorant at the gym. I still smell the reek, and adding ten different peoples' scented deodorants to the mix makes it worse for me. And anti-perspirant is IMO unhealthy to wear during exercise.
> And anti-perspirant is IMO unhealthy to wear during exercise.
Why is that? Are you worried about the pores? It's hard for me to imagine antiperspirant being so effective it would actually lead to insufficient sweat.
I don't know if it reaches the point where it is unhealthy. But if you are pushing yourself hard every bit of cooling helps (overheating may be your limiting factor, maybe not) and given good air flow your armpits are probably the biggest natural air conditioners on your body. And the cooler you are the less you sweat (and therefore the less water you lose) so during sports or workouts there's no reason to hinder it, even by 1%.
The coolest and most comfortable possible workout for me involves wearing a sleeveless shirt, lots of air circulation, and no anti-perspirant.
As a bonus my armpits don't stink afterward either. For much the same reason that people don't reek in a sauna. Fresh sweat pouring out of your body doesn't reek. Remember, it's only stale sweat that reeks -- it's the waste products of bacteria that smell, not the sweat itself.
(I most definitely do smell body odor on myself+clothing once the sweat is stale, so I'm not noseblind to myself)
Reminds me of the first time I used antiperspirant. That day I had to do some physical work like moving boxes and scrubbing some shelves.
My forehead was pouring sweat, like that scene from Airplane[1], and I just couldn't understand why. I mean I was used to getting sweaty but nothing like this, I had trouble seeing for all the sweat in my eyes.
That's when I realized my armpits were bone dry, and made the connection to the antiperspirant.
The amazing thing about it, and I don't understand how it works, but it absolutely does, is that not only is it cooling when you're hot, but it's warming when it's cold outside. Something to do with fabric expanding/contracting due to the temperature difference, and thus favoring air flow in one direction or the other maybe?
What type of viscose shouldn't make any difference. They pull the cellulose out, liquify it, then spray it into threads, to make viscose (aka rayon). It just sounds a bit fancier to call it viscose instead of rayon.
I agree "it's just viscose/rayon" -Some people make huge claims to antibacterial properties of bamboo fibre. There's a couple of models of using it, the one which most people can buy is pretty much rayon. The other one is closer to how hemp or linen is "retted" into fibres, which are spun.
A great reason to avoid sythetics in general is microplastics - your poisoning the water (each time you wash it, plastics go into the water system!) and to a less extent yourself.
I wouldn't be surprised if synthetic clothes are illegal in the future for this reason (or water lines are forced to have filters that catch all the micro plastics, although I'm not sure that's even feasible)
Given that microplastics barely get any coverage for how large of a problem they are (in terms of how much goes into the environment), I have doubts about any legal restrictions on their use. Even today, it can be difficult to buy anything that's 100% natural fiber at brick and motor stores. At online stores it may or may not even be listed.
The first step would be public awareness. I haven't even seen anyone IRL mention it before. synthetic fiber based clothing is everywhere and worn without any second thought by most. So we're quite quite far from even public awareness at this point.
Maybe in the future, when oil isn't cheap we might see their usage drop, but maybe then you'll see clothing made out of 100% recycled (downcycled) plastic bottles.
You gotta buy gym clothes from brands that have anti microbial treatment on i i.e Cool max technology. It is being supplied by major international brands but ofcourse the products are expensive. However, there is one brand called bodybrics which has fabrics with cool max technology at affordable rates
https://us.bodybrics.com/
Cotton, linen and wool are superior fabrics. I think, esp poliester, has no place in high end anything. It was more of a marketing gimmick where the sports clothing brands wanted to sell higher margin, cheaper and easier to produce clothes.
Esp, now with the micro plastic concerns there is no reason to buy them except for outerware
The big issue with cotton is that it stays wet and then chafes. In my experience, it also doesn’t breathe well. I find cotton is fine for a 5km run but especially as I get above running 15km, it’s just asking for pain.
The difference in deodorant application frequency amongst participants was the most interesting take away for me. Some tracked as many as fourteen applications to their counterpart's zero. That alone should create a subcategory.
The figures are per week. 14 works out to twice a day, which doesn't seem to outrageous if you're sweaty and exercise daily. The median is 7, which also makes sense because it works out to one application for every day of the week. The 4 participants that don't use any deodorant might be asian[1] or aren't sweaty/active enough to warrant it.
I just wish I could find one that kept me dry and stink free all day but didn't ruin the pits of my clothing. Mitchum gel is ok but still seems to leave residue. And natural ones still make you smell like BO despite what some claim.
My wife and are active and sweat a lot here in the tropical summers of NE USA. I am the clothes washer. I have lots of experience fixing this.
You can fix that by presoaking your clothes in hot water and a teeny amount detergent (and/or Borax and/or Arm & Hammer laundry booster aka "laundry stripping") for a few hours.
Can also try scrubbing some detergent directly into the pits before tossing into the wash. I've heard vinegar works too. Just don't mix vinegar and bleach.
Try crystal style deodorants. The actual physical crystals that require wetting and 20+ seconds of application, not any of the useless derivative sprays or roll-ons or whatever that just add plastic waste and reduce effectiveness.
The propensity to use deodorant instead of soap is plainly baffling. Extra demerit points go to people who use deodorant instead of soap and call it "hygiene".
>The propensity to use deodorant instead of soap is plainly baffling
Most people aren't doing that though. The same table also lists "No. of washes/wk", presumably referring to body washing rather than clothes washing. All except three are washing daily. True, you could theoretically be washing twice daily, but if you don't have a work shower you'll be forced to wash at home, which kills most of the point because most people you interact with during the day would have smelled your odor. Most people don't have access to work showers so it's not really realistic to expect people to showers instead of using deodorants/antiperspirants.
Look to those error bars. It might be a great first work and give us some understanding but in no way it provides clear evidence. Even more when you factore in all the criteria for the pannel.
This is consistent with my experience. I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing many years ago because they only last a season before they smell too bad. Instead, I buy them at the end-of-season sales or at discount retailers like Winners [0].
Unfortunately, in Canada it isn't feasible to hang them out in the sun to dry - for much of the year they'd just freeze.
[0]: https://www.winners.ca/en/how