As an avid mountain biker and owner of some pretty expensive Oakley and Pearl shorts and t-shirts, I couldn’t understand why my gear smelled like a musty, musty towel after getting out of the wash. It got so bad that I really couldn’t bear to even put on my bike rides. Not only did my clothes smell, I was beginning to notice that they were starting to feel like sandpaper and losing their absorbent properties.

I felt like our laundry detergent was doing nothing to clean my cycling clothing, all the while, it wasn’t actually doing anything about the foul smell. I began a desperate search to find out why and if there was a solution that would clean dirt, won’t dissolve or weaken synthetic fibers, and most importantly, remove the smell from my bike clothing.

So I started where we all started a research project, the Internet. I wanted to find out if others were having the same problem, why it was happening, and finally what to do about it. So, to my delight, others were in the smelly sky too. What was interesting was that most of the problems tended to be related to high-tech fabrics. It seems that the more expensive, the more they stink over time. So why does synthetic or high-tech sportswear start to smell over time? The answer is in the density of the fabric. The denser the material, the better it breathes and ultimately the better it absorbs moisture. Herein lies the root of the problem. As your body sweats, these fabrics are designed to absorb moisture from the body, but in the process trap fats and oils deep in the fibers. Because these fabrics are so dense, normal laundry detergent is not molecularly small enough to enter these areas and remove fats and oils. Over time, the bacteria begin to hide in the fibers eating the oils and fats. The digestive byproduct, yeah … you guessed the bacteria poop, is what caused the odors. Some sportswear are starting to advertise that they are antimicrobial. For the most part, these are chemicals that wash off the fibers, but after several washes they lose their ability to fight bacteria. Silver synthetics have been the only long-term proven method, however most of these products have been withdrawn from the market for fear of groundwater contamination.

That’s why over the last 3-4 years, specially formulated detergents designed to properly kill bacteria and remove trapped fats and oils have hit the market. For the most part, these products use hydrogen peroxide as an active cleaning agent. Basically hydrogen peroxide is water with an extra oxygen atom. One of these detergents is WIN Sports Detergent. They were the official detergent for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was the first time that sponsorship of a detergent was allowed at the Olympics. In my WIN test run, I found that it worked. I especially liked the way it left my clothes smelling. After several washes, I also noticed that my clothes were noticeably softer. Certainly an advantage! If you are concerned about the smell of your sportswear, I hope this helps you solve the problem like it did me.